So It Begins: Arizona Makes First Arrests Of Illegals, Profiling Predictably Claimed
09/25/2012
A+
|
a-
Print Friendly and PDF

Law enforcement officials in Arizona made the first arrests under the State's Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act, commonly and inaccurately referred to as SB 1070. (A bill, is not a bill when it becomes law.)

As predicted, the illegal alien relatives and the racist ethnic grievance lobby were up in arms and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Victims Unit (ICE SVU) for the most part ignored the illegal aliens arrested.

First from the City of Phoenix:
Arizona Central September 21, 2012 by Daniel Gonzalez

Just days after police began enforcing the "show me your papers" provision of Senate Bill 1070, the Phoenix Police Department is facing an accusation that one of its officers used racial profiling to pull over a car with three Hispanic men who turned out to be in the country illegally.

It is the first allegation of racial profiling leveled against a local law-enforcement agency since a federal judge on Tuesday lifted an injunction allowing the controversial provision to go into effect. That decision followed more than two years of high-profile legal challenges from the U.S. Justice Department and from civil-rights and immigrant groups.

Phoenix police said Friday that they are investigating the incident, which occurred Tuesday, but said that after talking to the officer, they do not believe he did anything wrong.

Illegal alien groups quickly claimed racial profiling:

At a news conference on Friday, family members accused a Phoenix police officer of racially profiling Arturo Santiago Garcia-Gutierrez, 25, and two passengers on Tuesday just hours after the law went into effect.

Family members said Garcia-Gutierrez is from the state of Michoacan, Mexico, and has been living in Phoenix for about 11 years. They said he works as a cook at a restaurant and has never had a criminal record.

Sisters Alejandra Garcia-Gutierrez, 27, and Maria Isabel Garcia, 32, said their brother was on his way to the Desert Sky Mall in west Phoenix with two friends when the officer pulled them over at 7:04 p.m. near 24th and Jefferson streets.

When the three men refused to answer questions about their legal status, the officer drove them to the processing center of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Central Avenue and turned the three over to ICE agents.

And incredibly the illegal aliens are claiming that the arresting officer admitted that he pulled the illegal aliens over because they looked Hispanic, which presumably means looks illegal. Which is, by the way, correct. But why would an officer admit an unlawful act to the subjects he was arresting?

"He told me, 'The only reason that the officer stopped me was because we looked Hispanic. If we looked Anglo they wouldn't have stopped us,' " Alejandra Garcia-Gutierrez said.

She said the officer asked her brother for his driver's license and when he said he didn't have one, he started asking "Are you legal or illegal?"
Interestingly, the tres amigos followed their instructions from the Treason Bar, which is to refuse to answer questions posed to them by police officers during a traffic stop.
She said her brother refused to answer any questions about his legal status.
However that did not help them at all. Perhaps they should sue the Treason Bar for bad legal advice.
Thompson, the police spokesman, gave a different account. He said the officer pulled the vehicle over for making an improper turn. He said the driver did not have a driver's license and instead, when the officer asked him for another form of ID, he handed over a Mexican passport.
Hhhmmm, no driver's license, a Mexican passport, must be an illegal alien from Mexico. And surprise, surprise, all three turned out to be illegal.

Thompson said the officer also noted that the driver did not speak English well. The combination of all of those factors gave the officer reasonable suspicion that the driver was in the country illegally, so he called ICE...

Thompson said the ICE agent interviewed all three on the phone and concluded they were in the country illegally and instructed the Phoenix police officer to bring them to ICE.

Thompson said the driver of the car was cited for a traffic infraction and driving without a license.

But facts don't matter to racist Mexican ethnic grievance lobby:

The Comites de Defensa del Barrio, an immigrant and Latino advocacy group, demanded Friday that the Phoenix Police Department investigate the incident.

"Racial profiling is something that is happening," said Salvador Reza, the director of the group.

Comrade Reza did not identify which race his fellow Mexicans were though. Note that according to the Federal government there is no Hispanic race; Hispanics may be members of any race.

Then ICE SVU steps in:

Amber Cargile, a spokeswoman for ICE in Phoenix, issued a written statement confirming that the three were taken into custody by immigration officers.

She identified them as Garcia-Gutierrez, Martin Esteban-Jimenez and Jose Felipe Reyes. All three were issued notices to appear in front of an immigration judge, she said.

ICE, she said, uses "discretion on a case-by-case basis, taking enforcement action based on the merits of an individual's case and a comprehensive review of specific facts."

Garcia-Gutierrez is being held at a detention facility in Eloy pending the posting of a bond.

ICE did not give a reason which "merits" merited Garcia-Gutierrez being arrested and held custody, but they did state why another of the tres amigos was held:
Esteban-Jimenez is also being held in Eloy. ICE determined that he had been voluntarily returned to Mexico twice in 2009.
Esteban-Jimenez was held because he was a repeated immigration violator, one of ICE's priorities. However that priority did not extend to the last of the tres amigos:
Reyes has been released on his own recognizance, she said. ICE determined that Reyes had been voluntarily returned to Mexico once in 2002.
So, at least the tres amigos were not released with no charges, but then we get to the arrests by Sheriff Joe Arpaio:

The Daily Courier September 21, 2012

Arpaio Says ICE Refuses To Pick Up Illegal Immigrants

PHOENIX (AP) - Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio says a federal agency refused to pick up two illegal immigrants detained by his officers.

The sheriff says this marks the first time in recent years that Immigration and Customs Enforcement refused such a request.

No surprises, the Obama Regime is on a jihad against America's Toughest Sheriff. But quel suprise, the U.S. Border Patrol picked up the illegal aliens:
The Border Patrol took custody of the pair.
So, there we have it. An irrational application by ICE of their supposed priorities in one case and an administrative amnesty in another case. But at least the USBP is still in the immigration law enforcement business, for the moment.
Print Friendly and PDF