Joe Arpaio

Justice Department Sues Sheriff Joe Arpaio Over Alleged Latino Abuse

Ryan J. Reilly | May 10, 2012, 12:22PM

Updated: 12:45PM

The Justice Department finally filed suit against Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his Maricopa County Sheriff's Office on Thursday, accusing the Arizona official of engaging "in a pattern or practice of unlawful discriminatory police conduct directed at Latinos in Maricopa County."

Federal authorities allege that Arpaio and his office have unconstitutionally and unlawfully targeted Latinos during traffic stops and during crime suppression operations. DOJ alleges that MCSO unlawfully detained Latino drivers and passengers and conducted unconstitutional searches and seizures in addition to illegally targeting Latino workers during worksite raids.

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Joe Arpaio

Sheriff Joe Arpaio: DOJ 'Sneak Attack' Is Just Part Of Obama's Reelection Bid (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | December 16, 2011, 3:35PM

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Friday that the Justice Department's extensive three-and-a-half-year probe of his Maricopa County Sheriff's Office was all just part of a bid for President Obama to win the Hispanic vote in 2012, even though the investigation began five months before Obama was even elected.

Responding to the Civil Rights Division's findings that Arpaio "promoted a culture of bias" within the MCSO where detention officers called Latino inmates "wetbacks" and "Mexican bitches," Arpaio took to Fox News on Friday afternoon to criticize Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez for opening up DOJ's Thursday press conference with the words "buenos dias."

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Joe Arpaio

Arpaio Critics: Want Reform? Sheriff Joe Has To Go

Ryan J. Reilly and Jillian Rayfield | December 15, 2011, 5:12PM

The findings in DOJ's investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office didn't surprise many local longtime critics of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, many of whom said Thursday that his departure would be the only way to put a stop to his office's deep-seated bias.

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Alabama

DOJ To Alabama AG: You Can't Tell Schools Not To Give Us Enrollment Data

Ryan J. Reilly | November 4, 2011, 2:03PM

Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange (R)

Yes, Alabama school districts, you do have to turn over your enrollment data to the Justice Department.

Earlier this week, DOJ wrote a number of school districts requesting enrollment data as part of their investigation into whether Alabama's harsh immigration law is forcing students out of school, in violation of federal law.

But Republican Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange questioned DOJ's authority to request the data and interim school superintendent Larry Craven told schools to hold off on turning over any data until the disagreement was settled.

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DOJ Civil Rights Division

Feds To Alabama: No, You Can't Discriminate Against School Kids

Ryan J. Reilly | November 1, 2011, 12:40PM

The Justice Department sent a letter to school districts in Alabama on Tuesday reminding them that they can't deny a child access to public education due to his or her immigration status.

Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez's letter comes after he expressed concern that Alabama's anti-illegal immigration law was keeping children out of school because their parents are scared about the impact of the law. A federal judge has blocked portions of the harsh anti-illegal immigration measure.

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Islamophobia

DOJ Official: Holder 'Firmly Committed' To Eliminating Anti-Muslim Training

Ryan J. Reilly | October 19, 2011, 2:50PM

Attorney General Eric Holder

Attorney General Eric Holder is "firmly committed" to nixing anti-Muslim material from law enforcement training, former U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon, Dwight C. Holton said Wednesday.

Holton, who was U.S. Attorney when the FBI arrested the so-called Christmas tree bomber, said that he spoke specifically with Holder about the "egregiously false" training that took place at the FBI's training headquarters at Quantico and at a U.S. Attorney's office in Pennsylvania, which was first reported on by Wired.

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Thomas Perez

DOJ Official Worried About 'Vigilante Enforcement' Of Alabama's Harsh Immigration Law

Ryan J. Reilly | October 14, 2011, 12:10PM

Update, Oct. 14, 2:27PM: An appeals court has blocked certain provisions of the law.

It's "very clear" that Alabama's new anti-illegal immigration law is keeping children who are U.S. citizens out of school because their parents are scared about its impact, Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez told reporters Friday.

U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama Joyce Vance also said that federal officials were "hearing some concerns about vigilante enforcement of the law by private citizens."

"I don't want to overstate, we have heard folks expressing concern that this will take place" but haven't heard any actual reports of such incidents, Vance said. "I never like to be behind crime, I'd like to be in front of it."

"We always maintain awareness and alertness of potential hate crimes, so you know when we say 'vigilanteism' that really means the same thing as the traditional work that we do ensuring that the hate crimes laws in this country are fully enforced," Vance said.

