Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne is still waiting for a response to a
cease and desist letter he wrote to the Obama administration demanding that it stop sending illegal immigrants to Arizona.
One of the biggest issues, Horne told "America's Forum" host J.D. Hayworth on
Newsmax TV Thursday, is that adults are being sent to his state along with minors.
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"The adults that were sent from Texas to Arizona were bused to a bus station and then just left there with summonses to appear in court in 15 days, which they I'm sure they will ignore," Horne said. "In effect, the federal government was doing the job of the 'coyotes' by bringing illegals from the border to the inland where they could meld into the population and become illegal resident aliens."
An official of the Border Patrol told Horne that adults are no longer being sent, but he still hasn't gotten an official response from Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to his
cease-and-desist letter.
But Horne said that a lawsuit against the migration would need to be filed through a state client.
"I can't do it just on my own," said Horne. "I've approached the Department of Education because what they're doing can put a burden on our schools. Possible other clients could be the Department of Health because we don't know if people are coming in with health problems, we don't know what the immunization practices are in Central America and so on."
But while Republican Gov. Jan Brewer has criticized President Barack Obama over the migration, Horne said he has not reached an agreement with her about a client to seek legal action.
In other matters, Horne said he has filed an amicus brief that includes several other states about the ability for police officers to search a suspect's cell phone, before the searches were outlawed by a
Supreme Court ruling this week.
The court on Wednesday ruled that police officers usually need a warrant before they can search the cellphone of an arrested suspect, a major decision in favor of privacy rights at a time of increasing concern over government encroachment in digital communications.
"This is not a case that I personally argued, but we did write the amicus brief, where we write the lead brief, then 14 other states joined in our brief in support of the idea that they should be able to search cell phones," said Horne.
He agrees that such searches should be able to take place to help protect an officers' safety and also that vital evidence isn't destroyed or hidden.
"The cell phone records certainly can contain evidence that you can later use in prosecuting a cartel member or other people committing crimes," said Horne. "Obviously, you'd want to preserve that information."