Thread: AZ: Thomas Works To Deny Bail To Immigrants Accused Of Crime

Thomas Works To Deny Bail To Immigrants Accused Of Crimes
June 15th, 2007 @ 10:38pm
by Associated Press

PHOENIX - Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas on Friday opened two new fronts in his push to prod judges in the state's most populous county to enforce a voter-approval ban on bail for illegal immigrants accused of serious crime.

Thomas filed a special-action appeal with the Arizona Supreme Court, asking the justices to overturn a Superior Court commissioner's decision to allow release of a kidnapping defendant who, the appeal said, acknowledged to police that he'd been smuggled into the United States.

The commissioner applied too high of a legal standard when determining whether the defendant was an illegal immigrant, and the court should agree to rule on the appeal to eliminate any confusion among lower-court judges about requirements of Proposition 100, the appeal said.

Separately, Thomas said his office also had filed comments to proposed changes to state court rules on implementation issues of Proposition 100, a constitutional amendment overwhelmingly approved by voters last November.

Thomas said his office had found that 94 percent of 699 cases involving illegal immigrants accused of serious felonies in Maricopa County resulted in judges either offering bail to defendants or releasing them without bail.

``The judiciary of Maricopa County is openly defying the will of the people and creating a crisis of public safety. It is only a matter of time before illegal immigrants wrongly released by these judicial officers commit additional crimes, including violent crimes,'' Thomas said.

A spokeswoman for Maricopa County Superior Court did not immediately return a call for comment late Friday.

http://ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=515192

Thomas is on the side of the American people and not the illegals.