hi, i'm lisa fletcher, and you are in the stream. joe arpaio has been dubbed america's toughest sheriff. but when does being tough on crime cross the line? he joins us to break down some of his most controversial policies. ♪ our digital producer wajahat ali is here bringing in all of your live feedback. waj not a little middle ground when it comes to sheriff joe

arpaio. >> yeah, he has been in office since '93, so a lot of people in that country love him, but banning tv, salt, pepper, for inmates. check out some of the comments . . . and twitter is just

[ technical difficulties ] >> backlash from human rights groups for housing inmates in tents. the facility was built in response to overcrowded jails, but many criticize the living conditions there. here is an inside look at tent city. >> because it's wintertime, they can have up to five blankets. these numbers against the number of blankets are starting to dwindle down as they start to get warmer. if i they happen to need more, they get more. they do not get pillows out here because it's a luxury. >> the sheriff's approach is under fire for what some call racial profiling. nationally he has been a

lienting rod for his controversial tactics, but at home he enjoys popular support. when does being tough on crime cross the line. joining us is sheriff joe arpaio, welcome, sir. >> it's nice talking to you again, lisa. >> it's nice having you. i have interviewed you in arizona for a number of times. you have been in law enforcement for more than 50 years now. you have gotten a lot of heat for your methods, yet you have been very high approval ratings, and been reelected six times. what is your appeal? >> i don't just think it's my experience all over the world. i was a regional director in mexico, south america, turkey, the middle east, texas, i can go on and on, so i think i know

where the u.s. mexican border is. and when i ran for sheriff, i said i will put up korean war tents. i joined the army when the korean war broke out, so what is wrong with tents. i have had four presidential candidates visiting me in a tent. they seemed to like it. of course they all lost, but that's another issue, and i think it's a good program, and i will stick with it. >> clearly your constituents in arizona are behind you, you are very popular in maricopa county and throughout the state, but sheriff joe, i'm going to be honest, a lot of people don't like you outside of arizona. what is the big disconnect for people? there is such a huge difference between the way you are perceived nationally and the way

you are per received in arizona. >> i think i have great support nationally and internationally. i just raised $3.5 million in 12 months. that came from across the nation. i have great support across the nation and overseas, but i'm just doing my job. i'm elected. i report directly to the 4 million people that live in this county, and i take that very serious. >> sheriff joe our community, as you can imagine has a variety of responses. on twitter . . .

and we mentioned, sheriff joe some of your policies, you banned tv, coffee, salt and pepper. your inmates wear pink underwear. you refer to your tent city as, quote unquote, a concentration camp. do you believe these tough measures help rehabilitation and recidivism. >> first of guy the guy keeps repeating what he reads in some garbage newspaper. we don't charge the inmates. they should be paying us. i will be charging them for their food, but i don't give them money when they work on a chain gang or anything else. maybe other prisons do. number 2, it's not 120 degrees. it's 135 degrees in the summertime.

and let me say this, our men and women are fighting for our count think. they are living in the tents. so what is wrong with convicted -- they are all convicted, doing their time in a tent? >> joe, i -- i -- sheriff joe, i think your jail was the only one ever investigated by amnesty because there were so many allegations of human rights complaints. how do you define inmate rights? what rights do those people have? >> first of all, i'm not the only one. they are investigating prisons all over the world. mine is like a country club compared to foreign countries, including mexico. so if they investigated me, where did it go? it didn't go anywhere. the tents are still there. the jails are still there. my policies are still there. so nothing has changed. we run a very humane jail system. we have great drug prevention programs, alcohol programs, high

school underage sheriff, first one in the united states. so what is this? we have good rehabilitation educational programs. >> we have some -- i just want to get some community in here lisa. tony says . . . so we see the conflict here on the community. >> sheriff joe while your policies are controversial, i was just reading that elco, country, nevada are going to have their inmates pay for their own food while they are in prison. these ideas keep coming up because the growth of people in

prison seems to be growing exponentially. are private prisons part of the answer here? >> i'm against private prisons. i will never never go for private prisons. it should be under the government. private prisons want to make it's in so people will check into their hotel. so i'm against that. number 2, i think you said nevada. they seem to say they are the first ones. i have been charging them for their food and medical for over ten years. but i hope they can get by with it. that's good. >> talking about private prisons. there is a quote that says . . . >> when we come back, our google hangout is standing by with questions for sheriff joe. but first, you want to up your