Perez said that they were reviewing some "very troubling data" from schools regarding absentee and dropout data since the law went into effect. He also said there were getting reports of increases in bullying in the wake of the law.

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Thomas Perez

Obama Administration Dispatches DOJ Official To Alabama To Discuss Impact Of Immigration Law

Ryan J. Reilly | October 13, 2011, 3:00PM

Justice Department official Thomas Perez will travel to Alabama this week to call attention to the impact that Alabama's strict immigration law will have on schoolchildren in the state.

Perez, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Civil Rights Division, will join U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama Joyce Vance in meeting with "community leaders, civil rights organizations and families" in Birmingham, according to DOJ.

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Barack Obama

What The Justice Department Can Actually Do About Voter ID Laws

Ryan J. Reilly | October 5, 2011, 5:45AM

President Barack Obama last week told a radio audience that he's made sure the Justice Department is reviewing restrictive voting laws passed across the country. But as a practical matter, DOJ's reach is limited.

Sure, federal officials with DOJ's Civil Rights Division are reviewing voter ID laws passed in South Carolina and Texas because both states have a history of discrimination and are covered by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. DOJ told South Carolina in August that they need more info before making a decision and in September told Texas they have more questions.

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Rick Perry

Coalition: Perry's Voter ID Law Intentionally Discriminates Against Minorities

Ryan J. Reilly | September 13, 2011, 5:15PM

Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX)

A photo voter ID law signed by Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry is unnecessary, unfair, restrictive and intentionally discriminates against African-American and Latino voters, a coalition of civil rights groups will argue in a letter to the Justice Department on Wednesday.

Groups in the coalition want DOJ's Civil Rights Division to oppose preclearance of Texas's photo voter identification law under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. The Advancement Project, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Asian American Justice Center, Southwest Workers Union, a statewide Hispanic organization and Demos say the state failed to prove that the law was enacted for a nondiscriminatory purpose and that it will have no discriminatory effect on minorities.

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Joe Arpaio

DOJ Settles With Sheriff Joe Arpaio After He Gives Up Docs For Discrimination Probe

Ryan J. Reilly | June 2, 2011, 4:45PM

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the controversial anti-immigration official under federal investigation because his police practices and jail operations allegedly discriminate based on national origin, has reached a settlement with the Justice Department requiring him to turn over documents he's refused to give investigators.

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Muslim-Americans

Durbin: King, Gingrich Statements On Muslims Create 'Fertile Climate For Discrimination'

Ryan J. Reilly | March 29, 2011, 11:12AM

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)

Sen. Dick Durbin said Tuesday that statements from a "chorus of harsh voices" -- specifically Rep. Peter King (R-NY), former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and Rev. Franklin Graham -- create "a fertile climate for discrimination" against American Muslims.

Durbin is chairing the first-ever congressional hearing on the civil rights of American Muslims, which the Illinois Democrat's office said was held in response to the "rise in anti-Muslim bigotry over the last year including Quran burnings, restrictions on mosque construction, hate crimes, hate speech, and other forms of discrimination."

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LGBT

DOJ: Gov't 'Will Not Stand' For Harassment Of LGBT Students (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | December 9, 2010, 3:45PM

Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez

The Obama administration's top civil rights official on Thursday released a video as part of the "It Gets Better" Project, highlighting the work of the Justice Department defending gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students.

"If you have been targeted for harassment or bullying because of your sexual orientation, because of your because of your gender identity or expression, or simply because your classmates see you as different, I am here to tell you that we here in the Civil Rights Division will not stand for it," Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez says in the video. "My colleagues in the Civil Rights Division want you to know that you are not alone."

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New Black Panthers

Conservatives' Draft Report Slams DOJ Over Black Panther Case

Ryan J. Reilly | October 28, 2010, 12:28PM

Members of the New Black Panther Party, with Todd Gaziano (top) of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and Justice Department lawyer Christopher Coates (bottom).

The conservative-controlled U.S. Commission on Civil Rights will vote tomorrow on a report -- obtained by TPMMuckraker -- slamming the Justice Department's handling of the case against the New Black Panther Party for a 2008 incident in Philadelphia in which a member showed up at a Philadelphia polling place and brandished a nightstick.

