Joe Arpaio, an Arizona sheriff, was found to be in violation of the constitutional rights of Latino drivers in his crackdown on illegal immigration that began in 2006. On Friday, a federal judge ordered Arpaio to stop using race as a factor in law enforcement decisions.

According to The Daily Beast Friday's ruling was a result of a class-action lawsuit which claimed that the Maricopa County sheriff's department "improperly stopped, detained and questioned drivers of Hispanic descent beginning in 2007." Along with this ruling US district judge Murray Snow also ruled that Arpaio's deputies unreasonably prolonged the detentions of people who were pulled over.

In order to come to a conclusion the court used Arpaio's own words to depict his reasoning behind the forces use of power. In 2007,  Arpaio said deputies are not bound by state laws and insisted that to stop illegal immigrants all measures need to be taken. During the ruling he was quoted as saying:

"Ours is an operation, whether it's the state law or the federal, to go after illegals, not the crime first, that they happen to be illegals," he continued, "My program, my philosophy is a pure program. You go after illegals. I'm not afraid to say that. And you go after them and you lock them up."

Cecillia D Wang, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Immigrants' Right Project told The Guardian UK "For too long the sheriff has been victimizing the people he's meant to serve with his discriminatory policy." Although the ruling has been made the case is far from over. The attorney for Arpaio has confirmed the sheriff is planning to appeal within the next 30 days.

Reach Executive Producer Jacqueline Jackson here. Follow her here.