Thread: AZ: Panel: Expand police power to ask immigration status

Panel: Expand police power to ask immigration status
Casey Newton
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 15, 2008 11:57 AM

A panel appointed to review Operations Order 1.4 will recommend expanding the circumstances under which police can ask about a person's immigration status, officials said.

Details about the recommendations will be unveiled at a 2:30 p.m. press conference at City Hall today. An official familiar with the recommendations characterized the changes as relatively moderate.

The panel will not recommend that people be asked about their status during routine traffic stops, the official said, but should be for other crimes.

The existing operations order prevents police in most cases from asking about a person's immigration status.

The policy became a target for criticism last year after the shooting death of a Phoenix police officer in which an illegal immigrant was charged. Critics have cited the policy in branding Phoenix a "sanctuary city."

Mayor Phil Gordon appointed a four-man panel in December to review the policy, saying it was written in another time and should be updated.

Gordon's panel includes two former U.S. attorneys, Paul Charlton and Jose Rivera, as well as former Arizona attorney general Grant Woods and former Maricopa County attorney Rick Romley.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... n0216.html

Hopefully, common sense will spread state wide!

Inch by inch we will take back our country