The Salt Lake Tribune
PHOENIX - Two local law enforcement agencies in metropolitan Phoenix have opened up special units devoted to cases against people who smuggle thousands of illegal immigrants into the state from Mexico each year.
The decision to assign a small group of employees in the Maricopa County Attorney's and Sheriff's offices to immigrant smuggling cases is an unusual move for local authorities, given the long-held notion that immigration is the sole province of the federal government.
Some state politicians frustrated with Arizona's porous border with Mexico and the costs of illegal immigration say the federal government hasn't done enough to confront illegal border-crossings. They say Arizona, the nation's busiest illegal immigration corridor, must do what it can to lessen the problem.
Posted by katie at July 29, 2005