Thread: Sheriff wants border agents to join crime-fighting team

Tucson RegionSheriff wants border agents to join crime-fighting team

By Erica Meltzer
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | 01.04.2008

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik wants to deputize Border Patrol agents to work with his department's border crimes unit.

That would give Border Patrol agents the authority to enforce local and state laws, as well as federal immigration law.
Sheriff's Department officials say the program will give deputies better access to Border Patrol intelligence and allow better coordination and quicker response. They said the department has no desire to enforce immigration law.
But an immigrant advocate group, Derechos Humanos, has cried foul, saying allowing Border Patrol agents to enforce local laws would institutionalize racial profiling.
Pima County shares 130 miles of border with Mexico. In September, the Sheriff's Department started its border crimes unit, dissolving its safe-streets unit to free up some resources. A second squad was added in December using state money available to deal with immigration-related problems.
There are now two sergeants and 14 deputies assigned to the unit. If the Pima County Board of Supervisors approves an agreement with the Border Patrol Tuesday, they will be joined by one Border Patrol agent.
Sheriff's Department Bureau Chief George Heaney said the unit's mission is not to look for migrants or enforce immigration laws, though the deputies are cross-trained and authorized to do so. Instead, the unit focuses on crimes committed in the border area, including crimes against migrants.
He said that won't change with the addition of a Border Patrol agent authorized to enforce local laws.
"We are not focusing on people's immigration status," Heaney said. "That is not our mission. Our mission is to focus on criminal activity — murder, rape, robbery, drug smuggling, assault."
He said the unit needs to work closely with the Border Patrol to access intelligence and databases, and having the agent deputized gives all the law enforcement officers the same tools.
The Border Patrol agent's salary still will be paid by the federal government, and the agent will wear a Border Patrol uniform and use a Border Patrol vehicle.
Current plans call for just one agent, and Heaney said there has been no discussion of additional agents. However, the intergovernmental agreement before the supervisors on Tuesday refers to plural "agents."
Kat Rodriguez, with Derechos Humanos, sees the plan as much more problematic.
"So now Border Patrol can stop people for anything," she said. "You ran a red light or your tags aren't in order or whatever. That will institutionalize racial profiling. There is no other result I can see for this."
Supervisor Richard Elias said he is worried about the plan.
"I'm very concerned about the precedent it sets," he said. "I don't feel comfortable at all, but we'll just have to see what the sheriff has to say on Tuesday."
Lance Altherr, an operations coordinator of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, said he understands the concerns of Derechos Humanos and others, but he has seen the Sheriff's Department's border crimes unit out on patrol. He doesn't see them doing immigration enforcement.
"They aren't barging into schools or malls," he said. "These are rural areas that have been overwhelmed and are in desperate need of additional law enforcement. We welcome any law enforcement agency that is willing to enforce any of our laws, federal or local."
Raymond Michalowski, an Arizona Regents professor in criminology at Northern Arizona University, said there has been a trend around the country to blur the line between local and federal law enforcement, and there are reasons to be concerned about that.
"There is a creeping federalization of the entire legal system, especially around immigration issues," he said. "It portends serious risks of racial profiling, of violation of civil rights and of community disruption.
"Immigration has become the camel's nose under the tent to blur a very important historic distinction," Michalowski said, referring to the separation of federal and local law enforcement. "And you can still have very good information sharing without having one group do the other's job."
He was especially concerned about Border Patrol agents being in the same unit as local sheriff's deputies.
"Having that agent with that unit will do a lot more to turn that unit into an immigration enforcement unit," he said.
He said federal encroachment into local law enforcement should concern even those who want more enforcement of immigration laws.
"It's one of the central protections of our democracy that the federal government has limited jurisdiction," he said. "The assumption that 'I will never be in trouble with the government so we don't need rights' is seriously mistaken. They are your rights and you may need them someday."

Contact reporter Erica Meltzer
emeltzer@azstarnet.com.


http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/219025

Derechos Humanos, has cried foul, saying allowing Border Patrol agents to enforce local laws would institutionalize racial profiling. This is Isabel Garcia again.


Supervisor Richard Elias said he is worried about the plan.
"I'm very concerned about the precedent it sets," he said. "I don't feel comfortable at all, but we'll just have to see what the sheriff has to say on Tuesday." Richard Elias is a key confidant of Raul Grijalva and perhaps his heir to the Congressional seat throne.

Strange they never "comfortable" when the law is enforced.