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Thomas Perez

DOJ: We'll Fight Both Voter Fraud And Intimidation

Ryan J. Reilly | October 27, 2010, 12:37PM

Thomas Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division

The Justice Department will have "adequate and aggressive enforcement" of both voter fraud laws and of voter intimidation laws this year, said Thomas Perez, the head of the Civil Rights Division, today.

"We enforce both voter intimidation laws and voter fraud laws and we will continue to do so as we have done: carefully, aggressively, and evenhandedly," Perez said in response to a question from TPMMuckraker. "It is impossible to provide a road map for what constitutes such a case because they're very much fact-driven. We have criminal statutes related to intimidation, we have civil statutes pertaining to voter intimidation, we have criminal statutes related to fraud."

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Thomas Perez

DOJ Says It's Defending Religious Liberty In Tenn Mosque Filing

Ryan J. Reilly | October 19, 2010, 4:04PM

Thomas Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division

Thomas Perez, the Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, said Tuesday that the department's decision to file an amicus brief in support a mosque that affirmed Islam's status as a religion was an action to defend a "very, very important principal that this nation has fought for, which is the principle of religious liberty."

Asked by TPMMuckraker about the Department's intervention into the controversy over the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, Tenn., Perez mentioned that he had traveled to the region and met with a "wonderful coalition" of not only the Muslim community, but also leaders from a number of faith communities.

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Islamic Center of Murfreesboro

DOJ Civil Rights Head Goes To TN To Reassure Muslims

Rachel Slajda | October 7, 2010, 10:49AM

Future Site of Murfreesboro, TN Islamic Center

Thomas Perez, the head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, went to Murfreesboro, Tenn., last week in an attempt to reassure Muslims there who have been the victims of arson and vandalism.

The Nashville Scene reports that Perez traveled around Murfreesboro on Sept. 28, speaking to leaders of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro and other Muslims.

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DOJ Civil Rights Division

DOJ Official: 'Unjustified Backlash' Against Arabs And Muslims Continues

September 22, 2010, 9:17AM

Thomas Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division

Muslim-Americans "continue to struggle for acceptance in many communities" and "have not yet realized the full promise of equal opportunity and equal justice" the government's top civil rights official, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, said Tuesday.

Speaking at an event on Capitol Hill marking the 10th anniversary of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, Perez's comments came in the midst of the heated debate over the proposed Islamic community center in lower Manhattan and of mosque construction projects around the country.

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Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act

DOJ Monitoring 8 Cases Of Alleged Discrimination Against Muslim Institutions, Prisoners

Ryan J. Reilly | September 21, 2010, 2:00PM

A group of men gather in prayer during the first day of Ramadan at the Masjid An-Noor Mosque.

The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has begun monitoring eight separate cases of alleged discrimination against Muslims under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) since May 2010, according to a report issued Tuesday.

"We see a spike, regrettably," said Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez in a speech before the American Constitution Society. A spokeswoman declined to name the individual investigations, but confirmed that the department was monitoring those cases and had not yet opened full investigations.

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New Orleans Police Department

Feds Announce Probe Of New Orleans Police Dept.

Justin Elliott | May 17, 2010, 4:40PM

Thomas Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division

In a press conference in New Orleans today, Justice Department Civil Rights chief Thomas Perez announced the DOJ is launching a formal assessment of the city's troubled police department, the first step to installing federal oversight.

The Times-Picayune reports:

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New Orleans Police Department

New Orleans Mayor Asks Feds To Reform City's Notorious Police Department

Justin Elliott | May 5, 2010, 5:39PM

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu

Just two days after taking office, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu held a press conference today to announce he has asked the Justice Department to intervene and force a "complete transformation" of the city's troubled police department.

"I have inherited a police force that has been described by many as one of the worst police departments in the country. This assessment is made based on several indicators including the number of violent crimes, incidents of rape, and malfeasance by members of the police department," Landrieu wrote in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder.

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New Orleans

Justice Department Moves To Reform Notorious New Orleans Police Department

Justin Elliott | April 13, 2010, 9:39AM

The federal criminal investigation of the police shootings of civilians on Danziger Bridge in post-Katrina New Orleans is just part of what the Justice Department acknowledges is an intensive review of the city's notorious police department. One option under review, TPMmuckraker has learned, is filing a civil rights lawsuit against the city in a move similar to the one the Justice Department took against the Los Angeles Police Department a decade ago.

"Criminal prosecutions alone, I have learned, are not enough to change the culture of a police department," Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Thomas Perez told TPMmuckraker in an interview Monday.

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