Arpaio blasts courts over migrants serving probation

JJ Hensley
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 15, 2008 12:00 AM

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Thursday accused judges of allowing undocumented immigrants convicted of felonies and sentenced to probation to "roam the streets" - a charge that the courts say is off base.

Arpaio leveled the charge during a news conference to hail the efforts of his own department, which in the past four months has used an 11-person unit to track down and arrest 110 of the convicted immigrants serving probation.

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ICE teams up with county sheriff, adult probation to target deportable criminals in Phoenix area

PHOENIX - More than 110 foreign-born criminals currently on probation in Maricopa County have been arrested and now face deportation as a result of a new operation involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO), and Maricopa County Adult Probation (ADP). More arrests are anticipated.

Among those being targeted are illegal aliens with felony criminal records, as well as legal permanent residents of the United States whose criminal convictions make them subject to deportation. The arrests so far include people on probation for sex offenses, drug crimes, and aliens with prior convictions for violent crimes. The operation began in November 2007, using officers and deputies from all three organizations working throughout the county.

"The people we're targeting in this joint effort pose a potential public safety threat," said Katrina S. Kane, field office director of the ICE office of detention and removal operations (DRO). "Identifying and deporting criminal aliens encountered in our jails and in our communities is one of ICE's top enforcement priorities."

"We're not going to stand by and allow deportable criminals to victimize law-abiding members of this community," said Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.