FILE - In a Monday, Dec. 5, 2011 file photo, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio discusses the latest in the document release on his office's handling of many sexual assault cases over the years in El Mirage, Ariz., during a news conference, in Phoenix. Federal authorities plan to announce their findings Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011 in a civil rights investigation of Arpaio, who has been accused of using discriminatory tactics in its signature immigration patrols. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
FILE - In a Monday, Dec. 5, 2011 file photo, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio discusses the latest in the document release on his office's handling of many sexual assault cases over the years in El Mirage, Ariz., during a news conference, in Phoenix. Federal authorities plan to announce their findings Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011 in a civil rights investigation of Arpaio, who has been accused of using discriminatory tactics in its signature immigration patrols. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
Protesters Sergio Juarez, right, and Rafael Guerrero, both of Phoenix, wait to get into a Maricopa County Board of Supervisors meeting, Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011, in Phoenix. Roughly 100 opponents of Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio turned out at the meeting to urge the officials to call for Arpaio's resignation amid reports of botched sex-crime investigations and other problems in his department.(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
FILE - In a Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011 file photo, protesters hold up signs calling for the removal or resignation of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, during a Maricopa County Board of Supervisors meeting, in Phoenix. Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011. Federal authorities plan to announce their findings Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011 in a civil rights investigation of Arpaio, who has been accused of using discriminatory tactics in its signature immigration patrols.(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
Department of Justice Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Thomas E. Perez announces the department's findings following an investigation into the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, lead by controversial Sheriff Joe Arpaio, during a news conference Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011 in Phoenix. The Justice department says it has reasonable cause to believe Maricopa County Sheriff's Office has engaged in a pattern of misconduct that violates federal and Constitutional law. (AP Photo/Paul Connors)
Department of Justice Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Thomas E. Perez, left, gestures as he announces the department's findings following an investigation into the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, lead by controversial Sheriff Joe Arpaio, during a news conference, as Deputy Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division Roy Austin, right, looks on Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011 in Phoenix. The Justice department says it has reasonable cause to believe Maricopa County Sheriff's Office has engaged in a pattern of misconduct that violates federal and Constitutional law. (AP Photo/Paul Connors)
PHOENIX (AP) ? The federal government's decision to stop an Arizona sheriff from checking inmates' immigration status will allow criminals to be released into the community, Maricopa County's top prosecutor said Friday as he asked the president to order Homeland Security officials to restore access to federal systems revoked a day earlier.
The Obama administration action came after the Department of Justice determined that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office participated in a "systematic disregard" for the Constitutional rights of Latinos while targeting illegal immigrants.
The fallout from the report was swift. Homeland Security officials announced the department is severing ties with Arpaio, stripping his jail officers of their federal power to check whether inmates in county jails are in the county illegally. Department officials also are restricting Arpaio's office from using a program that uses fingerprints collected in local jails to identify illegal immigrants.
"They don't need to do this. This effort at leverage is placing Arizona citizens at risk," Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said. "Preventing us from being able to get the necessary information to provide a court with the non-bondable status for serious offenses jeopardizes the community's safety, and limiting our ability to get information in order to comply with international treaty obligations for consular access calls into question future prosecutions."
The Justice Department comments' Thursday that Arpaio's office carried out a blatant pattern of discrimination against Latinos and held a disregard for the Constitution brought the most bruising criticism yet to the lawman's boundary-pushing foray into Arizona's immigration enforcement over the last six years.
Montgomery on Friday questioned the timing of the Justice Department's findings, because a civil rights case that raises similar issues is currently before a federal judge in Phoenix.
But he acknowledged the findings raised significant issues, although he "is not going to accept the findings at face value.
"Nor am I going to reject them," he said.
Montgomery said the federal government's actions will prevent his office from enforcing an Arizona law denying bail to illegal immigrants charged with serious felonies.
Arpaio, defiant and caught by surprise by the report's release on Thursday, called the allegations a politically motivated attack by President Barack Obama's administration that will make Arizona unsafe by keeping illegal immigrants on the street.
The Obama administration "might as well erect their own pink neon sign at the Arizona-New Mexico border saying welcome illegals to your United States, my home is your home," he said.
The government found that Arpaio's office committed a wide range of civil rights violations against Latinos, including unjust immigration patrols and jail policies that deprive prisoners of basic Constitutional rights. "We found discriminatory policing that was deeply rooted in the culture of the department, a culture that breeds a systematic disregard for basic constitutional protections," said Thomas Perez, who heads the Justice Department's civil rights division.
The report will be used by the Justice Department to seek major changes at Arpaio's office, such as new policies against discrimination and improvements of staff and officers. Arpaio faces a Jan. 4 deadline for saying whether he wants to work out an agreement to make the changes. If not, the federal government will sue him, possibly putting in jeopardy millions of dollars in federal funding for Maricopa County.
Arpaio has long denied the racial profiling allegations, saying people are stopped if deputies have probable cause to believe they have committed crimes and that deputies later find many of them are illegal immigrants. He also said the decision by Homeland Security to sever ties will result in illegal immigrants being released from jail and large numbers.
Montgomery said he will ask the Justice Department to provide him with more specific information so he can do his own review of cases now in his office.
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Associated Press Writer Alicia A. Caldwell contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.
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