Secretary Janet Napolitano's Department of Homeland Security reportedly stripped Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio -- also known as "America's Sheriff" by many admirers who hail him as a hero -- of his federal authority to arrest suspected illegal immigrants based solely on their immigration status. The federal authorities under President Barack Obama wish to do away with local cops enforcing our nation's immigration laws.
Arpaio's deputies attended the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Center in order to be trained for immigration enforcement as part of their regular law enforcement and jail management duties.
In addition to the DHS attempting to curtail Sheriff Arpaio's immigration enforcement activities -- he states he will not stop arresting illegal aliens -- Obama's Attorney General, Eric Holder, is threatening to investigate Sheriff Arpaio and his department.
Sadly, at the same time the Department of Homeland Security estimates that the total unauthorized immigrant population residing in the United States is 10 million. Their total includes those who entered the United States illegally and those who entered legally but overstayed their authorized period of stay. Critics dispute the federal statistics saying that the number of illegal aliens is closer to 20 million.
Another recent study by the GAO estimates that there are about 15 million illegal aliens living in the United States. The study estimates that nearly 700,000 aliens enter the United States illegally or overstay their authorized period of stay each year.
Some illegal aliens in the United States have been arrested and incarcerated in federal and state prisons as well as local jails, adding to already dangerously overcrowded prisons and jails, the Government Accountability Office reported to the US Congress' Homeland Security Subcommittee on criminal aliens that were incarcerated in federal and state prisons and local jails.
Their report contained information on the number of criminal aliens incarcerated, their country of citizenship or country of birth, and the cost to incarcerate them. Congress also requested that the GAO provide information on the criminal history of aliens incarcerated in federal and state prisons or local jails who had entered the country illegally.
For a population of aliens that entered the country illegally and were incarcerated in federal or state prisons or local jails, the GAO report addressed the following questions: How many times have they been arrested? How many and what type of criminal offenses have they been arrested for? What states were they arrested in?
In the GAO study of a population sample of 55,322 illegal aliens, analysts found that they were arrested at a total of 459,614 times, averaging about 8 arrests per illegal alien.
Nearly all of the illegal aliens in the study sample had more than 1 arrest. Thirty-eight percent (about 21,000) had between 2 and 5 arrests, 32 percent (about 18,000) had between 6 and 10 arrests, and 26 percent (about 15,000) had 11 or more arrests. They were arrested for a total of about 700,000 criminal offenses, averaging about 13 offenses per illegal alien.
One arrest incident may include multiple offenses, a fact that explains why there are nearly one and half times more offenses than arrests.
Almost all of these illegal aliens were arrested for more than 1 offense. Slightly more than half of the 55,322 illegal aliens had between 2 and 10 offenses. About 45 percent of all offenses were drug or immigration offenses. About 15 percent were property-related offenses such as burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and property damage. About 12 percent were for violent offenses such as murder, robbery, assault, and sex-related crimes. The balance was for such other offenses as traffic violations, including driving under the influence; fraud--including forgery and counterfeiting; weapons violations; and obstruction of justice.
Eighty percent of all arrests occurred in three states -- California, Texas, and Arizona. Specifically, about 58 percent of all arrests occurred in California, 14 percent in Texas, and 8 percent in Arizona. In addition, the FBI estimates that there are upwards of 50,000 illegal aliens who are members of crime gangs such as MS-13, the Mexican Mafia and the Latin Kings.
"If the US Attorney General and his boss President Obama are concerned with investigating criminal activity, perhaps they should focus on criminal aliens and gangs rather than persecuting an effective law enforcement commander such as Joe Arpaio," said former NYPD detective and Marine Sid Frances.
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Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and he's a staff writer for the New Media Alliance (thenma.org). In addition, he's the former editor for the House Conservatives Fund's weblog. Kouri also serves as political advisor for Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Michael Moriarty.
He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for several major organizations. He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country. Kouri writes for many police and security magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer and others. He's a news writer for TheConservativeVoice.Com and PHXnews.com. He's also a columnist for AmericanDaily.Com, MensNewsDaily.Com, MichNews.Com, and he's syndicated by AXcessNews.Com. He's appeared as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, Fox News, etc.
