Hispanic Caucus wants Napolitano to cut ties with Arizona police

[Ed Barrow]

Source: The Hill

Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) have called on the Department of Homeland Security to sever its ties with Arizona police in response to the state's new immigration enforcement law.

Calling Arizona's recently-enacted law requiring police to question and verify the citizenship of anyone they reasonably suspect to be an illegal immigrant "appaling," three leaders of the Hispanic Caucus wrote Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to demand the termination of its immigration-enforcement partnerships with law enforcement entities in the state.

“The federal government should not be an accessory to the unconstitutional actions of the Arizona state government,” Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.) said in a statement. “By continuing to work with Arizona police departments operating under SB 1070, the Department is implicitly condoning the shameful tactics authorized by the new law."

Roybal-Allard was joined in signing the letter by CHC Chairwoman Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.) and Immigration Task Force Chairman Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.).




Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/100887-hispanic-caucus-wants-homeland-security-to-sever-ties-with-ariz-police

[EFerrari]

1. Well, they have a point. Plus, that would help AZ LEOs off the hook

for the 1070 no winner.

[harkadog]

2. Federal immigration law uses the same language as the AZ law.

8 USC 1357 is the detention of suspected illegals law Napolitano's agency enforces. It uses the same reasonable suspicion standard as the AZ law. Is she supposed to cut ties with a division of her own agency? Can it be the Caucus does not even know what the federal law says?

[pampango]

3. At least in Maricopa County, Arpaio plans to cut the ties with ICE.

"The new law is now a state law," Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio told the crowd. "If we catch anyone here illegally, we will arrest everybody and book them into jail. I'm not going to turn them over to ICE."

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2010/05/30/20100530airzona-immigration-law-supporters.html

I guess he's plans to keep them in jail indefinitely or have his county do its own deportations without involving the federal government.

Roybal-Allard, Velazquez and Gutierrez are all members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus as well as the CHC.

[classysassy]

4. Sheriff Joe

is an outlaw and should be treated as one.

[pampango]

5. This surprised me: "Arapaio concluded the meeting by agreeing that families should not be separated.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/01/immigration.walkers.sheriff/

"Just weeks ago, the four students completed a four-month, 1,500-mile walk from Miami, Florida, to Washington, sharing their stories of growing up as undocumented youths in the United States and calling for executive action from President Barack Obama to stop deportations."

"The walkers said they met with Arpaio on Tuesday to humanize the immigration debate and denounce Arizona's new law."

"According to The Arizona Republic newspaper, Arpaio said he is compassionate toward the plight of undocumented immigrants but that he will continue to enforce the immigration laws on the books. "I was elected to do a job," Arpaio said. "My job overrides my compassion."

The students said Arapaio concluded the meeting by agreeing that families should not be separated and that he thought Congress and the White House have to take steps to change the laws -- but until then, he will continue to enforce the law."
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Not sure if this was a misstatement on Arpaio's part. I've never heard him say that he had reservations about breaking up families in the course of deporting illegal immigrants. His supporters have seemed to accept family breakup as collateral damage to be blamed on the parents.

He also seemed to stray from the "secure the borders first" mantra of the right by agreeing that "Congress and the White House have to take steps to change the laws". He may not mean the kind of comprehensive reform endorsed by the Progressive Caucus and organized labor, but at least he supported "steps to change the laws".

Maybe Sheriff Joe was just having a bad PR day and his statements weren't coming out the way he meant them to. :)