But they can't do anything about illegal immigrants?

Local law enforcement agencies aren't allowed to do much about illegals--they aren't Homeland Security or ICE trained, they aren't federal agents. So why were police in Missouri last year asked to participate in Obama "truth squads?"

"One year ago on September 23rd, KMOV Channel 4 in St. Louis reported that St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCullough and St. Louis Circuit attorney Jennifer Joyce joined a high-profile group of law enforcement officials (including Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer) threatening to invoke “Missouri ethics laws” against anyone the prosecutors determined had spread misleading information about Obama." Big Government

Which is a more serious infraction of the law and more expensive to the state: illegals taking jobs from Americans, joining criminal gangs and sucking up benefits or a nasty campaign ad?

"Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has just ordered Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to stop arresting suspects based solely on the fact that they are illegal aliens. The Arizona sheriff who has been called the “toughest” in America, defiantly said he will continue his sweeps which have netted thousands of illegal aliens.

Sheriff Arpaio has vowed to maintain his “crime suppression operations,” conducting street patrols looking for suspected illegal aliens. He says that he can still operate within the law, under Arizona human smuggling laws.

“It’s all politics,” Arpaio told reporters.

Earlier this year, the Maricopa County Sheriff said: “If I'm told not to enforce immigration law except if the alien is a violent criminal, my answer to that is we are still going to do the same thing, 287g or not. We have been very successful."

Under Sheriff Arpaio, his department has either identified in jail, or arrested on the street more than 30,000 illegal aliens in and around Phoenix, AZ." Examiner.com

"The issue under consideration today is the use of the E-Verify system in Ohio. Although the E-Verify system is not a panacea, it is a relatively inexpensive ($100 or less per employer), efficient (an inquiry takes 15 seconds or less), and reliable (96 percent) online method of ensuring that Ohio jobs are filled only by Ohioans and those who are lawfully present. With Ohio's unemployment rate at 10.8 percent and increasing, such a law would provide much-needed job opportunities for those out-of-work Ohioans at both the unskilled and skilled lev­els. Specifically, many entry-level jobs currently filled by illegal border crossers (who make up 60 percent of all illegals) and some technical-level jobs currently filled by individuals who have overstayed their work or education visas (40 percent of all ille­gals) would become open as those holding the jobs illegally were let go." Controlling Illegal Immigration, Ohio House Bill 184.

"Eight officers returned Tuesday from four weeks of special training that allows them to perform some limited immigration-related duties.

As a result, the Butler County Sheriff's Office became the first police agency in the Midwest to receive immigration enforcement powers that are typically reserved for federal agencies, authorities said Thursday - about a year-and-a-half after Sheriff Rick Jones first tried to get those powers." Feb. 8 2008, Cincinnati Enquirer.