Thread: Arizona Prosecutor Has New Twist on Prosecuting Illegal Alie

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Arizona Prosecutor Has New Twist on Prosecuting Illegal Aliens
By John Turner Gilliland
CNSNews.com Correspondent
March 15, 2006

(Correction: Fixes 11th paragraph)

(CNSNews.com) - In Arizona this week, indictments targeting 48 illegal aliens have set off a political firestorm, pitting Republicans against Democrats, Republicans against Republicans, and city and state officials against Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas.

Thomas, a Republican, said his office has secured indictments against 48 illegal immigrants whom sheriff's deputies arrested along with their alleged smuggler. The suspects were found in an overcrowded truck during a routine traffic stop.

What makes this case unique is that Thomas is prosecuting the 48 people on felony conspiracy charges under his interpretation of Arizona's anti-human smuggling, or "anti-coyote" law. Thomas said that since the suspects paid the coyotes to transport them across the border, they are complicit in their own smuggling and therefore guilty of conspiracy.

This is the first-ever such action, and Thomas' interpretation has sparked controversy as even the state lawmakers who authored the legislation say it was never meant to be used as a means to prosecute people who many see as victims. Violation of the law is a Class-4 felony and carries a maximum prison sentence of nearly four years. Thomas admitted, however, that as first-time offenders none of the accused illegal immigrants would likely see any jail time.

The so-called "anti-coyote law," which went into effect last year, defines the smuggling of human beings as "the transportation or procurement of transportation by a person or an entity that knows or has reason to know that the person or persons transported or to be transported are not United States citizens, permanent resident aliens or persons otherwise lawfully in this state."

Maricopa County Republican Sheriff Joe Arpaio supported Thomas' interpretation of the law. "I will continue to make arrests in these cases. The grand jury just indicted 48 people for conspiracy to be smuggled, which shows our citizens agree this is a significant crime," Arpaio said.

Arizona's Democratic Attorney General Terry Goddard, disagreed, arguing that Thomas' zeal was misplaced and that the county attorney was pursuing the wrong people.

"The state law does not give us credible reason to prosecute individuals, but we're going after coyotes and that's been my dedication from the beginning. We've moved significant efforts to stop the wire transfers that go to coyotes and interrupted millions of dollars in that flow. I think that's the appropriate target and that's where we have to make a difference," Goddard said.

Officials in Phoenix, the fifth largest city in America, agree with Goddard. Police Chief Jack Harris said his officers frequently find undocumented workers packed by the dozens in rented homes, or "drop-houses." Smugglers use these houses to keep the illegal aliens, sometimes for days at a time, before they are moved to locations across the country.

"We continue to work with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) authorities and on all of the drop-houses that we have come in contact with, we have contacted ICE and they have responded and taken custody of those people," Harris said.

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon said it doesn't make sense to burden city and county taxpayers with the expense of arresting, prosecuting and then incarcerating these people when it's the federal government that should pay.

"Turning them over to the (Maricopa) County Sheriff's Office will incur additional expense both for the local governments and the county and the state," Gordon said. "We can turn to ICE to take custody, which I believe is the right policy."

But Thomas said more aggressive action is needed. "ICE essentially releases all of these folks back into Mexico and then they return and commit additional offenses here in Arizona by entering illegally."

The Phoenix Police Department's policy of turning over illegals to ICE, rather than to the sheriff's office, is troubling for other reasons, Thomas said.

"The people of this state are crying out for effective enforcement of our laws against illegal immigration, to the point that the governor has now called out the National Guard. The law is the law and it will be enforced. Once law enforcement tries to decide which laws should be enforced, that really is the definition of tyranny," Thomas said.

As Thomas announced the indictments in Phoenix, Republican Elias Bermudez, the organizer of the group Immigrants Without Borders, was traveling to Mexico City to tell that country's lawmakers just how inhospitable Arizona has become to new immigrants.

Bermudez said Thomas would pay a high political price for targeting people he said were victims. "Andrew Thomas is dead wrong. He doesn't have to do what he's doing. He's only grand-standing the issue on the backs of undocumented people. They are in jail now, suffering a second victimization at the hands of the authorities of the state of Arizona," Bermudez said.

Bermudez also warned Thomas to expect a vigorous defense of the people indicted. "The law was intended for coyotes, not for their human cargo, and he's going to be proven wrong in a court of law. We are going to use all legal defenses possible to defend these people," Bermudez said.

He added that the entire Hispanic community will soon rally around the defendants and that the case will irreparably damage Thomas' career. "Later this month we were going to rally for (U.S.) Senator Jon Kyl in support of his immigration policies, but I think that now we are going to switch that to protest Andrew Thomas, to let him know the Hispanic community will be politically strong to remove him from office."

This is totally appropriate.

Illegals are conspiring to bring themselves in to defraud our hospitals , schools, taxpayers, and our democratic republic.

Think about a truck load of say, 20 illegals, barreling down a city street, with crappy brakes, and wheels about to fall off.

What if that truck has a wreck , with a bunch of serious injuries?


That truck becomes an "economic bomb", with the people inside being the explosive.


The hospitals are forced to treat the injuries, and then go out of business.


The result, for the local citizens, is no different than a bomb going off, destroying the E.R.

-pa