Human smuggling cases continue to increase in Cochise County and that’s causing headaches and backlogs for adult probation officers who must process and supervise the defendants.
From fiscal year July 2022 to the present adult probation has been hit with 85 cases concerning some type of human smuggling situation, said John Schow, who heads the probation division and is the administrator for the Cochise County Superior Court.
“Cochise County Adult Probation has experienced a large increase in the amount of human smuggling cases that come through our court system,” Schow said this week. “ ... Our best estimate is that these cases represent an approximate 14% increase in our supervision workload.
“Our average standard probation caseloads are already over the maximum capacity of 65 without these additional cases.”
Even though many of these offenders are caught trying to smuggle other human beings in their vehicles, a lot of them end up on probation, said Armando Arias, deputy chief of Adult Probation.
Several components would determine whether a person carrying undocumented migrants in their car or truck would get probation, said Cochise County Attorney Brian McIntyre, whose office has taken a zero tolerance approach with such individuals.
McIntyre said probation is offered to people who likely have no criminal record and who cooperate with law enforcement by pulling over immediately when ordered to do so by police.
Another deciding factor is whether there is a high speed chase between police and the suspect. If that occurs, then the chances of getting placed on probation are slim because of the risk and danger posed to the community by the person’s actions.
Earlier this week an 18-year-old woman from Arizona City was sentenced to prison even though she had no migrants in her Mazda. Jacquelyn Jaimes told police she had intended on picking up migrants after she was promised $1,000 for every one she could stuff in her four-door car, but before she could pick them up, Jaimes sped away from a sheriff’s deputy, taking the officer on a 5-mile chase down several rural roads in Hereford. The pursuit ended after Jaimes crashed into another motorist, the impact sending her vehicle into a tailspin and prompting it to flip over several times before it came to rest in a field near Brown Canyon. Jaimes and her two passengers, one of them 14, the other 15, ended up being airlifted to a Tucson hospital, investigators said.
Like Jaimes, many of the defendants getting stopped by law enforcement on smuggling incidents live outside Cochise County, Schow said.
That compounds the issue for adult probation officers, Schow and Arias said, because the probation division is still responsible for processing the cases. That includes pre-sentence investigation work — interviews, assessments, background checks and writing court reports — as well as paperwork transfer, which puts an additional burden on Cochise County’s probation staff.
Arias said his department has one staffer who is responsible for reaching out to the counties where the defendants are from to make sure they will accept the cases and then provide probation supervision for the offender. But because the case originated in Cochise County, the probation officer here must continue monitoring the case, Arias said.
“I have a staff member who monitors all those cases and her numbers are really going up,” Arias said. “A lot of the cases are human smuggling cases.”
The situation also has created more work for the pre-sentence section of probation when staff must write pre-sentence reports once someone is arrested. Arias said last month he is short one pre-sentence report writer.
The one positive is that many of these matters are tackled in Early Resolution Court, which offers a speedier process for defendants whose cases may have already been referred for probation, Arias said.
Schow said that despite the overload, probation officers are doing what they can to supervise their charges.
“We take our work seriously, and our officers work hard to ensure we continue to supervise our caseloads appropriately,” Schow said. “Additionally, our probation supervisors are supervising cases while new officers are being hired and trained.”