Suit challenges prosecutions under Arizona smuggling law - East
Valley Tribune: Immigration  Suit challenges prosecutions under
Arizona smuggling law  Font Size: Default font size Larger font
size  Posted: Saturday, November 24, 2012 2:08 pm  Before
leading the way for other states to pursue immigration laws,
Arizona passed a ban on human smuggling in 2005 that has led to
more than 2,100 arrests and drawn criticism for a tactic in
which people who pay to be sneaked into the country are charged
as conspirators to the crime.  Seventy-five percent of the
people charged under the smuggling law in the state's largest
county since 2008 have been charged with conspiring to sneak
themselves into the country, drawing complaints from immigrant
rights advocates that the statute was intended for often-violent
smugglers, not their customers.  "It's just a misuse of the
law," said Antonio Bustamante, one of the attorneys pushing the
lawsuit.  A lawsuit that seeks to bar such conspiracy
prosecutions is intensifying as lawye