Enforcement Without Oversight: Marching Immigrants Through the Public Square as Criminals Run Free

SOURCE:

February 4, 2009

Washington, DC – On Wednesday, Maricopa County Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio plans to march shackled immigrants awaiting trial through the streets of Phoenix as a show of force and to promote his Fox Reality Channel television program. Meanwhile, former Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, the new Secretary of Homeland Security, has called for a review of Homeland Security immigration enforcement measures, including a review of federal/local agreements, known as 287g, which allow local police to enforce federal civil immigration law. Maricopa County has entered into a 287g agreement with the Federal Government that gives Sheriff Arpaio greater latitude to go after immigrants, whether or not they are accused of committing criminal offenses. The following is a statement by Douglas Rivlin, Communication Director of the National Immigration Forum, a non-partisan pro-immigrant advocacy group in Washington.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio is the gift that keeps on giving. Just as the Department of Homeland Security announces a review of the program that has unleashed his police department on non-criminal immigrants, he pulls this stunt. He is clearly showing the nation the consequences of placing too much power in the hands of local elected sheriffs with too little federal oversight. Marching chained immigrants awaiting trial through the public square on their way to a tent city prison is a new low, even for Sheriff Arpaio. But it is to be expected when a program like 287g is ramped up so quickly without any serious oversight by the Justice Department or the Department of Homeland Security.

Last week, Secretary Napolitano announced her intention to review Homeland Security practices including a review of enforcement practices. We think it is particularly important that she investigate how 287g and other programs that enlist state and local law enforcement into the enforcement of non-criminal federal immigration law are being implemented. Working with Attorney General Eric Holder, the Secretary should do a top to bottom review of how their agencies can ensure that the local sheriffs they empower through 287g are not abusing their mandate. For Secretary Napolitano, who is well familiar with Sheriff Joe and his made-for-TV antics, this is the perfect opportunity to put the brakes on programs like 287g until safeguards are in place.

More broadly, Secretary Napolitano needs to fully review how enforcement resources are being deployed, and not just in her home state. The New York Times reports today, that enforcement priorities at the Department of Homeland Security have shifted to non-criminal immigrants over criminals and others who may do us harm. If the Department of Homeland Security is failing to go after criminals because their resources are deployed chasing non-criminal immigrants, we have a big problem.

Recent reports that federal prosecutions for non-violent immigration offenses are crowding out federal prosecutions for felonies, including violent crimes and drug offenses, is a red flag for Secretary Napolitano and Attorney General Holder that priorities they inherited from the Bush Administration are seriously out of whack.

Furthermore, President Obama and Congressional Leaders need to recognize that until realistic immigration reform legislation is on-track and moving through Congress the pressure to divert law-enforcement and criminal justice resources away from criminals and towards non-criminal immigrants will continue.

Local elected officials like Sheriff Arpaio will continue to exploit widespread frustration with our current immigration system for their political and publicity goals. The Maricopa Sheriff is the target of more than 2,700 civil rights complaints and has a stack of 40,000 felony warrants backlogged on his desk because of his immigrant-related stunts and it does not appear that our national government is doing enough to address this public safety crisis. We join others calling for a federal investigation of this Sheriff and his conduct.

More at National Immigration Forum:

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Arpaio's forced march

SOURCE:

Read the Article | La Frontera Times Circo, maroma y teatro | La Frontera Times

"There was all the symbolism necessary for the glory he seeks: hundreds of brown men dressed in prison stripes with pink underwear protruding from their waists, surrounded by even more heavily armed guards and at a given moment an old man gave a signal and they were marched through a pubic street into a tent jail that would house only other men of their color and status surrounded by a high electrified fence...
and the old man pontificated about the law..."

Read the Full Article | La Frontera Times

Published by Alfredo Gutierrez - 04/02/2009

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arapio carried out his threat, his order that “approximately 200 illegal aliens to be chained and marched into a separate area of Tent City, their new place of incarceration until their sentences are served and the illegal aliens are deported to their home countries.”

The march took place on the afternoon of Wednesday February 4, 2009. Over 200 inmates were marched in chains from the Maricopa County Durango Facility Jail to a special unit of Tent city.

The new unit is a segregated facility intended to hold only “illegal aliens”. In a press release sent out earlier Arpaio comments with an obvious attempt at humor: “this population is more adept perhaps at escape. But this is a fence they won’t want to scale because they risk receiving quite a shock-literally.” The fence surrounding the new “illegal alien unit” is the only electrified fence surrounding inmates at Maricopa County’s various jail facilities. This population, Latino’s, are often characterized as being built close to the ground by xenophobes of Arpaio’s ilk so reporters waited vainly for descriptions of anti-tunneling technologies that provided cruel disincentives to escape.

The detainees were marched the short distance, perhaps 200 yards from the Durango Jail to the facility. The parade was on a public road, Gibson Street in Phoenix, but the road was closed to all but the press. The press was notified of the public spectacle the day before and arrangements were made for all media to be present and photograph and film the prisoners. All the major television stations were present as were newspapers and radio and television helicopters hovered overhead. The forced march though short had one intended effect: it was a publicity orgy for the Sheriff.

