Thread: AZ- Sheriff Arpaio will continue fight against illegals

He's my hero! Seeing as he's ELECTED all they can do is stand by and watch.

YOU ROCK, SHERIFF JOE

Arpaio plans to 'combat' ICE immigration agreement
123 commentsby JJ Hensley - Oct. 6, 2009 11:45 AM

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's ongoing battles with government will take center stage this afternoon during a news conference where Arpaio will discuss his plans to "combat" an agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Arpaio said on Friday that he had signed a contract with ICE that would authorize sheriff's deputies to continue screening inmates in county jails for immigration violations. Without an agreement that authorizes immigration screenings on the street, deputies will need probable cause to detain a suspected illegal immigrant until federal agents can determine the suspect's immigration status.

Sheriff's deputies will still enforce the state's human-smuggling law, which allows illegal immigrants to be charged as co-conspirators in their own smuggling, but a conviction requires proving clear links to some sort of smuggling activity, said Dan Pochoda, Arizona American Civil Liberties Union legal director.

The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to approve the agreement on Wednesday, and the paperwork is due in Washington, D.C., by Oct. 15.

In a news release, a Sheriff's Office spokesman said Arpaio was "furious" with the agreement and planned to hold a 2:30 p.m. news conference.

The agreement Arpaio signed last week removes the authority for sheriff's deputies to act as federal immigration agents during the course of their street-level enforcement duties, a function deputies had since the Sheriff's Office and ICE entered into a similar agreement in 2007.

A copy of the agreement The Republic obtained on Monday states that, "there are two models for the 287(g) program, a Task Force Officer (TFO) mode or a Detention model. Pursuant to this (Memorandum of Agreement), MCSO has been delegated authorities under the Detention model as outlined below."

The jail-screening effort helped officials catch nearly 30,000 illegal immigrants since the program began in February 2007, but it was the street-level enforcement that caused the most controversy and produced less substantial results, capturing about 264 illegal-immigration suspects.

Federal officials have come under increasing pressure from civil-rights, labor, religious and pro-immigrant groups to end the program, known as 287(g), because of fears of racial profiling.

The Sheriff's Office had been operating under an umbrella agreement that authorized the street-level enforcement and jail operations, but ICE officials announced in July that all the contracts with local law-enforcement agencies were under review.

Arpaio said he had been prepared to sign a new umbrella agreement, which stressed a focus on enforcing immigration laws only in cases of serious crimes, before the Oct. 15 deadline.

Then, ICE's deputy assistant secretary for operations, Alonzo Pena, came to Phoenix two weeks ago and presented the sheriff with a contract that would authorize the operations to continue only in the jails. Attorneys for the Sheriff's Office tried to contact ICE administrators for the past week to determine the outcome of the street-level agreement but failed to get a response, Arpaio said.

Arpaio tied ICE's decision to separate the jail-and-street enforcement agreements to the Justice Department's ongoing civil-rights investigation into allegations that sheriff's deputies engaged in racial profiling while enforcing immigration duties.

"Looks like a little politics, doesn't it?" he said.

With the deadline looming to continue any sort of agreement with ICE, Arpaio signed the jail authorization on Friday.


http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... 6-ON.html#

October 6, 2009
Arpaio: Office stripped of immigration patrols
By Gary Grado
Tribune

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has stripped Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio of his authority to arrest suspected illegal immigrants based solely on their immigration status.

But Arpaio said Tuesday he plans to continue his controversial “crime suppression operations,â€

"I don't need the feds to do my crime suppression, to opt to arrest illegals," Arpaio said. "I can do it without the federal authority."

DITTO! I wish every sheriff across this country had the integrity and courage that Sheriff Joe has!!!! God Bless this man!

Originally Posted by NoBueno

"I don't need the feds to do my crime suppression, to opt to arrest illegals," Arpaio said. "I can do it without the federal authority."

DITTO! I wish every sheriff across this country had the integrity and courage that Sheriff Joe has!!!! God Bless this man!

EXACTLY!

Arpaio vows to press on with immigrant sweeps
220 commentsby JJ Hensley - Oct. 7, 2009 10:32 AM

Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Tuesday promised that his deputies will continue to enforce immigration law despite the lack of a contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency that authorizes immigration enforcement on the streets and in the jails.

The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote today on a new agreement that would authorize deputies to continue an immigration-enforcement program in Maricopa County jails.

However, Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox said Tuesday that she would ask the board to table the vote until federal immigration officials signed off on the agreement, in accordance with county policy.
"There's a possibility it could get continued," she said. "It's probably 50-50 right now."

Arpaio said he would continue enforcing immigration law on the streets thanks to an opinion from County Attorney Andrew Thomas that allows suspected illegal immigrants to be charged as co-conspirators in their own smuggling. Sheriff's officials said deputies also would rely on a provision of the federal criminal code that allows local law enforcement to detain someone for "brief warrantless interrogation" where circumstances indicate the person could be in the country illegally.

"I am free of the federal government," Arpaio said.

The decision to remove part of an agreement that authorized street-level immigration enforcement from deputies but allow such enforcement to continue in the jails was a political ploy from Washington, D.C., Arpaio said.

A local ICE spokesman said the agreement Arpaio signed was pending until the Oct. 15 signing deadline.

Since 2007, the Sheriff's Office has operated under an umbrella agreement authorizing the street-level enforcement and jail operations, but ICE officials announced in July that all the contracts with local law-enforcement agencies were under review. Federal officials have come under pressure from civil-rights, labor, religious and pro-immigrant groups to end the program, known as 287(g), because of racial-profiling fears.

