According to The Huffington Post and The Arizona Republic, Maricopa County's Sheriff Joe Arpaio may have been stripped of his ability to do immigration sweeps by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement).

In response, Arpaio reportedly said this over the weekend on radio station KTAR:

"I'm going to tell you something, Jay," he said to (host Jay) Lawrence. "I don't need the feds to do my crime suppression to opt to arrest illegals. I can do it without the federal authority, and I'm going to continue to do it. It makes no difference. It helps us. Because I don't have to do all the paperwork for the feds, number one. And number two, I won't be under their umbrella, their guidance. So I will operate the same way, nothing is going to change." He added later in the show, "They just don't want me, I'm the poster boy."

Arpaio continued, telling the radio host, "Nothing changes because pursuant to our duties in these crime suppression [sweeps] we arrest anybody that violates the law. If we find during the arrests that that there are illegals, we arrest them. Now the only difference [is] we're going to take 'em down to ICE. I hope they accept them, if they don't, I'll bring 'em myself to the border. So nothing really has changed. This is all politics. They want to use me to get rid of this 287 agreement across the country."

Be sure to read the Phoenix New Times' Stephen Lemons here. Lemons wrote this morning that by going on the radio and making other ICE rants, Arpaio may be in violation of his last ICE jails agreement—one that remains unsigned by the federal powers-that-be.