Making Criminals Out of Law Enforcers

First you cripple immigration laws and then you attack those who enforce them. It looks as if the Democratic Party will do anything to increase its voter base... and disregard our laws. Maybe some of the illegals can be appointed unconstitutional "czars."

CRIPPLE THE LAWS:

Friday, July 10, 2009

Federal rule change could nix Sheriff Arpaio’s immigrant sweeps; he calls move ‘amnesty’

Phoenix Business Journal - by Mike Sunnucks

New rules announced Friday by the Barack Obama administration could nix crime suppression sweeps and immigration raids conducted by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Arpaio said he plans to continue to conduct his immigration enforcement efforts under state laws, despite changes to federal rules related to local police arresting illegal immigrants.

“To me, it looks like some form of amnesty,” Arpaio told the Phoenix Business Journal on Friday.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the changes to federal rules. Napolitano, also the former governor of Arizona, said Friday that DHS and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency would need to re-sign agreements with local police agencies, such as the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. Those agreements train local police on immigration laws and allow them to sometimes arrest and detain illegal immigrants.

“Only those agencies with newly signed agreements will be permitted to continue enforcing immigration law,” said a DHS statement on Friday.

That could allow the White House to derail Arpaio’s immigration enforcement actions, which have been made through a federal partnership that trains deputies to enforce immigration laws and pick up illegal immigrants. The sheriff also conducts workplace and drop-house raids under state laws.

The MCSO has had an immigration enforcement agreement with the feds since April 2007

The sheriff was not sure whether the federal government would maintain its agreement with the MCSO. If it does not, he said the feds will have to take over the processing and detention of some of the illegal immigrants picked up in the Phoenix area.

Napolitano also said Friday that federal rules regarding local police picking up illegal immigrants would be changed to focus on arresting those charged with violent and serious crimes.

“To address concerns that individuals may be arrested for minor offenses as a guise to initiate removal proceedings, the new agreement explains that participating local law enforcement agencies are required to pursue all criminal charges that originally caused the offender to be taken into custody,” the DHS statement said.

The sheriff’s crime sweeps and immigration raids are under investigation by the Obama administration for possibly unfairly targeting Hispanics. He also faces lawsuits from the American Civil Liberties Union and Hispanic activists over his immigration enforcement policies.

Napolitano also said Friday the feds had signed new immigration enforcement and cooperation agreements with police departments in Mesa and Florence. Former Mesa Police Chief George Gascon, who opposed Arpaio’s efforts earlier this year to conduct crime sweeps in that city, recently became police chief in San Francisco.

MAKE CRIMINALS OUT OF LAW ENFORCERS:

Deported Illegal Immigrants Witnesses In Federal Probe

Last Updated: Fri, 09/04/2009 - 3:28pm

The Department of Justice is actually bringing deported illegal aliens back to the U.S. to be witnesses in a civil rights investigation of an Arizona sheriff’s department that enforces immigration law through a federal partnership.

It’s hardly the first time that the federal agency charged with defending the nation’s interests and ensuring its safety pulls this sort of stunt. In its quest to prosecute two Border Patrol gents who intercepted a Mexican drug smuggler in 2005, the Justice Department actually went to Mexico and offered the drug dealer immunity to testify against the veteran agents.

The agents (Ignacio Ramos and Jose Campean) were subsequently convicted on charges of causing serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, discharge of a firearm and violating the drug smuggler's civil rights. The supposed victim and key witness was the Mexican illegal alien whose vehicle was intercepted with 743 pounds of U.S.-bound marijuana.

This week a Phoenix newspaper reports that the feds are at it again, using illegal immigrant violators as key witnesses in another high-profile case. It involves allegations of discrimination and unconstitutional searches and seizures on the part of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department and its elected leader Joe Arpaio. The feds are interviewing Hispanics who were arrested by the sheriff’s department, including those who were deported and have been brought back to the U.S. to testify.

The federal probe was requested by Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, an open borders advocate who offers illegal aliens sanctuary in his city. In a letter to the Justice Department last spring, Mayor Gordon demanded that the agency investigate “discriminatory harassment” and “improper” stops, searches and arrests by Maricopa County sheriff’s deputies who patrol the metropolitan area.

The Justice Department gladly obliged and proudly announced its civil rights investigation a few months ago, vowing to focus on whether deputies are engaging in racial profiling during immigration crackdowns. The sweeps have helped rid the area of numerous illegal aliens—some violent criminals who fell through the cracks—who should have been deported long ago and helped restore much-needed law and order in a Phoenix business district (36th & Thomas) rife with solicitation, trespassing, loitering and public health ordinance violations.