Thomas' legal reasoning, however, is being disputed by the Arizona office of the U.S. Attorney...
Sgt. Patrick Haab, the U.S. Army reservist jailed for holding seven illegal aliens at gunpoint until Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff's deputies arrived – and who was freed by that same county's district attorney after determining he had made a legal citizen's arrest – should have been prosecuted, say immigration rights activists and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona.
The 24-year-old Haab was arrested and charged with seven counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after drawing a pistol on a group of men he said charged him at an Interstate 8 rest stop. The men later were determined to be illegal aliens from Mexico.
After review of the charges, Maricopa County District Attorney Andrew Thomas determined that Haab's actions were legal under a Arizona law that authorizes citizens to make arrests if a felony or certain specified misdemeanors have been committed. The "coyote" smuggling the six other illegal immigrants committed a felony, Thomas said, as did his passengers who committed felonies when they conspired to illegally enter the U.S.
"If he had guessed wrong, he'd be prosecuted for a heck of a lot of offenses," Lotstein tells the East Valley Tribune. "He didn't beat the rap. He acted legally."
"That's not true," counters federal public defender Jon Sands of Thomas's charge of conspiracy to illegally enter the U.S. "Legally, that's just not the case."
