By MIRIAM JORDAN
The Wall Street Journal
OCTOBER 16, 2009
In defiance of efforts by the U.S. government to rein in his tactics against illegal immigrants, Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz., on Friday launched a major crime-suppression operation in the suburbs of Phoenix.
The operation took place on the same day that the Department of Homeland Security announced that it had signed revised agreements that enable 55 state and local law-enforcement agencies to arrest illegal immigrants who commit serious crimes. The revised agreements are meant to assert greater oversight over a federal immigration program that enlists and trains local police to identify suspected illegal-immigrant criminals in jails and on the streets.
The program, known as 287g, was designed to target drug dealers, gang members and human smugglers. But it has been criticized for promoting racial profiling and serving as an excuse for local law-enforcement to hunt down illegal immigrants.
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* Arizona Sheriff's Powers Cut
10/07/09
Mr. Arpaio's deputies will no longer have the authority to check the immigration status of people in the streets during their course of duty. From now on, their participation will be limited to checking the status of people booked into a jail, according to DHS.
"We ultimately determined his sweeps were not consistent with the priorities of the revised program," said John Morton, the head of Immigration & Customs Enforcement, a unit of the DHS, when asked about the restrictions on Mr. Arpaio.
But the man who calls himself "America's toughest sheriff," announced later Friday that his deputies would continue to round up illegal immigrants in the streets. About 200 deputies and posses fanned out across northwestern Maricopa County, in the vicinity of Phoenix, according to a spokesman for the sheriff.
"We arrest anyone who breaks the laws in the streets, including enforcing illegal immigration," Mr. Arpaio said. That includes "going out and making traffic stops" to find people in the country illegally. "It's the same thing we have always done."
Mr. Arpaio has said he can persevere with the backing of a state law targeted at human smugglers. According to the law, illegal immigrants can be arrested for smuggling themselves into the state.
Asked about Mr. Arpaio's defiant stance, Mr. Morton said that the 287g program "very clearly lays out the priorities for the program and the intention to focus on serious criminal offenders."
An estimated 11.5 million immigrants, mainly from Latin America, live in the U.S. illegally. The 287g program has been hailed by politicians and groups who favor tough measures, particularly deportation, to rid the country of illegal immigrants.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125572635599690761.html
