Arrests of illegal immigrants with criminal records soars in Arizona
SHERYL KORNMAN
Tucson Citizen
Nov. 12, 2004
tucsoncitizen.com
The number of "criminal" illegal immigrants caught in the Tucson sector more than tripled in fiscal year 2004, the agency said.
Expanded access to fingerprint and FBI databases accounts for much of the increase, said Border Patrol spokeswoman Andrea Zortman. Agents can now check prints from any finger at any Border Patrol station.
In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, some 14,506 criminal illegal immigrants - those who have been convicted of crimes or who authorities are seeking in open criminal cases - were arrested in the Tucson sector. That's an increase of 260 percent.
Immigration offenses - applied only to those who have been formally deported and forbidden from re-entering the United States - are listed as the most common infraction, with 7,861 arrests.
Most repeat illegal immigrants are simply returned to Mexico, not deported. Deportees typically are criminals who have finished serving sentences in U.S. prisons and are formally barred from re-entry.
In earlier years, Border Patrol agents had access to a fingerprint system that used just two fingerprints - the right and left index finger - and a database that did not include FBI criminal files.
Beginning in May 2004, agents throughout the Tucson sector were able to tap into the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System.
Prints of all 10 fingers can now be scanned quickly and checked against the FBI's criminal database in the National Crime Information Center. Photographs also can be compared.
How each immigrant with a criminal record is handled by the Border Patrol after apprehension depends on a number of things, including whether the individual has a criminal case pending in the United States, Zortman said.
If there is an outstanding warrant, the Border Patrol contacts the agency that issued it and asks if it wants to extradite the immigrant.
If it does, the immigrant is sent to a local law enforcement agency, such as a county sheriff's department, to await extradition.
After any state charges are handled, the federal government proceeds with its immigration case against the immigrant.
Immigrants with criminal records but no outstanding warrants face a less certain fate.
If they have been removed from the United States before for an immigration violation, they can be processed as an aggravated felon on charges of illegal re-entry.
Others who face "removal" for the first time are sent to a Tucson Border Patrol detention site and then turned over to federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
They take physical custody until an order for deporting the immigrant is completed.
In 1996, the U.S. government began to call deportation "removal," Zortman said. |
