2 out of 3 state counties running immigration fingerprint checks
September 16, 2010 | Ryan Gabrielson


Joe Arpaio, the sheriff of Maricopa County in Arizona, regularly jokes that he should bill California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for his deputies’ immigration enforcement.

Fifty-four percent of smuggled illegal immigrants apprehended in the Phoenix-area from 2006 to 2008 said they were on their way to the Golden State, arrest records show.

Implicit in Arpaio’s quip is the suggestion that California isn’t willing to undertake its own police-led crackdown on the illegal immigrant population.

That suggestion now faces a serious challenge.

Three more California counties – Kern, Kings and Madera – on Tuesday joined the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s “Secure Communitiesâ€