Arpaio to continue pursuit of illegals


By JACQUES BILLEAUD
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, July 11, 2009

PHOENIX -- Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio vowed Friday to continue his immigration enforcement efforts even if he decides to opt out of a deal that gives 160 of his officers the power to enforce federal immigration law.

The U.S. Homeland Security Department said it was changing the rules for allowing local police to enforce those laws. Arpaio has been using those rules to arrest suspected illegal immigrants. If he walks away from it, he said he will continue enforcing state laws that prohibit immigrant smuggling and ban employers from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.

"I get the impression that they don't like the way we are operating," said Arpaio, who believes the changes in the program would hamper his immigration enforcement efforts.

As local police felt pressure to confront immigration woes that had long been considered the federal government's sole responsibility, Arpaio had 160 of his deputies and jail officers receive special federal training that allows them to make immigration arrests and speed up deportations.

Nationally, more than 1,000 local law enforcers have been granted those federal powers since 2002. The Mesa and Florence police departments are among the most recent additions to the program.

A key change in the new agreement is aimed at easing concerns that people may be arrested for minor offenses as a way to begin deportation proceedings. A new provision would require police agencies to prosecute all charges that led to a person's arrest.

Arpaio said federal officials don't like that his deputies, during the course of their regular duties, have arrested nearly 1,700 illegal immigrants on federal immigration violations even though they weren't charged with state crimes. Some of the immigrants, for instance, were passengers in vehicles that were pulled over for traffic violations.

"We taken them down. They are here illegally. What's wrong with that?" said Arpaio, whose county serves as America's busiest hub for transporting illegal immigrants.

Lydia Guzman, president of the Hispanic civil rights group Somos America, said she would like to see the federal government do away with the program, because she believes it has opened the door for the sheriff's office to racially profile people.

In any case, Guzman doesn't expect Arpaio to altogether end his immigration efforts. "To him, it's not about law enforcement," Guzman said. "It's about his personal agenda."

The new agreement would set guidelines for the federal government's supervision of the program and complaint procedures. Police agencies that want to keep their federal powers would have to sign a new deal.

Arpaio's office is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice over allegations of discrimination and unconstitutional searches and seizures. Homeland Security also is auditing Arpaio's use of federal immigration powers.

The sheriff has drawn criticism for conducting crime and immigration sweeps in some heavily Latino areas in metropolitan Phoenix. Critics say deputies racially profiled people during the sweeps.

Arpaio denied the racial profiling allegations, saying people pulled over in the sweeps were approached because deputies had probable cause to believe they had committed crimes and that it was only afterward that deputies found many of them were illegal immigrants.

More than any other local police boss in Arizona, Arpaio has pushed the bounds of what local officers can do to crack down on illegal immigration.

His office set up a hotline to report immigration violations, arrested about 1,500 illegal immigrants under a state smuggling law and is investigating nearly two dozen businesses for possible employer sanctions violations.

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, a critic of Arpaio's sweeps, said the changes show that federal officials have taken complaints about the sheriff seriously.

"He can no longer hide behind the illusion that breaking up families at car washes and amusement parks is somehow making us safer as a community," Gordon said.

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