Phoenix cops who want to call ICE during a traffic stop or an on-the-spot criminal investigation must first pass their request through a supervisor. If the traffic stop results in only a civil violation, an officer is told not to call ICE.
But because of the aforementioned law about whistleblowers who want to report a federal crime, Phoenix police cannot prevent an officer from contacting ICE another way.
Ray Stern
Undocumented day laborers in Chandler.
Michael Ratcliff
Lieutenant Ramon Figueroa of the Arizona Department of Safety.
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Police consulted with attorneys who suggested supervisors should dictate how the information exchange with ICE could occur. They came up with the idea of a referral form that cops could send to ICE if a police supervisor decides that getting ICE involved would be inefficient.
For instance, say an officer grows suspicious that a driver stopped for failure to signal is an illegal immigrant. Imagine the driver speaks only Spanish and has no driver's license but shows the officer some other form of ID. Since the immigrant has not committed the misdemeanor of driving with no ID at all, he cannot be arrested (though he might have to walk home) — the violations would be civil, not criminal. But if the officer demands ICE be contacted, he or she would be allowed to do so with the referral form.
Hopefully, "the officers are going to understand the eventual disposition of these referral forms," says Phoenix police Commander Glen Gardner, who wrote the new Phoenix policy on immigrants. "ICE is going to get these, look at them, and [say], 'Great.'"
Gardner is being cynical. Despite its beefed-up forces, ICE likely will not spend much time investigating forms that detail potential illegal immigrants who commit civil traffic violations.
Though police would not discipline an officer who is filling out dozens of ICE referral forms each week, supervisors would see such effort as a performance issue, Gardner says.
"We respond to over 750,000 radio calls a year," Gardner says. "We'd say, 'Your focus is clearly in the wrong area.'"
Gardner says he has a "vested interest" and good understanding of the immigration-enforcement issue. He was born in the United States but raised in Mexico. His wife is of Mexican descent, as are the people with whom he socializes.
Gardner worries that the immigration issue will result in one of his officers going to prison because of a civil rights abuse.
Mostly, though, he simply does not believe that busting more low-level offenders will make a difference.
Though ICE has become more responsive to police, it seems to Gardner that the federal government has dropped the ball when it comes to immigration. He believes there is no good reason to initiate a deportation for low-level illegal immigrants, because it is still so easy for them to come back.
He scoffs at the supposed deterrent factor — the idea that enforcement will get so tough that immigrants will go elsewhere. He notes that people march through the blazing desert and subject themselves to kidnapping, extortion, assault, or rape just to get to this country.
The chance of deterring illegal immigrants "because we start deporting 40 people a day . . . To me, it's laughable."
Still, Gardner says, when it comes to criminals who also happen to be illegal immigrants, Phoenix PD is "probably the toughest there is."
In a May speech, Phoenix Police Chief Harris noted that the department had delivered more than 9,600 illegal immigrants to ICE since January 2007. Most were found in drop houses and among people booked for various crimes. Detective work resulted in more than 250 arrests for violent crimes and drug trafficking, he said.
DPS, ICE, and Phoenix PD began coordinating their efforts more closely last year through the Illegal Immigration Prevention and Apprehension Co-op Team, a.k.a. IIMPACT.
The 15-member team operates out of offices on Encanto Boulevard, just west of DPS' headquarters, with a stated mission to "deter, disrupt, and dismantle criminal organizations profiting from illegal immigration."
Since January, the team has opened 33 investigations and identified at least three criminal syndicates. It has brought human smuggling, kidnapping, weapons, assault and other charges against 125 people so far, seized $126,512 in cash, confiscated a few dozen weapons and deported about 375 illegal immigrants who were being smuggled into the country.
The team also takes the lead in investigating Phoenix drop house calls that involve violence, kidnapping, or extortion.
"Just in one week, we ended up hitting four houses that were connected," says DPS Lieutenant Bob Smart, who heads IIMPACT.
There seems to be little doubt that the team has done some good, but there is no evidence it is driving illegals out of the state.
The IIMPACT tactic seems similar to how authorities have failed at fighting the war on drugs for decades.
Without reducing demand, going after large organizations makes for impressive arrests and statistics but does not stem the underlying problem. Certainly, IIMPACT's goal to "dismantle" smuggling organizations is pie-in-the-sky, since the team cannot operate in Mexico, where many of the organizations are based.
Joe Arpaio's anti-human-smuggling outfit, the Triple I [Illegal Immigration Interdiction] unit, has also disrupted smuggling operations. In several traffic stops earlier this year, smell was a factor in stopping smugglers.
During a stop on U.S. 93 near Wickenburg in February, a deputy doubted the driver of a GMC Suburban crammed with people who said he and his relatives were just driving to Las Vegas for a vacation.
