Washington Post
By Reid Wilson
June 14, 2014
Arizona
officials are threatening legal action to stop the Obama administration
from moving hundreds of undocumented immigrants from Texas to their
state after a surge
of illegal border crossings swamped immigration officials in the Rio
Grande Valley.
The
U.S. Border Patrol has acknowledged flying hundreds of migrants from
Texas to Tucson and Phoenix, where many have been dropped off at
Greyhound bus stations. Last
week, immigration agencies began sending hundreds of undocumented
minors apprehended while crossing the border to a holding facility in
Nogales.
Arizona officials say they were not notified before the transports began.
In
a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, Arizona Attorney
General Tom Horne (R) insisted the department’s border security units
stop the transports.
“These
aliens are not being transported for the purposes of detaining them in a
federal facility located in Arizona. Rather, DHS is inexplicably moving
them some 1200
miles and simply releasing them here (outdoors in temperatures
exceeding 100 degrees) rather than in Texas,” Horne wrote [pdf].
Arizona
state law prevents Horne from bringing suit against the federal
government directly, but he could find someone else to sue.
Critics
of the facilities where minors are held, ranging from Sen. John McCain
(R-Ariz.) to the American Civil Liberties Union, have demanded access to
assess conditions
they say are substandard. McCain on Thursday called for Customs and
Porter Patrol to allow media access to the Nogales Processing Center.
“There
is only one way of knowing what the treatment is and that’s for the
media to allowed access,” McCain said Thursday on an Arizona radio show.
“We need you and any
media outlet that wants to be there to be there. What kind of society
are we in?”
In
a letter to Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske,
McCain and Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) called the situation a
“humanitarian crisis.” McCain and
Flake also asked for a hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and
Government Affairs Committee.
The
influx of immigrants is heating up a years-old debate within Arizona
political circles. Horne faces a strong Republican challenger after
allegations he broke campaign
finance law, and acting tough on immigration is a certain vote-getter
in GOP primaries. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) is using the crisis to
raise money for her federal political action committee.
The
Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have reported a
dramatic spike in the number of people caught crossing the border
illegally. In January, just
28,000 people attempted to cross the border; that number spiked to
60,000 in May, according to McCain’s office.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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