http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... e1-27.html

Collaboration beats rhetoric
Feb. 27, 2007 12:00 AM

Earlier this winter, Phoenix police rushed to a house near 75th Avenue and Encanto Boulevard in west Phoenix. They discovered the body of a Hispanic man, apparently part of a human smuggling ring, shot dead by another smuggler. Also in the house were six illegal immigrants who were being held hostage, their families being extorted for money.

Because federal immigration enforcement agents are now "embedded" in Phoenix police units, working together on the same cases, the federal agents were immediately able to help identify the victims and assist in the murder investigation.

And because Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents now accompany Phoenix police on certain felony calls, ICE agents were able to confiscate ledgers and other documents of use to them in their own smuggling cases.

Think of this: Multiple law enforcement agencies cooperating on a single case, while gathering information and leads on their own. And focusing their investigations on, in the words of Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon: "The worst of the worst."

In the view of many, this collaboration between federal and local authorities makes more sense than police officers becoming immigration agents and raiding restaurants and construction sites.

"We're after criminals," explains Phoenix Public Safety Manager Jack Harris. "We want to do everything we can to make Phoenix as safe as we can. We are going after people committing violent crimes and property crimes. We're not investigating the crime of being undocumented."

Unfortunately, the hot-button controversy surrounding immigration has prompted some elected officials to call for broad police sweeps of illegal immigrants, ignoring the expensive and embarrassing history these kinds of actions have produced in the past.

Phoenix police, working with Alonzo Peña, ICE special agent in charge for Arizona, have moved on a different, more promising path.

The "embedding" of 10 ICE agents with Phoenix police investigative units is considered a first in the nation. But it is really just a new twist in a longtime cooperative relationship between Phoenix and other law enforcement agencies here, according to Commander Joe Klima, head of the Violent Crimes Bureau.

Here's the little-understood rationale: According to Phoenix police records, some 2,800 of the 47,000 people they arrested in 2006 were illegal immigrants - not even 6 percent of the total.

That's not a lot of criminal activity for a group of people estimated to make up 10 percent of the Valley's workforce.

However, when it comes to homicides - the most serious crime of all - Phoenix police estimate that one-third of all murders involved an immigrant as either the victim or the perpetrator.

That's deadly serious.

Illegal immigration has fostered a lucrative smuggling industry controlled by some of the most vile and murderous gangs in American history.

Targeting such a dangerous criminal threat demands focused, professional police strategies like the latest alliance between ICE and Phoenix police. Such collaboration is proving a lot more effective than political theatrics in dealing with the criminal fallout from illegal immigration.