El Paso Sheriff won't continue immigration enforcement at traffic stops

El Paso Sheriff Samaniego has stopped his controversial practice of using traffic stops as a pretext for immigration enforcement, reports the El Paso Times ("Border Patrol won't be told of immigrants," June 24).

The policy shift came after an ACLU of Texas open records request last week revealed the El Paso Sheriff detained at least 860 suspected illegal immigrants and delivered them to the Border Patrol as part of Operation Linebacker-funded roadblocks and related traffic stops. (See prior Grits discussions here, here, and here.) Kudos to ACLU's Ray Ybarra y mi jefe Will Harrell who were in El Paso last week raising hell about Operation Linebacker stepping over the line. See ACLU of Texas' press release from Friday regarding the Sheriff's decision.

I'm sorry to say I've been too focused on work to blog on the latest immigration developments. For those interested, these sources will keep you up to speed:

• Benders Immigration Bulletin
• Immigration Law Blog
• South Texas Chisme (not exclusively immigration focused)

Also, these groups are good information sources on immigration:

• Federation for American Immigration Reform news page
• Migration Policy Institute