http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=6158796

Rising number of AZ police agencies consider immigration training

Feb 28, 2007

PHOENIX -- Four police departments in Arizona are considering possible deals with the federal government that would give a limited number of local and state officers training in immigration law.


If the four departments ultimately get the training, they would join two other agencies in Arizona that have already have inked agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to carry out certain federal immigration duties.

Officials said interest in the training is rising because police bosses realize they can use the limited federal powers to confront specific facets of immigration and wouldn't have to set up roadblocks, conduct raids or take actions for the sole purpose of making immigration arrests.

Prescott Police Chief Randy Oaks said his decision to seek an agreement was prompted by complaints in his community that the federal government hasn't adequately confronted illegal immigration _ and that local authorities shouldn't stand on the sidelines.

"I have heard that we are not doing enough about it," said Oaks, who hopes to get two or three of his 75 officers trained so they can use federal databases to make immigration checks on people arrested for violations of state and local laws.

Elias Bermudez, chief executive of advocacy group Immigrants Without Borders, said local enforcement could ruin the trust police officers have built in immigrant communities because immigrants would fear deportation if they cooperate.

"This is not a situation we embrace," Bermudez said. "It's something that we have to accept."

State and local law enforcement have generally stayed out of immigration enforcement in the past, but 47 agencies across the country have formally applied to have their officers trained to make immigration arrests and speed up deportations.

A total of 214 police and corrections officers from 10 agencies across the country have received the training since 2002.

Federal officials said none of the 47 agencies were from Arizona, but that the Arizona Department of Public Safety and the Phoenix, Lake Havasu City and Prescott police departments are examining such training agreements.

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Department recently signed a deal to have 160 of its patrol and jail officers trained in immigration law, marking the largest one-time addition in the effort.

The department would have those officers, some of whom have just started their training, make immigration arrests during the course of their regular patrol duties and only if a person is believed to have first committed a state or local crime.

Twelve Department of Corrections employees were the first Arizona officers to receive the training.

The dozen officers can spot criminal immigrants as they enter prisons and determine whether they are certain nonviolent offenders who are eligible under a state law for release from prison after serving half their sentences.

If so, the prison employees are authorized to prepare those prisoners for deportation. Previously, it had taken months for the deportation processing to start.

Over the last 15 months, the department said it has saved more than $6 million that the state would have incurred while waiting for federal authorities to take custody of the immigrants.

The DPS was expected to make a formal request Thursday to have 100 officers trained in immigration law.

The officers would work with a special group of police agencies that would target gangs, immigrant smuggling and related crimes.

The Phoenix Police Department, which is participating in the crackdown, may seek training for as many as seven investigators, said spokesman Sgt. Andy Hill.

Hill said the training would let the investigators offer victims and witnesses of violent crimes the chance to stay in the United States so they can testify in such cases.

Local authorities have said that criminal cases involving immigrants and their smugglers some times fall apart when witnesses are deported or flee the area.

The Phoenix officers would check the immigration status of only criminal suspects and wouldn't make citizenship inquiries on witnesses or victims of crimes, according to Hill.

Hill said the department doesn't expect that police would lose cooperation from the immigrant community, because a small number of investigators in the 3,000-member police force would receive the training and wouldn't make immigration arrests.

"We are doing that to arrest violent criminals," Hill said. "Once the message gets out, I think they will understand it."

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