FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 19, 2006
For more information contact:
Krystal Garza, Director of Communications (602) 506-8420
Bill FitzGerald, Public Information Officer (602) 506-3170

Illegal Immigrant Found Guilty by Jury

Latest Historic Milestone in Fight against Illegal Immigration
County Attorney Andrew Thomas today announced that, for the first time in U.S. history, a jury has found an illegal immigrant guilty of the crime of being smuggled illegally into the United States.
A Maricopa County jury found Adolfo Guzman-Garcia, an illegal immigrant, guilty of conspiring to commit human smuggling, a class 4 felony. Deputies with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office arrested Guzman-Garcia and other illegal immigrants in May, 2006. These arrests were made in accordance with a legal opinion issued by Thomas in 2005 that authorized the arrest of smugglers as well as certain illegal immigrants pursuant to Arizona’s new human smuggling or coyote law. The verdict was returned today in the courtroom of Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Thomas O’Toole.
“The glacier of illegal immigration is starting to drip away,” Thomas said. “In Maricopa County, we will continue to keep the heat on until both smugglers and conspirators get the message.”
Sheriff Joe Arpaio said, “I appreciate the county attorney’s legal opinion regarding this new law. I will continue to arrest those who violate the statute. Maybe this will encourage other law enforcement agencies to enforce the law as well.”
At a press conference with Sheriff Arpaio, Thomas noted that this latest conviction brings the total number of people successfully prosecuted by the County Attorney’s Office for violating the human smuggling statute to 161. The County Attorney’s Office has achieved a 90 percent conviction rate for these defendants.
Also, the reported shift in the flow of human smuggling to areas outside and to the west of Maricopa County indicates that this joint enforcement program by the Sheriff’s Office and County Attorney’s Office is causing human smuggling routes to skirt the county. Thomas pointed out that this detour to the west of Maricopa County is proof that “tough enforcement of our immigration laws is crucial to the battle against illegal immigration.” October 19, 2006 Page 2
The County Attorney’s Office now has won every substantive legal battle it has fought in its effort to bring prosecutions against smugglers and conspirators under the human smuggling statute. Both Superior Court judges who have been asked to rule on these prosecutions has upheld them, confirming in two written opinions that the County Attorney’s Office has interpreted the statute properly. Judge O’Toole and Judge David Cole both have denied requests by defense counsel to dismiss the indictments of illegal immigrants, ruling that neither federal nor state law precludes the County Attorney’s Office from bringing these prosecutions (copies of court rulings attached). In the trial that ended today, Judge O’Toole denied a defense request to dismiss charges based on an appeal to the legal doctrine of corpus delecti.
Guzman-Garcia will be sentenced on December 5, 2006, by Judge O’Toole. A class 4 felony is punishable by up to 3.75 years in prison.

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