He was not returned to jail; the status of the case was unclear.
In an effort to limit the influx of illegal immigrants, which Mr. Levy placed at 40,000, he successfully sought to have federal immigration officials assigned to the county jail to check prisoners' status, and police officers were given access to federal databases to check the immigration status of arrestees.
For months -- in some cases nearly a year -- they had been stuck in jail, not knowing the status of their cases or what would happen to them, not able to ask questions or seek help.
At the Perry appearance, he was introduced by Maricopa County, Ariz. Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who has been stripped by the Department of Homeland Security of his federal powers to verify the immigration status of jail inmates after a Dec. 15 Justice Department report blasted him for racially profiling Latinos.
Enrique, whose tale she recounts, is just one of thousands who spend months and often longer in jail because of their immigration status, struggling to remain in the United States to be with their families and avoid the hardships they will probably suffer in their home countries.
"Where are all the illegal workers Steve Levy was talking about?" Mr. Levy, a Democrat, has built a national reputation for taking a hard line against illegal immigration by proposing a bill to outlaw loitering by day laborers and bringing federal officials into the county jail to check inmates' immigration status.
MacGowan has shown that approximately 0.8% of all jail inmates with unknown HIV status are positive [10].
Under the ruling, the police cannot hold illegal immigrants in local jails merely because of their status or prohibit them from seeking employment in Arizona, drawing clear lines between state and federal jurisdiction over immigration enforcement.
The costs for local police are often minimal, Ms. Vaughan said, because the federal government pays jailing costs, and verifying immigration status can be done in conjunction with standard checks of criminal databases.
Palestinian prisoners in Israel jails have a highly elevated status within Palestinian society because of the sacrifices they are seen to have made, as evidenced by Mr. Haniya's reference to them as "heroes" who "raised the name of Palestine high".
