MARICOPA COUNTY, AZ – Maricopa County Sheriff's officials say that dozens of people have been taken into custody during a new immigration and crime suppression sweep in the Valley.
MCSO Lt. Brian Lee said
about 200 volunteer posse, reserves and deputies are participating in the two-day sweep that started at 5 p.m. Monday.
On Tuesday, Det. Aaron Douglas said 29 people were taken into custody Monday. He said 18 were arrested for human smuggling and that 21 of the 29 were suspected undocumented immigrants.
One of the suspected undocumented immmigrants was turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, the other 20 were reportedly booked on state charges ranging from driving on suspended license to human smuggling.
According to Douglas, an additional 15 people were taken into custody during sweeps on Tuesday and are believed to be in the country illegally.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio said previously that this operation will take advantage of posse helicopters to visually assist ground crews in locating potential "load vehicles."
Arpaio said this operation will have a substantial focus on human smuggling.
The sheriff's sweeps in some heavily Latino areas of metro Phoenix have drawn criticism that Arpaio's deputies racially profile people.
Arpaio said people pulled over in the sweeps were approached because deputies had probable cause to believe they had committed crimes and that it was only afterward that deputies found many of them were illegal immigrants.
Since March 2006, Sheriff's deputies have reportedly stopped hundreds of load vehicles concluding in the arrests of 1,710 smugglers and co-conspirators, under the felony human smuggling laws.
The undocumented immigration enforcement by deputies has netted a total of 3,532 arrests on state and federal charges since March 2006.
In October, the Obama administration took away Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s authority under the 287g program, which grants power to local authorities to enforce federal immigration laws.
Under the program, 100 sheriff's deputies had been trained to arrest people suspected of being in the country illegally.
However, now, those deputies must call ICE agents to make those arrests.
