Tomorrow afternoon, Sheriff Joe Arpaio plans to parade 220 chained immigrant detainees, carrying their own bedding, through the streets of Phoenix from the county jail to their new home in a newly expanded area in Arpaio's infamous "Tent City"
Having expanded his tent facility to house 2500 of the 10,000 inmates currently incarcerated in the county jail with a newly authorized $1.6 million dollar grant from the state, Arpaio vows to fill it with immigrant detainees.
Surrounded by an electrified fence that Joe jokes will be one that immigrants "won't want to scale," the tent facility will eventually become the new home for those caught in Arpaio's racial profiling roundups.
As usual, Arpaio has invited the press to document the hour long march in order fuel his colossal ego and need for constant media attention.
PRESS RELEASE
Maricopa County Sheriff's Office
Deputy Lindsey Smith
Media Relations - M.C.S.O.
Spokeswoman
Office: 602-876-1802
L_Smith@MCSO.Maricopa.Gov
ARPAIO ORDERS MOVE OF HUNDREDS OF ILLEGAL ALIENS TO THEIR OWN TENT CITY
Electric Fence to Minimize Escape Risk
(PHOENIX, AZ.) At 1:00 PM tomorrow, Wednesday, February 4, 2009, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio will order of 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 move to Tent City frees up much needed space in the Sheriff's hard facilities serving as a management tool for potential jail overcrowding, Arpaio says.
More importantly, the move is a financially responsible alternative to taxpayers already over burdened by the economic drain imposed by a growing number of illegal aliens on social services like education and healthcare.
The move also facilitates security and transportation issues as well as provides easier and quicker access for foreign government visits to these inmates, the Sheriff says.
The move to Tent City also makes room for the future. Now that the Arizona state government has given Arpaio back his $1.6 million dollars slated for fighting illegal immigration, more arrests by the Sheriff's human smuggling unit and crime suppression operations are anticipated.
"We have expanded the tents to be able to house as many as 2500 inmates out of the 10,000 currently incarcerated in the jails," Arpaio says. "As we planned the expansion, I decided to have a special area to house this particular population of inmate more effectively and safely. Starting tomorrow, Tent City will be their new address," Arpaio says.
Tent City is Arpaio's canvas incarceration compound which he opened in August of 1993. Since then, it has been a safe and cost effective way of housing inmates and has gained worldwide attention as a model jail program. The consolidation of a large number of illegal aliens into Tent City, Arpaio says, should pose no substantial security problems as the area where they will be housed is protected by an electric fence.
"This is a population of criminals more adept perhaps at escape," the Sheriff says. "But this is a fence they won't want to scale because they risk receiving quite a shock - literally."
Tomorrow's move is expected to take about an hour as the illegal aliens make their way from the Durango Jail complex to Tent City on Gibson Road. Traffic will be rerouted during the transfer, Arpaio says.
The inmates will enter Tent City through the west gate and pick up their bedding before making their way to their section of the tents.
They will be treated like all other inmates incarcerated here with two exceptions. 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. And anyone found to violate jail rules, may end up on a chain gang. This chain gang will work to clean the areas of the valley, which have been impacted by human trafficking trade.
The inmate march begins at 1:00 PM on Wednesday beginning at the entrance gate of Durango Jail on Gibson Street. The 220 inmates will march east to Tent City. Interested media are asked to park on the access road west of Estrella Jail at 2939 West Durango. SEE MAP ATTACHED. Sheriff Arpaio will answer questions at 1:30 PM from inside Tent City. Call the on call Media Relations person for more information.
How much longer is this racist clown going to be allowed to continue his one man war on the undocumented.
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.
Why not give Joe a call, or drop him an e-mail to let him know just how much you appreciate the fine work he's doing out there in Maricopa Co
It's only fitting that in the closing moments of the most lawless administration in our nation's history, President Bush chose as his final act, to grant clemency to two rogue Border Patrol agents who shot an unarmed man in the back, then attempted to cover up their crime. From its inception, this administration has always been based on the assumption that those in positions of authority are beyond the constraints law and that cover-ups, secrecy, and lies are acceptable means to an end.
In a move aimed to appease the anti-immigrant base of his party, Bush commuted the sentences of Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who were convicted of shooting suspected marijuana smuggler, Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, in the back as he fled back across the Mexican border. The agents then attempted to cover-up their actions by filing false reports and hiding evidence.
Their case became a proxy for the greater debate over immigration and border security and a cause celebre for every far-right blowhard from Rush Limbaugh to Lou Dobbs who used it to rally the anti-immigrant right.
Appeals for leniency were generally based on the premise that "these brave men were only doing their job to protect our borders." And that their punishment far outweighed their crimes. Dobbs often called the case "an outright travesty of American justice."
But what was lacking in much of the hyperbolic rhetoric and grandstanding surrounding this case was any regard for the truth.
In their zeal to paint Ramos and Compean as heroes, and use them as pawns in the bigger immigration battle, many of their supporters neglected to explain exactly what the two agents did to eventually be convicted of a crime.
There is a reason a jury found these two men guilty, and it has nothing to do with the politics of immigration reform or the fight against "our broken borders." It has to do with two rogue cops who overstepped the boundaries, then tried to cover up their crime.
It's a story no different than that of Rodney King, Amadou Diallo, or more recently Sean Bell, and Francisco Javier Domínguez, where law enforcement officers have used undue and unnecessary force resulting in injury or death. The fact that these particular officers patrolled the border rather than the Bronx or Compton doesn't make their actions any less odious, and it certainly doesn't make them heroes.
Welcome to today's episode of the "Sheriff Joe Apartheid Show" courtesy of Dennis Gilman at Humanleague002.
