http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...01-11-19-32-27

Jan 11, 7:32 PM EST

Arizona prosecutors find others way to get at smugglers

By JACQUES BILLEAUD
Associated Press Writer

PHOENIX (AP) -- Without their most powerful tool against illegal immigration, state prosecutors will rely on wire taps, surveillance and financial information to crack down on human traffickers in the smuggling season that begins in earnest next week.

Earlier this week, a judge struck down the first effort by state prosecutors to seize suspected immigrant smuggling money flowing from other American states into northern Mexico. The foray into Mexico was an expansion of an earlier tactic to use special court orders to seize suspected smuggling proceeds coming into Arizona.

As he seeks to get the court decision reversed, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said his office will use other methods to crack down on smugglers, but that nothing will prove as effective as the special seizure orders, known as "damming warrants."

Prosecutors can still seek seizure orders for smuggling money coming into the state. But that approach is of little use because payments to traffickers are being routed from other American states to Mexico, even as they continue to sneak people in through Arizona, Goddard said.

"Nothing has been as effective as the damming warrants. I believe that it is a very, very strong tool. Frankly, our fight against coyotes (smugglers) will be retarded if we cannot use them," Goddard said.

In recent years, state authorities have sought to reduce Arizona's role as the country's busiest illegal entry point as they have rejected the long-standing notion that immigration enforcement was solely a federal responsibility.

The heaviest flow of illegal border-crossers into Arizona begins next week and will end in May. Immigrants - some returning from an extended holiday back home - are seeking seasonal agricultural work, construction positions and other jobs in the underground labor market.

Goddard said his office can try to build smuggling cases from financial information that they can glean from subpoenas that were issued in their seizure efforts.

This tactic, however, isn't as effective as the seizure orders in providing additional leads and disrupting smuggling organizations, Goddard said.

State authorities said the special court orders have resulted in $17 million in seizures, deterred other illicit money transfers and led to the arrests of more than 100 smugglers.

The judge who struck down the foray into Mexico said it violated constitutional protections on interstate and international commerce and that prosecutors didn't show that the wire transfer customers in question were involved in crimes.

The federal agency that's responsible for immigration enforcement beyond the borderlands said it's examining the possibility of using federal subpoena power to track suspected smuggling money flowing into Mexico.

The idea is to capture some of the same information that state authorities were tracking, said Alonzo Pena, the chief of investigations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Arizona.

Another option for state and local authorities is Arizona's 17-month-old immigrant smuggling law.

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, a prosecutor who is an advocate for cracking down on illegal immigration, said he has won more than 160 convictions under the law.

While the law targets immigrant smugglers, Thomas is the only prosecutor in the state to charge those who paid to be sneaked into the country as conspirators to the crime.

The state smuggling law should serve only as a complement to federal immigration efforts, Thomas said.

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