During his brief conference before hailing the show to begin Arpaio boasted that he was doing the “illegals” a favor

"They like it out here. Okay? They'd rather be here than in a hard facility," he said. "Here, they have the beautiful sun. They can walk around and it's a nice program."

No one in the press corps volunteered to stay a few days.

More photos at La Frontera Times Blog

Coincidentally earlier in the day Arpaio had requested all e-mails, and phone logs from the office of Supervisor Wilcox, her chief of staff and 34 other county officials. The Sheriff ‘s press secretary responded to an inquiry regarding the email request by saying

Here is an official statement regarding your telephonic request for clarification on a letter sent to the Board of Supervisors on January 30, 2009. The records request is for a criminal investigation currently being conducted by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.

Ms. Wilcox reiterated that Arpaio’s tactics were intended to intimidate the Hispanic Community and also the Board of Supervisors. “I will not be intimidated by Joe Arpaio.” She said. Given that Arpaio’s twin tormentor, the County Attorney of Maricopa County recently indicted another Supervisor Ms. Wilcox’s statement was particularly courageous and risky. So there would be no misunderstanding she repeated it “I will not be intimidated”

Read the Full Article | La Frontera Times

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FROM: "DOS CENTAVOS"

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Closing Down Gitmo? Close Down Arpaio's Tent Prison!

One of Arpaio's Immigrant Tents--Outdoor "Living" in Arizona's 120 degree weather? (Photo Credit--Andrew Parkin)

Here's a press release from the National Immigration Forum on Sheriff Arpaio's treatment of immigrants in Arizona:

Chained Immigrants Paraded By Arizona Sheriff

SOURCE:

SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER



Posted in Anti-Immigrant by Casey Sanchez on February 4, 2009

“Humiliating prisoners by putting them on parade began in Imperial Rome. In modern times it’s been widely denounced as a barbarous practice. In March 2003, after the Iraqi government paraded five captured U.S. soldiers in front of television cameras, then U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld protested that it was a violation of the Geneva Convention. The Phoenix New Times pointed out that Arpaio’s immigrant parade was scheduled for the same day that MCSO Captain Joel Fox was scheduled to appear in court to appeal a $315,000 fine levied against him for channeling an illegal $105,000 campaign donation to the Republican Party in the name of a shadowy entity called the “Sheriff’s Command Association.” “Which event do you think average news consumers will remember on Thursday – an administrative hearing concerning a convoluted tale of campaign finance laws, or the image of 200 Mexicans in stripes marching in chains down a public street?” asked the New Times. “Yeah, we thought so, too.”

This afternoon in Maricopa County, Ariz., more than 200 Latino immigrants were chained, dressed in prison stripes and forced to march down a public street from a county jail to a detainment camp in the desert outside Phoenix.

Along the way they were filmed by television news crews and guarded by at least 50 Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) deputies, wearing body armor and combat fatigues, armed with shotguns and automatic rifles. At least two canine units were present; a Sheriff’s Department helicopter hovered overhead.

The massive show of force was pure stagecraft for a blatant and dehumanizing publicity stunt orchestrated by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The MCSO gave no indication that any of the immigrant prisoners were particularly violent or presented a grave danger to the public.

According to a MCSO press release, 220 immigrants were transferred to a “Tent City” surrounded by electrified fencing. “This is a population of criminals more adept perhaps at escape,” Arpaio stated in the press release. “But this is a fence they won’t want to scale because they risk receiving a shock – literally.”

The press release further detailed how the immigrants will be treated like any other prisoners, “with two exceptions.” First, “Arpaio wants them to be instructed in American immigration laws, as a way to help them understand that the violation of these laws has serious consequences not only to them but to society as a whole.” Second, immigrants who violate jail rules will be put on a desert chain gang. “This chain gang will work to clean the areas [of the nearby desert] which have been impacted by human trafficking trade,” the release stated.

Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, an outspoken critic of Arpaio’s immigrant-bashing antics, told the Associated Press that today’s parade was “one of the most inhumane things I’ve ever heard.”

Humiliating prisoners by putting them on parade began in Imperial Rome. In modern times it’s been widely denounced as a barbarous practice. In March 2003, after the Iraqi government paraded five captured U.S. soldiers in front of television cameras, then U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld protested that it was a violation of the Geneva Convention.

The Phoenix New Times pointed out that Arpaio’s immigrant parade was scheduled for the same day that MCSO Captain Joel Fox was scheduled to appear in court to appeal a $315,000 fine levied against him for channeling an illegal $105,000 campaign donation to the Republican Party in the name of a shadowy entity called the “Sheriff’s Command Association.”

“Which event do you think average news consumers will remember on Thursday – an administrative hearing concerning a convoluted tale of campaign finance laws, or the image of 200 Mexicans in stripes marching in chains down a public street?” asked the New Times. “Yeah, we thought so, too.”

Arpaio is lionized by Minutemen vigilantes and other nativist extremists for his controversial “287(g)” arrangement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which empowers the MCSO, a local agency, to enforce federal immigration law.

