RIO RICO, Ariz. (KGUN) — The Santa Cruz County Sheriff says he has pulled his deputies out of a program where they worked with Border Patrol.
Sheriff David Hathaway says Operation Stonegarden put deputies under control of Border Patrol, and paid their overtime with Federal dollars.
The Sheriff says even before Donald Trump became President he was moving his department out of Operation Stonegarden. He says Border Patrol, and his department simply have different priorities.
He says, “The City of Nogales, Arizona is 95% Hispanic. The County of Santa Cruz is 80% Hispanic. I don't want there to be fear or tension between the community and my Sheriff's Office. We run the 911 dispatch center for the county, and most households are Hispanic here, so that I don't want them to fear that they're inviting an immigration officer, a border patrol agent, into their house if they hear an intruder at the back door. I want them to not fear calling us.”
Hathaway says courts have ruled state and local agencies can not be forced to enforce immigration law because immigration is a Federal issue.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department and Tucson Police dropped out of Operation Stonegarden some time ago.