A new Department of Justice memo directs federal prosecutors to investigate local jurisdictions it believes are impeding deportation plans outlined by the new Trump administration.
The memo says jurisdictions with so-called sanctuary policies toward immigrants could face criminal charges, and directs the agency’s civil division to identify state and local laws that threaten to impede immigration efforts — like mass deportations and other crackdowns.
Gerardo Castillo is the chief deputy of the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office. It’s a Democratic stronghold where residents have family on both sides of the border. He says he hasn’t heard yet about the new memo, but in general he’s trying to avoid speculation.
“What if they ask you this? What if they ask you that? As long as it’s not law, I don’t think there’s a lot I can respond to,” he said.
Castillo says his department’s deputies are largely focused on responding to property crime and other 911 calls in Nogales. And historically, putting immigration-related arrest authority into the hands of local law enforcement has been challenged in court.
“Senate Bill 1070 was challenged and there was an Arizona sheriff that continued with the process,” he said.
Arizona’s SB1070 allowed local law enforcement to make immigration-related arrests until it was mostly struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Then-Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio later faced additional legal issues for racial profiling allegations.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The story has been updated to correct Gerardo Castillo's name.
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In a weeklong series, KJZZ looks at Arizona’s connection to the Japanese internment policies that were instituted following Pearl Harbor, and how it ties into the broader story of racialized public policy. Gabriel Pietrorazio joined The Show for a closer look at the series. -
That includes more than 11,000 non-Mexican deportees, according to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. -
The Pinal County Attorney’s Office announced this week that it’s joining certain violent-crime task forces led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The same deal with the Phoenix Police Department was canceled more than a decade ago. -
Officials at the Department of Homeland Security have accused Arizona Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva of “faking outrage” over her protest at an ICE raid west of downtown Tucson last week. -
Long before World War II, the U.S. Army rounded up Native Americans onto reservations — drawing in their new boundaries. And in Arizona, the federal government once again looked to those lands for another minority population — Japanese Americans — also forcibly rounded up by the military after the Pearl Harbor bombing in 1941.
