By Jamar Younger | Arizona Capitol Times
An amended version of a bill that calls on county sheriffs and the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry to support the federal government’s immigration enforcement efforts cleared its first committee on Monday.
SB1164, dubbed the Arizona Immigration, Cooperation, and Enforcement Act, passed the Senate Military Affairs and Border Security Committee 4-3 along party lines with Republican support.
The bill, introduced by Senate President Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, calls for sheriff departments and the Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Reentry to use its “best efforts” to support federal immigration enforcement but no longer requires those agencies to enter into 287(g) agreements with the federal government. The agreements allow state law enforcement agencies to perform specified functions of federal immigration officers and receive training from the federal government on the scope of those functions.
