PRESCOTT - The Yavapai County Board of Supervisors this past week approved an agreement between the sheriff's office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, that will allow YCSO officers to begin enforcing federal immigration law after receiving specialized training.
Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, designated county sheriff's officers have limited law enforcement authority in the arrest of illegal aliens. But before these officers gain permission, ICE officers must train them for four weeks in Phoenix.
Yavapai County Sheriff Steve Waugh said YCSO is currently the only law enforcement agency in Yavapai County that U.S. Customs Enforcement has approved for this training.
The program will teach officers about immigration law, intercultural relations and use of the Department of Homeland Security databases - ones that positively identify criminals and illegal immigrants.
Waugh said his office will select 10 officers for the training - including six detention officers who will start training this month - and four field deputies.
After earning this qualification, detention officers can determine the legal status of any arrestee at either of the county's jails in Prescott or Camp Verde.
"All (area) law enforcement agencies booking suspects into the county jail will have this service," Waugh said. "With the ability of detention officers to promptly determine the legal status of an arrestee, the Yavapai County attorney can use this information to decide whether prosecution or deportation would be in the best interest of justice."
After ICE trains four of YCSO's field deputies, those deputies will carry out Immigration Task Force operations and give other local police departments assistance with enforcing federal immigration law on the highways and freeways in the county.
Since April 2007, ICE and YCSO deputies have worked on joint task force operations for criminal illegal alien warrant sweeps. During that time, Waugh said sheriff's officers have transferred more than 700 illegal immigrants to ICE agents.
"This will give us the authority to detain (illegal immigrants) until ICE officers can pick them up," Waugh said. "Currently, if we stop people (on the highways) anywhere in Yavapai County and we feel that these individuals are illegal immigrants, we have to call ICE on a 24-hour hotline and detain them on site until ICE interviews them by telephone and places a detainer on them."
Contact the reporter at dcook@prescottaz.com
Reader Comments
Posted: Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Article comment by:
Ron
Finally!!! It's about time our governments are realizing the huge burden ILLEGALS have caused AMERICANS. These people come here illegally and willfully steal from us. These people have destroyed our schools, hospitals, social security, our homes , our land, etc. We pay their medical, education, imprisonment and much more, they are the criminals. Their children grow up in gangs, they have no respect for anyone. These illegal's raise up their hoodlum children who join gangs and vandalize/graffiti our neighborhoods. Our prisons and jails are overflowing with them. They fill our hospitals with free births of numerous illegal children which has caused Americans to pay for there medical bills. And for the lady who is worried about a friends husband being deported. His wife should of thought about it before marrying an illegal and if he is given the free deportation back to his country she should go join him. Not our problem. America should bill Mexico for what has been paid out for their people. Maybe if these people had some respect for the way we live such as speaking english and flying the American Flag things would be different. I encourage these people to find a better life for themselves, but follow the laws!
Posted: Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Article comment by:
Sandra
I think that "America" is not anybody's. It is a Land that god gave us and I will come and live where ever you guys like it or not. I don't think god really wants you people to chase the Mexicans away because he loves everyone that same no matter where they are at. Do not come and tell me to get our of here because it is not all your land. God made it so we live in it, he did not think that only americans could be here. I follow what god says, and if he is happy with me I don't care what all of you people have to say. I'm Staying and so what!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted: Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Article comment by:
Srlsy.
And by "us" you mean the children of OTHER, BETTER immigrants... maybe we should just change the plaque at the base of the Statue of Libery to read "GO HOME."
Posted: Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Article comment by:
Leeh
Well I for one have seen more than enough to justify cracking down and protecting the rights of Americans. I am in the health care system and find it horrific that these illegals are overwhelming our hospitals, schools, and jobs. It is amazing, I know people who have been struggling to find work for months if not years, and finally now within the last month or so the employers are calling asking if they still needed work and offering a darn good wage, a wage that is much more than we have seen here lately. What a surprise. What I do not get is why if you want a better life, do you have to try and take what we (American's) have built. Go home and make a stand in your own government, rebuild your own communities and take your passionate fight back on your own soil. We do not have anything that you could not have with hard work. You just choose to play the victim role, you say its unfair, what is unfair? Can I come to Mexico and demand that your government support me and my children, can I demand that you speak English? Or better yet, can I force the issue of equal rights? No. You seem to have so many supporters who want to help you fight for our land, our freedoms, our lives, go home and fight for yourselves there. I think that it is long over-due, if you don't like the reality of Laws, go home and leave us alone.
Posted: Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Article comment by:
W. Lee Radu
Long over-due.
What a concept Law Enforcement Officers, enforcing the Law!
I wonder if the humanitarians would be as passionately motivated to help the rest of us avoid prosecution should WE ever make a willful decision to break the law?
Posted: Monday, March 03, 2008
Article comment by:
Maria
This is sad. I have a friend who it very scared because, yes, she is legal but her husband isn't. and they already have a child. The child loves his dad, so now if the dad gets deported the family will be separated. This is very sad because the child loves hid daddy, and it is not fair for that family to be separated. I wish they could do something about it so that families don't get separated. What's the child going to do without the dad? I wish there could be a way to get a special permission for people who are innocent and don't do anything wrong so they could stay with their loved ones...
Posted: Monday, March 03, 2008
Article comment by:
Tom Steele
Bye - bye Humanitarian-socialist. I say it's about time. All public officials and sworn police officers swear to uphold the constitution of the US and ALL it's laws.
Since Prescott and Prescott Valley send all prisoners to Yavapai County for holding we will be served and assist the state in reducing it's illegal immigration drain on our resources.
Posted: Sunday, March 02, 2008
Article comment by:
humanitarian
godbye prescott. im moving out of az. this is just too much.
Posted: Saturday, March 01, 2008
Article comment by:
Jon Elkin
Yavapai County has stepped up to the plate. What about the City of Prescott?