Arpaio said he was prepared to sign a new umbrella agreement, which stressed a focus on enforcing immigration laws only in cases of serious crimes. But an ICE official presented the sheriff with a contract that would authorize the operations only in the jails.

A canvass of agencies in the U.S. with both street-level and jail-enforcement agreements indicated that ICE's decision to remove the street-level provision with the Sheriff's Office was unique.

At a news conference Tuesday, Wilcox and local immigration leaders called for the federal government to abolish the local-enforcement agreements altogether.

"Immigration laws are complex," said Danny Ortega, board chairman of the National Council of La Raza. "ICE should be in the jails doing that job."

The two arms of the ICE agreement have yielded results that vary widely, with the jail operation detaining nearly 30,000 suspected illegal immigrants and deputies on the streets arresting about 1,900 suspected illegal immigrants who aren't suspected of other crimes.

The agreement Arpaio signed means deputies shouldn't be able to conduct immigration screenings on the street and will have to take suspects to ICE, where federal agents can determine if the people meet the criteria for detention and removal.

Arpaio vowed to continue the crime-suppression operations, promising a sweep in two weeks.

The interaction with ICE during the last sweep could give insight into the practical impact of Arpaio losing the street-level agreement. When sheriff's posse members and deputies descended on Chandler in July, federal immigration agents would not take custody of nine suspected illegal immigrants who were not suspected of other crimes.

The new ICE task-force agreement includes provisions that detail the types of immigrants and severity of crimes agents should target, starting with offenses such as murder and kidnapping in Level 1; moving to property crimes in Level 2 and leaving a broad category of undefined "other offenses" in Level 3.

Republican U.S. Rep. Trent Franks from Arizona and Texas Rep. Lamar Smith issued a statement supporting Arpaio's theory that the ICE agreement was political.

"Instead of launching a politicized attack against a local law official who has yielded great success with the 287(g) program, the Obama Administration should replicate the success we have experienced in Maricopa County in other areas that are desperately in need of similar solutions," the joint statement read.

Supes OK Arpaio's Immigration Deal

POSTED: 3:47 pm MST October 7, 2009
PHOENIX -- The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors approved an agreement Wednesday that would let 60 county jail officers continue to check on the immigration status of people in jail.

The 3-2 vote moves Sheriff Joe Arpaio one step closer to renewing the deal that grants special federal immigration powers to jail officers.

The deal has been signed by Arpaio and is awaiting a signature from an official from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which grants the federal powers.

The sheriff complained that ICE cut his federal powers in half when it wouldn't renew a deal that lets 100 deputies make federal immigration arrests.

Critics say Arpaio's immigration efforts were fraught with racial profiling, a charge the sheriff denies.

http://www.kpho.com/news/21232739/detail.html

Time to ROLL against Amnesty Patriots!!!
http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-962599.html#962599

County OKs Arpaio immigration checks in jails
Comments 18 | Recommend 2

Gary Grado, Tribune

October 7, 2009 - 12:18PM


Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio defends his department and said he is upset that the federal government has stripped his deputies of their ICE agent status to act as federal immigration authorities. Oct. 6, 2009.
Darryl Webb, Tribune

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors ratified an agreement Wednesday with the federal government to allow Sheriff Joe Arpaio to check the immigration status of people booked into jail.

The board voted 3-2 to have Board Chairman Max Wilson sign the agreement once the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's designee signs it.

Supervisors Don Stapley and Mary Rose Wilcox voted against the motion to approve the agreement pending ICE's signature. Stapley and Wilcox are under separate criminal investigations by the sheriff's office.

"The ball is really in the court of ICE and Department of Homeland Security now," Arpaio said. "I don't think the public is going to be happy about these games that are being played."

Richard De Uriarte, county spokesman, said Wilcox originally made a motion that was seconded by Stapley to table the issue, but that went down in a 3-2 vote.

De Uriarte said that when it comes to agreements between county departments or offices and other government agencies, the board typically waits to ratify the agreement until the other government agency has signed it.

Had the issue been postponed, then Arpaio would have been in danger of losing all of his authority because the deadline for submission to ICE is Oct. 14.

Arpaio groused Tuesday about how ICE rescinded an agreement he signed Sept. 21 that would have allowed deputies to enforce immigration law on the streets.

ICE, however, went forward with the agreement that would allow detention officers to interrogate suspected illegal immigrants, arrest them and prepare the paperwork for immigration processing, but the Board of Supervisors was required to accept the agreement for it to become effective.

ICE has declined to comment on pending agreements.

The sheriff's office first signed an immigration enforcement agreement - known as a 287(g) agreement - in 2007, and has arrested or identified thousands of illegal immigrants by using it.

Under 287(g) ICE trains and certifies local police on immigration enforcement, and 66 agencies around the nation have entered into agreements.

Arpaio has come under fire for using his authority during "crime suppression operations," which are sweeps through designated areas to search out illegal immigrants.

The sweeps have raised cries of racial profiling from Arpaio critics.

The Department of Homeland Security announced July 10 it was tearing up the old agreements and drafting new ones that were more in line with new policies and priorities.

Agencies could either sign the new agreements or lose their immigration enforcement authority.

One of the new priorities is to target "criminal aliens," or illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes.

The arresting agencies also have to see through to the end the prosecutions of illegal immigrants arrested on state charges, a measure that would prevent local authorities from seeking out illegal immigrants under the guise of enforcing local law, according to DHS.

Arpaio said Tuesday he doesn't need the street-level authority because he could battle illegal immigration through state human smuggling laws and an obscure federal law that allows local police to enforce immigration law.

Arpaio promised he would conduct another sweep in two weeks, but he didn't say where.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/145504

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