Arpaio blasts courts over migrants serving probation
Arpaio blasts courts over migrants serving probation
JJ Hensley
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 15, 2008 12:00 AM
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Thursday accused judges of allowing undocumented immigrants convicted of felonies and sentenced to probation to "roam the streets" - a charge that the courts say is off base.
Arpaio leveled the charge during a news conference to hail the efforts of his own department, which in the past four months has used an 11-person unit to track down and arrest 110 of the convicted immigrants serving probation.
Court officials point out that judges don't have authority to deport defendants - only federal officials do - and that courts around the state have actually put into place new procedures that help identify defendants who are in the country illegally so that immigration authorities would be aware of the convicts before they're released on probation.
The procedures require court workers to forward biographical information of defendants who are born outside of the United States to Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities, who would then determine those individuals' legal status and decide whether the ones who end up being convicted should be deported. That still leaves hundreds of potential illegal immigrants serving probation, said Arpaio, who has vowed to round them in coming months.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... ler15.html
