Program with Arpaio defended by top ICE official
ICE official: Migrants in U.S. without criminal records cannot be ignored

by Daniel González - Jan. 21, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

A top U.S. immigration-enforcement official on Wednesday defended a federal program that lets local jail officials from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office check the immigration status of people booked into jail.

During a large protest on Saturday in Phoenix that drew 10,000 people, immigrant-rights advocates called on the Department of Homeland Security to end the program, saying some Valley police officers are engaging in racial profiling by arresting Latinos for minor crimes in order to check their immigration status during the booking process.

But John Morton, the assistant secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said that is "not in practice what we have seen in the program" known as 287 (g).

Furthermore, he said that while the agency places a priority on arresting illegal immigrants who commit serious crimes, it also cannot turn "a blind eye to people who are here unlawfully simply because they don't have a criminal record."

Morton said the program has been consistent in meeting the agency's priority of arresting illegal immigrants who commit serious crimes.

"Sixty nine percent of the people we receive in Maricopa County have been convicted of Level 1 and Level 2 offenses, which are serious felony offenses, drug trafficking, assaults, rape," Morton said during a meeting with editors and reporters at The Arizona Republic.

More than 90 percent of the cases presented to the U.S. Attorney in Arizona involving people who committed a felony crime of re-entering the U.S. after deportation from the Maricopa County jail, Morton added.

In October, Morton refused to renew a contract between ICE and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio that let deputies arrest immigration violators on the street.

ICE said it didn't renew the contract because Arpaio's controversial crime sweeps were inconsistent with the agency's priorities of focusing on criminals.

The new contract, however, left intact the jail program allowing Sheriff's deputies to check immigration status of all people booked into the jail.

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