Top ICE Official Defends Arizona Immigration Sweeps (illegal immigrants, crime, drug)

[Benicar]

Amid a Justice Department racial profiling investigation and colossal protests by Latino rights advocates, a top Obama immigration official is defending an Arizona program that once allowed a county sheriff to arrest illegal aliens.

The Justice Department has taken the task seriously, even bringing back deported illegal aliens to the U.S. to be witnesses against Maricopa deputies.

Now the high-ranking U.S. immigration official responsible for the move is defending the sheriff and his effective crime sweeps. During a large weekend march to protest the immigration crackdowns, the assistant secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (John Morton) said there was no evidence of racial profiling by deputies in Maricopa County and that the majority of the illegal immigrants arrested have been convicted of serious crimes.

"Sixty nine percent of the people we receive in Maricopa County have been convicted of Level 1 and Level 2 offenses, which are serious felony offenses, drug trafficking, assaults, rape," Morton said during a meeting with editors of a local newspaper. The assistant secretary added that the Maricopa program has been consistent with meeting his agency's priority of arresting illegal immigrants who commit serious crimes

.
Top ICE Official Defends Ariz. Immigration Sweeps | Border & Sovereignty

[borderlord]

Why do I get the feeling that Morton is now on some sort of "hit list" and Napolitano has plans that will see Morton, in the future, listed as "Former Top ICE official......

Considering the opposition to Arpaio by the DHS, I don't think they can let this criticism stand....

curious to se what happens.

BL