The Daily Caller reported yesterday that the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ) has fined the Denver County’s sheriff office because it refused to hire non-citizens as deputies.

The article reports:

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, employers are required to give equal treatment to non-citizens with valid work permits, unless state, local, or federal law explicitly requires certain jobs be open only to citizens. More than 40 U.S. states currently have laws that in some capacity restrict non-citizens from being police, but Colorado is not one of them. The department says it was simply unaware that limiting employment to citizens was a violation of federal law.

In a report released last October, the Department of Justice blasted citizenship requirements for officers as a “barrier” to creating more racially diverse police forces.

“While Federal law allows law enforcement agencies to impose a citizenship requirement where it is authorized by state or local law, this requirement may prevent a considerable number of racial and ethnic minorities – many of whom have valuable foreign language skills – from being hired by law enforcement agencies,” the report said.

First of all, doesn’t Denver have the right to decide who they hire as deputies? Second of all, do non-citizens have the same respect for Constitutional rights as citizens? This is another example of federal government overreach.