COCHISE COUNTY, Ariz. — “United States citizen?” the Border Patrol agent asked, his eyes darting into the back of the car and passenger seat. He didn’t ask for identification, but accepted the answer, “Yes, sir.”
“Have a good day,” he responded.
The checkpoint was more than 50 miles north of the Mexican border on Highway 80, just south of the town of Benson in Chochise County, Ariz.
More than 1,000 miles away, Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones wants his deputies to have the power to ask the same question.
Jones and state Rep. Courtney Combs, R-Hamilton, spent several days this week touring that part of the U.S. border with Mexico where roughly half of the arrests of those trying to cross take place.
Their goal is a bill in Ohio that “mirrors” a controversial Arizona measure requiring local officers to question anyone detained in the enforcement of another law about his or her immigration status if there’s reasonable suspicion that person is in the country illegally...
