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PHOENIX — A Paradise Valley Republican thinks she's found a way to let state and local police round up illegal entrants — make their presence in this state the crime of trespass.

Sen. Barbara Leff said her legislation would finally give police the legal tools they need to stop, question and arrest or deport those who cross the border illegally.

She also has companion measures to give $75 million to border counties for more officers, prosecutors and judges, and another $70 million to build and operate more prisons for all the people who will be arrested.

Leff said the goal is to help apprehend those people who are not stopped by the Border Patrol. "It would give us a second line of defense."

But Rep. Ben Miranda, D-Phoenix, is questioning the legality of the concept. Miranda, an attorney, said courts have ruled people cannot be charged under state law with "status crimes," meaning offenses that are due solely to their situation.

Leff conceded she knows of no other state that has tried this approach. But she said the proposal has been intensively reviewed by several lawyers.

"Until it gets challenged in court, then we say that it's legal," she said. "It's state-izing a federal law and making it a state crime."

As written, SB 1157 says a person who enters this country in violation of federal law is guilty of trespass if they're "on any public or private land in this state.'' But Leff said she doesn't envision police officers and sheriff's deputies using the new law to conduct sweeps.

"My goal in this legislation is not to go into people's homes, not to go into people's schools and not to go into people's businesses," she said. "My goal is to focus on stopping people as they cross that border, before they get to the highway."

The proposal has the endorsement of Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever whose agency has been on the front lines of this problem for decades.

"We come across people … who are here illegally that the Border Patrol either can't or won't deal with," he said. Dever said the proposal to create a state crime comes "out of sheer frustration and desperation and our understanding that something needs to be done."

Last year, state lawmakers approved, only to have Gov. Janet Napolitano veto, a different approach — letting state and local police enforce federal immigration laws. That measure was opposed by several police agencies that said they did not want their officers seen as a threat to illegal entrants.

"If they're victims of crime, we want them to report it," said Sgt. Mark Robinson of the Tucson Police Department.

But Leff said that amounts to a policy of ignoring the issue.

"The problem is that you can't just keep doing a wink and a nod," she said. "Either it's illegal to be in this country illegally or it's not."