US Justice Department Sues AZ Sheriff

The Justice Department had been in negotiations with Arpaio to obtain documents related to the crackdown as well as access to the county's jails, but those talks broke down and the agency filed a lawsuit to compel his cooperation with the investigation.

"It is unfortunate that the department was forced to resort to litigation to gain access to public documents and facilities," Thomas Perez, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's civil rights division, said in a statement.

Hispanic activists, civic authorities and civil rights activists have criticized Arpaio's sweeps as tantamount to racial profiling, a charge he has denied.

The actions of Arpaio are similar if not identical to the "sweeps" conducted on Black Americans in the 1950's.

ivil-rights groups have long called Mr. Arpaio's policies discriminatory. Soon after Attorney General Eric Holder took office last year, the Justice Department said it was investigating those complaints and looking into possible violations of Hispanics' civil rights.

The Justice Department suit, filed in federal court in Phoenix, said the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office receives millions of dollars in federal funding and is required to cooperate with federal investigations as a condition of receiving those funds.

Letters exchanged between officials from the Justice Department's civil rights division and Mr. Arpaio's lawyers, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, indicate the department is seeking documents, as well as visits to Maricopa Sheriff's Office facilities and interviews with employees.

The suit also cites a public statement by Mr. Arpaio in which he said he wouldn't cooperate with the probe.