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♪ we're back with sheriff joe arpaio, often called america's toughest sheriff. sheriff how did illegal immigration become a pressing issue for you? >> we have had -- about five years ago, there was two new

state laws that were passed, human smuggling, and also employer sanction, where we go into the workplace to get those that have fake id, so being the sheriff, i started concentrating on those laws also became a big issue nationally, internationally. it's an economic problem too. i was just following the law, and i will continue to follow the laws, so i just started to enforce the state law. i took a lot of heat. the 1070 came up, but we were doing this prior to 1070 -- >> prior to 1070, what was the trigger for you? did you see something happened that required your attention in a way it hadn't before? >> it became a big issue illegal immigration. that's why the two state laws were passed because the federal government wasn't thing their job. and why did the federal

government train my deputies, 160, and gave them federal authority to enforce the federal immigration laws, and the judge that ruled against me, really, all of this was going on when we were able to enforce the federal laws and use their criteria. i'm appealing that decision. my deputies are not racist. they are very professional. and i resent people calling my deputies -- >> are you talking about the 2009 decision that stripped your ability to enforce under federal guidelines, or the 2013 decision that said your agency was targeting latinos in stops. >> i'm talking about the latest ruling by the federal court that has appointed a monitor to monitor my office. i have said constantly, i run the sheriff's office, i am el elected. monitors or bureaucrats do not

run my office. >> one of the things the judge suggested was that video cameras be installed in the patrol vehicles; that the deputies undergo training to make sure they are making constitutional arrests. what is wrong with that? >> i don't think judges run the sheriff's office and tell me how many people i should have, and how i spend my money. this is something that we will be moving forward and appealing. >> joining our discussion now are some viewers with questions on immigration issues. mark what is your question for sheriff joe? and i -- mark, you are going to need to

[ technical difficulties ] >> while mark is fixing his ah you -- mark are you there? >> yes, can you hear me? >> yes, i can. governor -- i'm sorry, sheriff [ technical difficulties ] >> well, yeah, mark. first of all i want to thank you for all of your support when you were with the phoenix police and also now. but where does it say in the constitution that judges can tell an elected sheriff how many

people to hire, and i have to give speeches? that doesn't come under courts. but this is something i will be appealing all the way to the supreme court, and we know how to run our organization. we have monitors. they ought to be coming to us for training, asking us how we do things. but it looks like it is the other way around. that's okay. >> our system of democracy is based on a system of checks and balances. who checks you? >> who checks me? >> yeah. >> i think the people check me by hiring me every four years. they are my bosses. they don't like me, get rid of me. fire me. that's my check and balance. but we have a judicial system. i respect the judicial system. i have been with the federal government for 30 years, sacrificing my time and life with the department of justice,

and now they turn on me, just because i'm trying to do my job as sheriff? that's not fair. >> sheriff we have our community tweeting in . . . juan you are an undocumented immigrant, a master's candidate, and work with dream activists. what is your question for sheriff joe? >> hi, sheriff joe. during 2013 immigration prosecutions reached an all time high. do you the cost outweighs the

legalization of hardworking immigrants. >> first of all my mother and father came here legally. my mother died when i was born in childbirth so i had to bounce around from family to family. but i was a director in mexico city, and i could go on and on in my experience in latin america, and mexico, and turkey and texas. i'm one guy that knows about the mexican u.s. border, being the top federal guy, and nobody asks me my opinion. somebody calling me racist, i'm not going to get into my personal life. i don't do that. but that's a low blow.

[ technical difficulties ] >> properly to provide the service to the citizens of maricopa county. >> you know me, mark. that's just a little irritation. i'm not going to change. i'm going to continue to do my job. i have professional staff and deputies. i'm not concerned about it. i am monitored every day by though white house, department of justice. aclu, the media, and my wife, so

i can take another monitor any daye. >> all right. we're going to take a break and come back with our questions from our guests on sheriff joe about his policies, what they mean for those that call themselves the dreamers. stick around. we'll be right back.

