Sheriff Arpaio clarifies erroneous reference to U.S. law
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office just released the following statement. Rather than bloviate, I just pasted it below. But I will say it’s one of the first times I’ve seen his office admit a mistake.
Sent: Thursday, October 15, 2009 4:27 PM
Subject: News Conference Update
Last week during a news conference discussing the Sheriff’s agreement with ICE and the 287g agreement, Sheriff Arpaio made reference to and distributed a document that is an interpretation of Title 8 of the U.S. Code regarding federal immigration laws and the authority to enforce those laws.
Over recent weeks, Sheriff’s Office staff has been conducting research on the issue of federal immigration laws and how the Sheriff’s Office will be affected by the loss of the law enforcement portion of the 287g program.
During that research, the Sheriff’s Office has referred to title 8 of the U.S. code as well as a multitude of interpretations of federal law. This form containing an interpretation was inadvertently given to the Sheriff with an incorrect citation of a certain section of federal law as an example of how to pursue the federal law.
Although the citation and language does not appear in the U.S. code, title 8 does exist and the Sheriff’s Office believes that it still has the authority under federal law to detain illegal aliens during the course of their duties.
That section of title 8 the Sheriff’s Office intended to reference is attached to this e-mail.
Here’s the link: http://azcapitoltimes.com/wp-files/pdfs/title-8.pdf