For years, anti-immigration groups have been fighting a war of attrition against immigrants. War of Attrition refers to the strategy of one side trying to wear down its enemy to the point of collapse through continuous losses in personnel. Restrictionist think tank groups such as The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) even published a report in 2006 titled “Attrition through Enforcement: A Cost-Effective Strategy to Shrink the illegal Population”.  Their goal is simple. If they can’t deport all the undocumented immigrants, they will work to make the lives of these people so miserable that they leave on their own.

A champion of this strategy was the sheriff Joe Arpaio from Maricopa county in Phoenix, Arizona. You might remember him from our action alert. His agency is the largest out of 65 agencies that participate in a program, 287(g), that allows local and state officers to make immigration arrests both in the field and in jail. Due to pressure from immigration advocates and lawmakers,  Janet Napolitano, Director of Department of Homeland Security, agreed to review the program to curb rampant abuse of racial profiling.

In September 22nd, Sheriff Arpaio’s department grudgingly signed new agreements under which they only have the power to perform jail checks. The agreement still has to be approved by the county’s governing board. You can read more about it in the NYT article, “Immigration Hard-liner has his wings clipped”

While we wait for President Obama to pass health care reform, this is a small victory for immigration reformers everywhere.