DPS lauds its immigration efforts
Cases involved drophouses, suspected human smugglers
JJ Hensley
The Arizona Republic
Jun. 17, 2008 12:00 AM

Another Arizona law-enforcement agency is joining the growing ranks of those touting their efforts at tackling problems arising from illegal immigration. The Department of Public Safety on Monday released statistics that showed officers of a specialized unit have discovered 40 drophouses since the unit started investigations six months ago, arresting 99 suspected human smugglers and nearly 500 suspected illegal immigrants in the process.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has frequently contended that his agency is the only one in Arizona enforcing immigration laws, and privately DPS officials conceded that they want to differentiate the efforts of its Illegal Immigration Prevention and Apprehension Co-op Team from those of the Sheriff's Office forces.

DPS plays up IIMPACT's chief mission of targeting violent crimes associated with human smuggling and to dismantle the syndicates or rings behind those crimes. advertisement




Sgt. Chuck Herrera, an IIMPACT detective, said suspected smugglers who are caught often are also held on suspicion of kidnapping, rape, extortion, assault and other serious crimes.

Arpaio's department, too, has arrested coyotes and their human cargo at drophouses and is one of the few agencies whose officers hold suspected illegal immigrants as co-conspirators under the state's human-smuggling law.

But the Sheriff's Office has also been criticized for conducting general "crime-suppression sweeps" that use traffic violations to catch undocumented immigrants - "busting drivers with broken taillights" has been the catchphrase other political and law-enforcement foes use to mock Arpaio.

Arpaio said he doesn't care that DPS wants to distance its efforts from his department's.

"How can you work with a group when they don't agree with enforcing the human-smuggling law?" Arpaio said about the prospect of deputies coordinating with the IIMPACT units.

"IIMPACT, that's great. We need all the help we can get to stop this violent crime and immigration, but you know what, I don't have to connect the arrest of illegals with violent crime."

Legislators approved about $10 million in funding to create IIMPACT in 2006.

The money, spread out over a number of years, is designed to give the agencies involved - DPS, Phoenix police, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement - a chance to start working together.

DPS officials point to a string of recent drophouse arrests, including one that started with a tip into a Phoenix murder, as proof the arrangement works.

"The more and more we get involved, the more and more we're putting the smugglers and middlemen away," Herrera of DPS said. "Slowly but surely, we're just trying to chop that mountain down."



Seven Arizona agencies, including the Sheriff's Office, DPS and Phoenix police, have deputies and officers who have received ICE training, and more departments are clamoring to have their agents included.

The Sheriff's Office, meanwhile, lays claims to making 21 drophouse discoveries since September, along with 148 suspected smugglers and 840 suspected illegal immigrants arrested since March 2006. Its officials said they welcome the help from the IIMPACT program.



Reach the reporter at jj.hensley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8464.






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