U.S. Marshal in Arizona: Get the Locals Out of Enforcing the Immigration Laws!

David P. Gonzales, U.S. Marshal since 2001, writes in the Arizona Republic that: 

“As a career law-enforcement officer, 25 years with the Arizona Department of Public Safety and six as the U.S. marshal for Arizona, it troubles me to see local law enforcement making a priority out of the enforcement of routine immigration issues.

. . . [L]ocal law enforcement is understaffed and underfunded and should be concentrating its finite and precious resources on protecting our neighborhoods and citizens from dangerous criminals, regardless of their immigration status.

Local law enforcement should work closely with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in sharing intelligence and investigating illegal aliens who are committing crimes. Local law enforcement simply does not have the time and resources to take on the additional duties of an immigration officer who is trained for 18 weeks on immigration law.

. . .

The illegal-immigration problem cannot be fixed by putting every illegal alien in jail. Remember, this is coming from someone who likes to put criminals in jail. My office is responsible for processing, housing and bringing to court all federal prisoners.

In Tucson, which is one of the busiest federal courthouses in the country, up to 100 illegal aliens a day are charged criminally and processed through the federal court system. This is out of the approximately 1,000 illegal-entry aliens that are arrested each day by the Border Patrol in the Tucson Sector. The other 900 are detained and go through an administrative process and then deported.

There is not enough jail bed space, not enough judges, assistant U.S. attorneys or deputy U.S. marshals to handle much more. The federal criminal-justice system on the Southwestern border is crumbling under the weight of the thousands of illegal-immigration cases.

The U.S. Marshals Service spends approximately $10 million a month just to house these prisoners. Add another $1 million for medical costs.

. . .

The illegal-immigration problem is so complex and multifaceted that only a long-term approach that tackles the core problem is going to work. One of these core issues is that Mexico and other countries, whose citizens risk everything they have to get here, must get their act together and provide for their citizens the basic needs in order to survive. We can no longer be a relief valve for countries that fail to do so.

Career criminals and fugitives who lower our quality of life are getting a walk while we debate the immigration issue. Enough already, let’s go after the bad guys.”

KJ