Arpaio calls resignation demands 'ridiculous'

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio says calls for his resignation because of alleged racial profiling are "ridiculous" and that he will never step down.

The resignation demands came Tuesday from the Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the national Action Network, and Bertha Lewis, CEO and chief organizer of the social activist group ACORN. They accused Arpaio of racial profiling in his enforcement of immigration laws. Sharpton said Arpaio is carrying out "a reign of terror" with alleged civil and human rights violations.

"You've got this small group of people trying to intimidate me, asking me to resign, which is ridiculous," Arpaio said.

He said Sharpton "is living in fantasy land. He'll resign before I resign. I'm not resigning, I guarantee you."

Sharpton said if Arpaio does not resign, he will hold a protest march next month in Phoenix.

Arpaio responded, "If they want to come down here, be my guest."

Arpaio said he is doing nothing wrong and an investigation, announced last month by the Justice Department, will clear him.

"I'm very happy with my deputies," he told KAET Channel 8's "Horizon" program Tuesday night. "They're well-trained -- five weeks training by the federal government -- so they know not to racial profile."

Responding to allegations that he pursues suspected illegal immigrants on misdemeanors in an effort to determine their immigration status, Arpaio said, "Police go after misdemeanors all the time. Fifty-one percent of the people in my jails, booked by all cops, are misdemeanors. So why is everybody talking about going after violent crime? Everybody doesn't go after just violent crimes."

Sharpton, issuing his resignation demand in New York, said that, under Arpaio's immigration enforcement policies, "Any one of color is being pulled over and harassed. People are being made to carry their citizenship papers around. And that's racial profiling."

Sharpton also called for an end to the 287G program, under which local law enforcement officers are authorized to enforce federal immigration laws.

Reaction to Sharpton's statements by Valley minority leaders was mixed.

Former state lawmaker Art Hamilton said the abuse allegations against Arpaio make it "important that Justice come in, take a look at the way the law's being enforcement and make a judgment as to whether or not what is being done in Arizona, in Maricopa County, is consistent with what the framers who made the law intended."

He disagreed, however, with Sharpton's call for Arpaio's resignation.

"He is the sheriff of Maricopa County," Hamilton said. "We need to find a way to try to work with him. If, in fact, his methods are found to be unconstitutional or illegal, they need to be changed by force of law."

Elias Bermudez of the immigrants' rights group Somos America said he agrees with Sharpton.

"People are being questioned about their legal status because of the color of their skin and not because they have shown any results of being here undocumented," Bermudez said. "We welcome Al Sharpton and I will march with him."

Hamilton said his advice to Sharpton would be, "Come, frankly, attempting to find out what the facts are, and not necessarily come with the idea in mind that 'We already know what the facts are.'"

Meanwhile, the sheriff's office said Tuesday that Congressman John Conyers' office had contacted the president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in an attempt to get the African-American group to support Conyers' portrayal of Arpaio and his deputies as "racial profilers." In a news release, the sheriff's office said the head of the local NAACP said he had no complaints against the sheriff about racial profiling. Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, is chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, which has held hearings on Arpaio's policies.

Arpaio said, "Conyers' phone call to the NAACP office right before these hearings convened was a blatant attempt to stack the deck against me and this office. It proves how hollow and corrupt this entire process is."