Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio this week sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson demanding an explanation as to why Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is violating its own policies in releasing illegal immigrants booked into Maricopa County jails by local enforcement on a variety of criminal charges instead of processing them for deportation.
Accompanying the letter is a list of 419 criminally charged individuals, along with those charges, to assist in his investigation.
According to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, a review over a recent three-month period that one out of three illegal immigrants arrested by local law enforcement in Maricopa County and booked into jail had previously been arrested on a wide range of serious criminal charges – most multiple times, many more than a dozen times – despite being turned over to ICE. The aforementioned 419 individuals constitute 31% of a total of 1,348 illegal aliens arrested and booked during the three-month period examined.
“ICE might want to ignore this situation, or dismiss it as unimportant,” asserted Sheriff Arpaio, “but it is not unimportant to my deputies and other law enforcement officers who put their lives in danger confronting these criminals on the streets every day. Nor is it unimportant to the citizens of Maricopa County, who, with hundreds of people whose actions necessitate their incarceration or deportation but are instead walking our streets essentially free and clear, pay first in diminished public safety, and then financially, as this revolving door wastes taxpayer money.”
Furthermore, stated the Sheriff, “these 419 people are not only charged with breaking the law but have reached ICE’s own criteria for deportation as Level 1 and 2 violators.”
“This entire issue puts a spotlight on the federal government’s hiding its true intentions on immigration,” stated the Sheriff. “And I will continue to press for answers until the people of Maricopa County can be satisfied that the Obama Administration is acting in their best interests, and not using immigration for cheap political gains.”