By JACQUES BILLEAUD
Associated Press Writer
PHOENIX- Prosecutors in Arizona border counties say they’ve had trouble bringing cases under the state’s new migrant smuggling law because it’s hard to hold on to the illegal immigrants who are the witnesses to the crime.
Since the law took effect nearly two months ago, it has led to only two prosecutions within the state’s four border counties, the busiest illegal entry points on the entire U.S.-Mexico border.
Prosecutors could not file charges in two other cases because their witnesses, who would usually be needed to corroborate smuggling allegations, were sent back across the border by federal authorities before local investigations were completed.
“If all the witnesses get deported and the defendant doesn’t say anything, we don’t have a case,” said Roger Nelson, chief criminal deputy for the Yuma County attorney’s office.
The state’s smuggling law sprang from legislators who rejected the long-standing belief that immigration is the sole responsibility of the federal government and were frustrated with thousands of people sneaking into Arizona from Mexico each year.
Political pressure has been mounting for the state to do more since the federal government tightened enforcement of the borders in Texas and California in the mid-1990s and a heavy flow of illegal immigrants began coming through Arizona.
Some local law enforcement officials have said the new law, which provided no extra funding, is of limited use to them because they don’t have the time or money to build cases against smugglers. They said it will detract from their traditional roles of cracking down on thefts, violence and other crimes in their communities.
In the case from Yuma that county officials had declined to prosecute, federal authorities couldn’t hold immigrant witnesses because they weren’t charged with federal crimes, said Michael Gramley, spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol’s Yuma sector.
“We can’t detain witnesses for state smuggling crimes,” Gramley said.
Still, federal authorities are doing what they can to assist local police and prosecutors, Gramley said.
County prosecutors along Arizona’s border said they haven’t ruled out enforcing the new law, but stress they must balance those cases with available evidence, their resources and the demands of holding people accountable for more serious offenses.