Feds get local enforcement to ID immigrants

The federal government is rapidly expanding its program to make local and state enforcement agencies its eyes, ears and cuffs on illegal immigrants.

The Los Angeles Times reports that 67 local and state law enforcement agencies are going to continue enforcing immigration law but be subject to more oversight.

Arizona Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio  -- under investigation by the Department of Justice for possible civil rights violations -- can't sweep his county for illegal immigrants.

Whether in California, Las Vegas or Arizona, local and state agents across the country have spotted more than 130,000 illegal immigrants.  About 24,000 illegal immigrants identified have been deported this year.

U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement said that the expansion of the federal program refocuses law enforcements' efforts onto illegal immigrants with a criminal past to try to prevent further instances of what critics are calling the program's tendency toward racial profiling, which the Obama Administration is reviewing.

The Department of Homeland Security is trying to reform its housing system for immigrants awaiting their deportation trials; the ACLU has called the conditions provided by the U.S. government inhumane.

-- Kristen Young