Obama Assails Arizona Immigration Law

[Defender968]

Originally Posted by Smokin Joe

I'm not sure because I have not read the entire bill.. But I'm pretty sure the bill does not abolish officer discretion.

The real question will be what type of policies individual agencies adopt and how passively or aggressively they choose to enforce the laws. In concert with that will be how passively or aggressively individual County Attorney's choose to prosecute these crimes. Because believe me I have had many rock solid cases dismissed for "prosecutor discretion" with the real reason being that the prosecutors office was too busy to prosecute a case or it "lacked jury appeal". With budget cut backs, it is just worse now... So unless the law forces the prosecutors office to pursue and actively prosecute these cases I doubt you will see a huge increase in these cases. Why you may ask? Because it lacks jury appeal!

Truth be told the cities, counties, and state do not have the funds nor infrastructure to deal with prosecuting everyone of these potential cases. After the dust settles you will see it being used as another tool by LEO's to solve specific problems.

Just my .02 cents, YMMV

Smokin Joe the law says MAY, it does not take away any discretion. It will make arrests easier as officers will have a state statute to charge people with. The law also gives anyone the ability to sue over restrictions placed on LEO's in applying this policy, so I don't see any policies being officially placed on the books in regard to the new law.

The key as others have said will be how ICE reacts. Clueless Janet Reno has already come out against the new law...shocker....but I think it would make a hell of a statement if the local depts rounded up a couple hundred illegal’s using the new law, then announced they were going to bus them over to their local ICE station, and got the media to cover the event, kind of force ICE to play, I'm guessing there would be significant backlash if ICE said they didn't want them.

I bet Sheriff Joe would be up for it...maybe I'll drop the idea to him via email