Senate President Warren Petersen (R-Gilbert) jumped into the feud between Pinal County Attorney Brad Miller and the Pinal County Board of Supervisors (PCBOS). The PCBOS sued Miller earlier this year for entering into a 287(g) agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Petersen, who is also an attorney, filed an amicus curiae brief last month in support of Miller.
He said A.R.S. 11-1051(A) authorizes Miller to enter into the agreement with ICE. It states, “No official or agency of this state or a county, city, town or other political subdivision of this state may limit or restrict the enforcement of federal immigration laws to less than the full extent permitted by federal law.”
Petersen argued that the legislature deliberately used broad language when it drafted the law. He said to interpret it to allow one government agency to block another’s cooperation with law enforcement would defeat the purpose of the law. “[A] narrow construction that cabins 11-1051(A) to a single office (for example, only the board of supervisors) would contradict the statute’s express extension to any ‘official or agency’ of a county, rendering such language meaningless … and would create precisely the kind of loophole the Legislature wrote 11-1051(A) to eliminate.”
The PCBOS, along with Pinal County Sheriff Ross Teeple, who joined the lawsuit in his official capacity as the county’s chief law enforcement officer, issued an open letter to the public on Monday. The PCBOS claimed that Miller partnering with ICE will “weaken the prosecution of local crimes that directly impact our community.” However, supporters point that illegal immigrants commit a higher proportion of crimes than the general population. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office issued a study several years ago which found that while illegal immigrants make up 9% of the population, they commit 18.7% of felonies.
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