When the DOJ tried to intimidate the Maricopa County sheriff from upholding the law, he told them where to stick it:
Calling himself “the poster boy” for those who support the enforcement of federal immigration laws, Sheriff Joe Arpaio said he will continue to arrest individuals who are in the country illegally, even if Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) does not renew the 287(g) agreement that the Maricopa County (Ariz.) Sheriff’s Office has operated under for the past two years.
“We’ve been doing it for two years and have been very successful, but I guess they don’t like to enforce illegal immigration laws,” Arpaio told CNSNews.com. “[It] doesn’t make any difference. I’m still going to continue my programs, regardless of what the feds like or don’t like.”
Under that agreement, authorized in the 287(g) section of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, more than 100 officers and deputies with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office were trained and certified by ICE to enforce federal immigration laws in 2007.
Arpaio claims that ICE is renewing the part of the agreement that allows his personnel to check the immigration status of those booked into the county jail, but will not renew the portion that authorizes officers to make arrests based on immigration status.
“When we come across illegal aliens, we arrest them,” Arpaio said. “That’s the part they don’t like, and that’s the one they took away.”
But an ICE spokesman told CNSNews.com that the 90-day window for state and local law enforcement agencies to review and sign new “standardized” agreements is Oct. 14 and that no decision will be made on those agreements until each has been reviewed by John Morton, assistant secretary of ICE.
……The ICE audit of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department (MCSD), however, is generally positive, including the following remarks included in the executive summary of the report:
— “Since February of 2007, the MCSO 287(g) program has processed more than 15,000 illegal aliens, saving ICE considerable resources.”— “The communications and working relationship between the OI (Office of Investigations), DRO (Office of Detention and Removal Operations) and MCSD (Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department) are excellent.”
……Arpaio claims that more than 30,000 individuals have been identified as illegal aliens since his department signed on with ICE in 2007.
He also claims that even without the 287(g), federal law allows state and local law enforcement agencies to enforce immigration laws if probable cause exists.
Kris Kobach, former counsel to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and a professor of law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, told CNSNews.com that there is a federal statute that addresses immigration law and local law enforcement.
……“That federal statute is found at 8 U.S.C. 1252c. In addition, as the U.S. Department of Justice officially recognized in 2002, state and local police possess the inherent authority to arrest illegal aliens and detain them briefly in order to transfer them to federal custody,” Kobach added.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/55199
This latest stunt by the DOJ happened when Arpaio invited them to come to his county and investigate. They proceeded to limit his law enforcement to determining ‘status’; in other words he was told he could verify whether or not they were illigal aliens, but pending the renewal of the 287(g) agreement, he couldn’t arrest them.
Needless to say, the sheriff is not intimidated.
Video of Fox News interview with Arpaio:
http://www.foxnews.com/search-results/m/26811485/new-sheriff-in-town.htm
……let me tell you something it doesn’t matter. We will continue to do the same thing we’ve been doing. We will arrest people pursuant to our duties that are illegal under state laws and even a federal law that exists. So nothing will change — we’re not going to surrender — I’m not worried about anything. I’m going to increase our operations. So that’s the message to the Homeland Security, ICE, and the White House.
We need a guy like Arpaio in charge of ICE and Homeland Security.