Many Latinos taken into custody in recent months by MCSO 287(g) squads have been pulled over for minor traffic violations, such as a broken headlight or an improper lane change, and then arrested when they’re unable to produce proof of citizenship or a valid visa. The operations, several of which have been concentrated in predominately Latino neighborhoods and conducted in some cases by MCSO officers wearing black ski masks, have drawn widespread accusations of racial profiling.

Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, an outspoken critic of Arpaio’s immigrant-bashing antics, told the Associated Press that today’s parade was “one of the most inhumane things I’ve ever heard.”

“[Arpaio’s] trying to justify this as a ‘budget savings,’ and I’m just appalled. It’s just another publicity stunt,” Wilcox said. “I don’t think you can segregate people that way, and we’re going to get all kinds of violations against us.”

Sheriff Joe Arpaio Stages Immigrant-Degradation March for the Cameras

SOURCE:

IMMIGRATION IMPACT

This blog is a project of The Immigration Policy Center... (read more)

By Walter Ewing February 4, 2009

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Phoenix, Arizona, seems to have an appetite for publicity so insatiable that it overrides both rationality and morality. His latest stunt—announced yesterday in an official press release, no less—comes today, when he will order “approximately 200 illegal aliens to be chained and marched” from the Durango Jail to a segregated area of his “Tent City” incarceration complex. Lest one be fooled into believing that this is a legitimate law—enforcement operation, Arpaio’s press release includes details on the parade route and where “interested media” should park to cover this spectacle of degradation.

According to Arpaio, marching chained immigrants from prison cells to tents surrounded by electric fencing will save money because it’s cheaper to house inmates in tents than in a traditional jail. However, Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox notes that Arpaio “doesn’t outline how he’ll save costs.” Acting County Manager Sandi Wilson says that if Arpaio is “coming up with budget savings, he ought to offer it up. At this point, he hasn’t. And this doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Video by America’s Voice.

Arpaio’s claim to be genuinely concerned about the county budget is undermined by more than his apparent glee at the “shock” undocumented immigrants will receive if they attempt to scale the electric fence in which they will be enclosed. It is also contradicted by his well-documented history as a profligate spender of taxpayer money who prefers political grandstanding to serious law enforcement. As the Immigration Policy Center notes in a December 2008 fact sheet, investigations by the East Valley Tribune and the conservative Goldwater Institute have found that, under Arpaio’s leadership, the budget of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office has nearly doubled since 2001, yet “response times to 911 calls have increased, arrest rates have dropped, and thousands of felony warrants have not been served.” Meanwhile, “hundreds of undocumented immigrants have been arrested for smuggling themselves, often when their vehicles are stopped for burned-out license plate lights or for traffic violations.”

Sheriff Arpaio’s newest media extravaganza at the expense of immigrants certainly won’t do anything to stop undocumented immigration or to reduce serious crime in his community. But it may help drum up even more publicity for Arpaio himself and further endear him to anti-immigrant activists. And perhaps that is what this is all about.

FROM:

STANDING FIRM
FIRM is a project of the Center for Community Change

Stop the Abuse. Stop Joe Arpaio.

February 4, 2009 ·

Today at 1pm, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the infamous bad boy of Maricopa County, AZ is slated to march 220 immigrant inmates from the Durango Jail, through the streets of Phoenix to the “Tent City” that the sheriff has set up. These people will literally be shackled, mocked, taunted and marched through the streets like animals. And he’s sent out a press release and invited the media to cover this horrific event.

This is a new low, even for Sheriff Joe. I have documented many of his outrageous and racist tactics here at Standing FIRM - click here, here and here for more stories. And be sure to check out IPC’s fact sheet on Joe - who’s unchecked power is obviously spiralling out of control. This comes on the heels of previously classified documents being released that prove ICE’s abusive tactics in immigration raids have been ineffective and their violations have gone unprosecuted. For more on this click here.

Isn’t this America? Don’t we believe that all people were “created equal”? Do we not believe in human rights, civil rights? How can we stand by and allow human beings to become props in this megalomaniac’s reality TV show?

We are talking about a man that has said he was “honored” to the KKK, a man who has allowed dangerous criminals to go unscathed because of his obsession with targeting undocumented immigrants and a man who’s ego and power are spiralling quickly out of control

There must be vigilance of Sheriff Joe, otherwise what comes next? As Duke at the Santcuary stated earlier today:

Forced marches in chains, outdoor tent cities surrounded by electrified fences, forced labor on chain gangs as punishment for misbehavior … all that’s missing from this nightmare scene are the search lights and trained attack dogs….but who knows, maybe Arpaio has those also.

Sheriff Joe must be held accountable. CLICK HERE to sign a petition demanding that the Department of Justice investigate Arpaio and his racist, xenophobic and hateful tactics. We must demand an end to this. We will not allow extremism and racism to be tolerated. The need for comprehensive immigration reform is URGENT, otherwise these loose canons like Sheriff Joe will continue to exploit immigrants.

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