County courts refuse to check immigration status
Maricopa County court officials said Monday they would continue to disregard a constitutional amendment requiring them to check the immigration status of defendants.
The move comes despite calls from Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas demanding court workers comply with the recent voter-approved Proposition 100 that denies bail to illegal immigrants accused of serious crimes. A memo dated Nov. 17 - shortly before Prop 100 took effect - instructed Maricopa County Superior Court workers to stop asking about immigration status in inmates’ pretrial interviews.
In a second e-mail on March 19, pretrial services director Penny Stinson reminded her staff of the directive and instructed workers not to list citizenship information on court paperwork. One of the functions of pretrial services is to conduct interviews and criminal background checks on the thousands of people arrested and booked into Maricopa County jails.
The information is given to court commissioners and judges who set bail during initial court appearances.
Kind of sad that the local courts can just blatantly ignore state law and get away with it. Proposition 100 denies bail to illegal immigrants if they are charged with a felony. We have ahuge problem with them getting bail and fleeing back to mexico and then come back months later and commit more crimes.
The move comes despite calls from Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas demanding court workers comply with the recent voter-approved Proposition 100 that denies bail to illegal immigrants accused of serious crimes. A memo dated Nov. 17 - shortly before Prop 100 took effect - instructed Maricopa County Superior Court workers to stop asking about immigration status in inmates’ pretrial interviews.
In a second e-mail on March 19, pretrial services director Penny Stinson reminded her staff of the directive and instructed workers not to list citizenship information on court paperwork. One of the functions of pretrial services is to conduct interviews and criminal background checks on the thousands of people arrested and booked into Maricopa County jails.
The information is given to court commissioners and judges who set bail during initial court appearances.
Kind of sad that the local courts can just blatantly ignore state law and get away with it. Proposition 100 denies bail to illegal immigrants if they are charged with a felony. We have ahuge problem with them getting bail and fleeing back to mexico and then come back months later and commit more crimes.