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AZ Weighs Options for Border Patrol
As public frustration grows over the state‘s porous border with Mexico, the once-rejected notion of using state police to supplement federal patrols is gaining traction.

"I‘m not putting the handcuffs on. Whatever they need to do, they need to be doing," said Republican Rep. Russell Pearce, the plan‘s sponsor.

Arizona has been dogged by a heavy flow of illegal immigrants since the government tightened enforcement in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego during the mid-1990s. The Border Patrol apprehended 725,093 illegal border crossers in Arizona in fiscal year 2000, though the numbers declined after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks led to an increase in border security.

In the past, a few police agencies have won federal approval to train some state or local officers so they can arrest illegal immigrants, but the idea of major state border aid was often resisted by officials who believed that illegal immigration should be the sole province of the federal government.

Advocates for state and local action in Arizona said the idea will not cure the state‘s immigration headaches, but would discourage some people from sneaking across the border. Opponents say racial profiling could increase if officers unfamiliar with immigration law began trying to enforce it.
How familiar do you have to be? "Hey, yew ain't from 'round here, are yew?"
They also say investigating crime in immigrant communities could become more difficult, because fewer migrants would cooperate with police for fear of being sent home.
Gee, people breaking the law are not willing to cooperate with the police. Will wonders cease?
Local officers also lack understanding of complex immigration law, they say.
And of course they're too stupid to learn, why it goes without saying.
Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada, whose jurisdiction includes 50 miles of border, said taking on illegal immigration would overwhelm his department, even if the state gave him money to catch and detain illegal immigrants. The Department of Public Safety and an organization that represents 950 of its employees declined to comment.

What Pearce‘s proposal won‘t do, one opponent says, is confront the central motive for workers to sneak into the country: the prospect of a better life. If the proposal works, it‘s only going to shift the flow of immigrants to other states, said Democratic Rep. Ben Miranda.
Or back to Mexico, thereby to force the Mexican government to fix things at home.

Posted by: Pappy 2006-02-11
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=142290