While Washington Fiddles Arizona Cracksdown on Illegals

It is becoming painfully obvious that the Sates must take up the responsibility for enforcing our immigration laws. Washington is either not interested or unable to do so. Here are just a sample of the situation that the Sates are dealing with.

Twenty-seven Hispanic men, ranging in age from 18 to 35, were temporarily detained by the Coffee County sheriff on charges of criminal trespassing when the van they were traveling in was stopped for reckless driving. Neither the driver, who had no license, nor his 26 passengers hiding in the back of the van spoke English.

The men, placed under $500 bond were scheduled for court appearances and transfer to federal immigration officials but were, instead, freed to continue their journey, when the Coffee County district attorney's office received word that federal officials didn't want to deal with the illegals.

In the second instance this week, Wichita police detained 12 illegal aliens in a moving van stopped for a minor traffic violation but were forced to release them because immigration officials said they were too busy to pick them up for detention.

The van's driver, an illegal immigrant living in Tennessee, had no driver's license. He was cited for several traffic violations and freed.

Arizona's legislature is fed up. While the Governor is busy poking around looking for bandages to apply to the problem the State Legislature is ready to pass laws that will give local government the ability to prosecute illegals.

It's that federal inaction that motivated Arizona lawmakers to approve a new law creating the crime of smuggling last year. Maricopa County District Attorney Andrew Thomas has announced he will interpret the law to mean illegals caught with a smuggler can be prosecuted as co-conspirators if they paid a coyote to transport them across the border. Thomas intends to seek two year sentences for 54 illegals arrested this week 50 miles east of Phoenix.

Tennessee tried to use its trespassing law unsuccessfully to handle the problem, the courts wouldn't go for it. Laws will have to be passed that address the problem directly. At some point Washington will discover that the nation wants this problem dealt with decisively, not demigoged or surrendered to with amnesty or guest worker laws. Until then the States must get busy.