Pinal sheriff: What's up with immigration?
January 8, 2010
www.ktar.com
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Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu is seeing a change in his department's role in illegal immigration and wonders if it signals a major policy shift by the Obama Administration.
Pinal County, home to the intersection of Interstate 8 from California and Interstate 10 from Tucson, is a crossroads for illegal immigrant traffic. The county was holding about 550 suspected illegal immigrants in its jails until about 45 days ago when that number dropped to 222.
Babeu said he's been unable to get an answer to why and asked, "Is this the precursor to amnesty?"
The sheriff said his county has a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold 600 illegal immigrants daily. He said the county has built jail facilities and hired staff to meet that contract and that there will be layoffs if the big cutback in detainees continues.
"We have entire (jail) pods that are vacant that used to be filled to the brim," said Babeu, noting the county receives $60 a day for each immigrant that is held for federal authorities.
"Where are all of these people going?" Babeu wondered. "These questions have not been answered."
Vinnie Picard of ICE said the organization's goal is to make good use of taxpayer money.
"We are looking at more efficient and more cost-effective ways to carry out our mission," he said in a statement.
He said it's time for some answers and some leadership from the Obama Administration.
"They're trying to affect our operations by saying maybe we don't keep them in jail or the Department of Corrections because it's a budget issue. They're affecting policy by just not funding it."
The Border Patrol delivers illegal immigrants to ICE, which claims no beds are available to detain them and after that it's a mystery as to what happens to the illegals, Babeu said.
"We have beds. We have over 300, up to 350 beds, available that we've been obligated to hold for ICE."
The empty jail space could cost Pinal County millions of dollars and lots of jobs, said the sheriff.
"We would literally be forced into a position -- if I don't find a solution quickly -- to lay people off and to not pay our debt."
Babeu said illegal immigration puts a tremendous burden on Arizona and Pinal County.
He said about 60,000 of the 600,000 illegal immigrants who enter the United States each year have criminal records.
"We're adding that to our population and that is why we have the highest crime stats in America," said Babeu. "We're the number one, two or three state for assaults against police officers and officer-involved shootings and it's directly tied to this."
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