MEXICO CITY – The Mexican government is aiding 13 undocumented Mexicans nabbed by an Arizona sheriff’s department that does not have the authority to enforce immigration laws, the foreign ministry said.

The ministry noted in a statement that last week’s arrests in and around Phoenix took place after the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department lost the immigration-enforcement jurisdiction it had under a 287(g) accord with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

That accord “empowered sheriff’s deputies to exercise functions of immigration control,” but was not in effect when the incidents occurred that led to the arrests of a Mexican minor and 12 adults, all of them undocumented.

Maricopa’s headline-chasing sheriff, Joe Arpaio, claims the “crime suppression” operation launched last Friday did not involve racial profiling.

But the self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff in the West” has been investigated by the U.S. Justice Department for allegedly discriminatory conduct.

The “crime suppression” operation took place northwest of Phoenix in the town of Surprise, where personnel from the Mexican Consulate went to the immigrants’ aid, the foreign ministry said.

“All of them were interviewed to determine their emotional condition and the state of their health. At the same time, contact was made with family members to explain the legal situation of each one of the detainees,” the communique said.

It also rejected “actions tending to categorize as criminals Mexican migrants for the mere fact of being that.”

Mexico’s foreign ministry vowed to continue offering “consular aid and deploying all its people, legal resources and protection corresponding to the laws of that country as well as international law to defend the Mexicans’ rights. EFE