Arizona sheriff to appeal decision in profiling case

December 21, 2011: A defiant Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio speaks to the media before holding a ceremony where 92 of his immigration jail officers, who lost their federal power to check whether inmates are in the county illegally, turn in their credentials after federal officials pulled the Sheriff's office immigration enforcement powers. (AP)

PHOENIX – An Arizona sheriff known for his anti-illegal immigration tactics is appealing a federal judge's ruling that prohibited his deputies from detaining people under the state's immigrant-smuggling law based solely on the suspicion that they're in the country illegally.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's lawyers told U.S. District Judge Murray Snow in a filing Friday that they will appeal the judge's Dec. 23 ruling in a lawsuit alleging that the sheriff's deputies racially profiled Latinos in immigration patrols.

Lawyers pushing the lawsuit on behalf of five Latino clients also won class-action status that lets other Hispanics join the case if they have been detained and questioned by Arpaio's deputies as either a driver or passenger in a vehicle since January 2007.