♪ welcome back. he has been dubbed america's toughest sheriff. sheriff joe arpaio is here breaking down some of his most controversial positions and answering your questions. we have a question from a man who was arrested during one of sheriff joe's workplace raids. what is your question for sheriff joe? >> my question was the american

dream usually to come over here and better themselves. i was brought here at the age of three, so i'm -- i finished high school, but after high school, i pretty much can say i don't have an american dream anymore. so my question to him is, what does he think should be done with people like us, in my situation. >> sheriff joe what should be done with people like her, who considers themselves a dreamer. >> she says she was arrested in a workplace operation. we have done 82 of them. but the people we arrest with fake indication, that's a serious crime. we don't just go around and pick people up because they look like they are from a foreign country. i know the dreamer act, problem is a tough one. very controversial, and people from florida, young kids came all the way to visit me in my

office, they are all dreamers, trying to entice me to arrest them. admitting they were here illegally. it is a big problem. maybe congress ought to look into this situation one of these days or quit playing politics. i don't know. it's economic, intelligence, diplomatic, and political problem. so, hey, change the laws. i don't care. if the laws aren't there, i'm not going to enforce them. but as long as the laws are there, i'm going to force those laws, and i'm against amnesty too. why should we give amnesty to 11 million people. >> but sheriff joe as a practical matter, how does america move forward with its immigration policy? how do we deal with the 11-plus million people that are already

here and the millions that want to come here? >> first of all those that want to come here, give more visas. if you want to give a work permit -- i don't know about that. we have an economic problem already. people trying to find jobs. as far as those who are here, i think we ought to continue doing what we have been doing, and when we come across somebody who is here illegally, they are going to have to pay the consequences. we're doing pretty good in maricopa county. i get accused of a hundred thousand people leaving maricopa county and phoenix because they are afraid of the sheriff. >> alex, i want to make sure we get you in before the end of the show. what is your question? >> you said recently that you would not enforce federal gun laws if they were passed.

and that's a move i approve of, but then you insist on enforcing federal immigration law? why do you have different treatment for different classes of law? why would you treat those differently? >> well, what do you mean -- are you talking about the federal gun laws if they went to your homes and grabbed all of the guns? that's what i was talking about -- >> you said you wouldn't enforce those laws, i'm curious why you would try to enforce immigration laws. >> they are not immigration laws. they are fake indication. i don't lock up workers if they are just there illegally. i lock up people with fake id. that's a state law. >> sheriff joe, there was a series of articles in one of the newspapers in arizona, a report,

by another institute there in arizona, that aledged focusing journal tension on things like fake id took time and resources away from more important issues. they alledge emergency response times went up, and criminal arrests went down. is there truth to that? >> first of all, that's a ten-year old story. it's amazing how they keep rehashing things. why don't they come up with something new. the legislature has given me $1.5 million to enforce those laws. it doesn't come under my budget or my general fund. i am using special money from the legislature to enforce these laws that pertain to illegal immigration and other crimes. >> sheriff joe we have our community comment on that . . .

>> well, where is the brutality? i have a monitor that has done monitoring in detroit, and oakland that had to do to brutality. there is no brutality in my office by my deputies. it's strictly how we stop people on the streets in traffic violations. >> sheriff joe we have got about 30 seconds left. you are well-known for a lot of things. what does the sheriff joe arpaio legacy look like? >> i don't care about legacies. i'm doing my job, and when i leave office i can look in the mirror and say i did it my way.

i don't plan on leaving for all of those activists out there for many, many, many more years. >> all right. thanks sheriff, thanks to our community. until next time, we'll see you online. ♪ good evening, everyone, welcome to al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler in new york. lethal force, the u.s. debates whether to launch a drone attack against an american. escape how hundreds of syrians were able to get away from a battled and starving city. georgia and other parts of the south are bracing for another winter storm. and what is next? a leading draft prospect reveals he is gay. now the next move for the nfl. plus --