During Arrests, Legal Status is Unknown

September 21st, 2007 @ 4:09pm
by KTAR Newsroom

When Scottsdale police arrested Erik Martinez last year for a misdemeanor assault, they did not know he was an illegal immigrant who had been deported once already.

Martinez killed Phoenix officer Nick Erfle on Tuesday.

Sergeant Mark Clark with the Scottsdale Police Department said when they run criminal background checks, there is nothing in them that would show a person's legal status.

"It would be our preference to have the federal government include information on foreign nationals with prior deportations or have illegal status in the existing criminal background checks that we do," he said.

Clark said even though Martinez told them he was a citizen of Mexico, that does not necessarily mean he was in this country illegally.

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