http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=5323675


Sheriff's deputies capture 23 migrants, half taken to jail


PHOENIX Maricopa County sheriff's deputies have apprehended 23 illegal immigrants today in the West Valley.

Twelve of the migrants found crammed in an S-U-V traveling near Interstate Eight are being taken to the Maricopa County Jail to be booked under Arizona's anti-smuggling law.

The sheriff's office says the other members of the group are being taken back to the border because they were traveling with children.

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Department is the only local law enforcement agency that is consistently arresting illegal immigrants under the state smuggling law.

The law was created to target migrant smugglers but it is being used against the migrants themselves under a novel interpretation by Maricopa County's top prosecutor.