By Thomas Baranick

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon has empowered a panel of former federal, state and county law officials to craft a new policy for the Phoenix Police Department that would allow officers to apprehend illegal immigrants and notify federal immigration officials.

Civic leaders lashed out Wednesday at state lawmakers who voted for a bill that would force local police and sheriff's departments to help enforce federal immigration laws.

SAN DIEGO - With tougher drug enforcement above ground, authorities say traffickers along the U.S.-Mexican border were forced to dig deep below ground instead.

WASHINGTON - While a new Arizona law targeting illegal immigrants is attracting all the attention for its focus on targeting illegal immigrants, communities across the country have long focused on identifying those here illegally and alerting federal authorities.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration has signed up 55 state and local law enforcement agencies to help enforce immigration laws, including an Arizona country sheriff under investigation for racial profiling, the Homeland Security Department announced Friday.

PHOENIX - In the last two weeks, federal authorities have investigated four cases of what appear to have been immigrant smugglers trying to hold up rival human traffickers so they can kidnap their customers and hold them for ransom.

LOS ANGELES - Victoria Sellers, daughter of the late actor Peter Sellers, was arrested Monday in Hollywood on immigration violations and will be deported to Britain, federal authorities said.

The bizarre suicide Tuesday of the director of federal immigration operations in the Valley will not affectoperations to curb the flow of illegal immigrants, an official said Wednesday.

NOGALES - U.S. and Mexican law enforcement agents discovered a recently completed smuggling tunnel linking the two countries in simultaneous raids late Thursday, officials said.

FLAGSTAFF - Local police intend to stay focused on controlling criminal activity within their own cities and counties, and won’t join federal immigration agents with increased efforts to crack down on illegal border crossers.

FLAGSTAFF - Local police intend to stay focused on controlling criminal activity within their own cities and counties, and won’t join federal immigration agents with increased efforts to crack down on illegal border crossers.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — President Felipe Calderon said Monday that the death of a Mexican migrant after being shot with a stun gun by a U.S. immigration officer was an unacceptable human rights violation.

Sept. 29, 2006, was a day Héctor De León will never forget. That is the day he says immigration officials showed up to his Phoenix home with bulletproof vests and guns and arrested his wife, Silvia Carpeo.

WASHINGTON - President Bush signed a bill Thursday authorizing 700 miles of new fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border, hoping to give Republican candidates a pre-election platform for asserting they're tough on illegal immigration.

TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — Four drug smuggling tunnels equipped with lighting and ventilation — including one with a railcar system — have been discovered along the U.S.-Mexico border in less than a week, the latest signs that cartels are building sophisticated passages to escape heightened detection above ground.

State officials will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to let Arizona begin enforcing the immigration law enacted last year.

State officials will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to let Arizona begin enforcing the immigration law enacted last year.

CLEVELAND - John Demjanjuk, standing without assistance amid falling snowflakes, emerges from an office building, lifts his right arm to place a cap on his head, then takes 18 steps to a car. He takes those steps with nobody helping him, opens the passenger-side car door, slowly seats himself and shuts the door.

ATLANTA - Authorities began scanning fingerprints and taking photographs of arriving foreigners Monday as part of a new program that Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said will make borders "open to travelers but closed to terrorists."

Even from jail in southern Arizona, Yaser Alamoodi is campaigning. But the 29-year-old Saudi, who was student government president last year at Arizona State University, is not running for office or fighting a ballot proposition. He’s fighting to stay in the U.S.

McALLEN, Texas -- Corruption along the U.S.-Mexican border takes many forms.