Judge: Arizona's Anti-Smuggling Law Can't Be Used to Jail Illegal Aliens
After the law took effect in August 2005, Maricopa County’s district attorney issued a legal opinion that said illegal aliens suspected of using smugglers to cross illegally can be charged as conspirators. No other Arizona county interpreted the law in that manner or pursued such prosecutions. But Maricopa County used to tool with vigor. Seventy-five percent of the approximately 1,800 people charged in Maricopa County under the anti-smuggling law through June 2011 were illegal aliens.
Illegal-alien advocates fought the policy in state courts but were denied. They then brought a case in federal court but the matter was dismissed. But a federal appeals courts reversed the district court’s ruling and remanded the case to U.S. District Judge Robert Broomfield.
Judge Broomfield’s ruling now bars Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio or county prosecutors from charging illegal aliens as co-conspirators in the act of human smuggling. Broomfield said the policy is preempted by federal law because it criminalizes actions that federal law treats as a civil matter.
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