In today's episode we see more footage from the 1/09/09, 1/10/09 Buckeye "crime-suppression" sweep by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.
The sweep utilized nearly 200 deputies and "volunteer posse" members, many clad in black ski masks and carrying assault rifles, who were ordered to look for any and all violations of the law, including traffic violations.
After two days, Sheriff Arpaio managed to net 14 suspected undocumented immigrants on minor traffic violations in an area he had characterized as a "hotbed of human smuggling traffic."
When asked about possible racial profiling, Joe also sited a rash of unsolved homicides from 2002-2003 that left 11 undocumented migrants dead as another reason for targeting this particular area.
Questioned how the random traffic stops might help solve seven year old murder cases, Arpaio claimed that many crimes are solved through traffic stops and perhaps his deputies would manage to simply "stumble onto one of the killers."
So there we have it. Joe claims he unleashed 200 heavily armed, masked deputies and "posse" to see if they could "stumble onto" some killers in a seven year old coldcase by randomly pulling over every Latino they could find.
Stephen Lemons of the Phoenix New Times raises an excellent point about the idea of masked law enforcement randomly pulling over cars at traffic stops.
Having MCSO deputies pulling over cars for traffic stops in black masks like this is reminiscent of some South American dictatorship. It's meant to terrorize and to hide the faces of the guilty from scrutiny. There is absolutely no law enforcement rationale for it. None. But then again, Maricopa County, under the control of Sheriff Joe and Candy Thomas is more like a South American dictatorship than part of the United States of America.
As for Sheriff Joe; he hinted that more episodes of the "Apartheid Show" are on the way.
Arpaio hinted that similar sweeps are planned.
"Stay tuned," he said. "We'll be in other locations soon."
Sheriff Joe Arpaio loves his new reality show, "Smile ... You're Under Arrest!"
He claims it's "a great merge of entertainment along with law enforcement." ... a humorous cross between "Punked" and "Cops."
Perhaps Fox would like to show this really hysterical clip from a recent episode of the real-life Sheriff Joe show.
What could be more entertaining than watching two small children cry as their mother is taken away forever because she has a broken headlight and an un-paid traffic ticket?
What could be funnier than watching them clutch the stuffed animals that sheriff's trade for their mother in an attempt to quite them down?
What could be more humorous than the fear and horror on their faces as they plead to be returned to her?
Come on FOX, this is the real "reality" of Joe Arpaio. This is what goes on day after day for those who are forced to live in Joe's reality.
Show this video to the American public. Let them see the true face of "America's toughest sheriff"
Come on, don't you think they'd be rolling in the aisles over the funny antics of this modern day Bull Connor.
In the final press conference of his administration, George Bush was asked today about lack of "inclusiveness" in the Republican Party and how the immigration debate had adversely affected the Republican image.
BUSH: Take, for example, the immigration debate. That's obviously a highly contentious issue. And the problem with the initial outcome of the debate was some people said, "well, Republicans don't like immigrants. Now, that may be fair or unfair, but that's the image that came out. And if, you know, the image is "we don't like immigrants," then there's probably someone else out there saying, "well, if they don't like immigrants, they probably don't like me as well."
"Fair or unfair"?
I wonder where those folks got the crazy idea that Republicans don't like them
Maybe years of having guys like this as the immigration policy leaders of the Republican Party may have had something to do with it.
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the right-wing Center for Immigration Studies, has taken to the pages of the National Review to outline what he claims is a new GOP approach to immigration.
Pointing out that for too long Republicans have argued about immigration in terms of "lawbreaking" and illegality, Krikorian suggests instead that a new framing is needed ... a framing he views as a more welcoming and in line with public opinion.
Taking a page from the same playbook that brought us the great Bush oxymoron: "Compassionate Conservatism "... Krikorian does The Decider one better and frames out a new right-wing paradox for mass consumption: "Anti-immigration but Pro-immigrant"
With only days left until the end of the Bush administration, two new rules have been hastily enacted that strike at the heart of the civil liberties of immigrants and asylum seekers. One denies immigrants legal representation in deportation cases, the other mandates DNA tests for all detained immigrants and US citizens who have been accused of a crime, but not convicted.
On January 7, 2009, in the waning hours of a departing Administration, Attorney General Michael Mukasey unraveled decades of legal precedent guaranteeing due process to people facing life-changing consequences-namely, deportation. With less than two weeks left in office, this Administration apparently could not resist the temptation to take one more stab at undermining fundamental Constitutional principles.
In a decision issued Wednesday... the Attorney General declared that henceforth, immigrants, asylum seekers, and all others in removal (deportation) proceedings do not have any right under statute or the Constitution to representation by a lawyer before they can be ordered deported. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) and most federal courts have for decades operated under the premise that immigrants DO have such rights. The Attorney General has reversed many years of precedent and operation by simply declaring it so..... his declaration will wipe out the rights of all but a handful of people with one stroke of his pen.
Another Justice Department rule, which took effect Friday, directs federal agencies to collect DNA samples from foreigners who are detained by U.S. authorities.
...the U.S. government will collect DNA samples from people arrested and detained for suspected immigration violations, despite concerns that the move violates their privacy rights.
The new Justice Department policy also will expand DNA collection to people arrested on suspicion of committing federal crimes. Previously, the government only obtained DNA from people convicted of certain crimes.
The American Civil Liberties Union has voiced "grave concerns" about this expansion of governmental DNA collection to include immigrant detainees and those who have not been convicted of any crime.
Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU's technology and liberty program said, "People who are merely accused of a crime or a civil violation of law but haven't been convicted of anything are being subjected to the most invasive sort of testing."
These decisions reflect the total disregard for basic Constitutional rights we have come to expect from this administration.
From the warrant-less arrests and detention of not only immigrants, but US citizens, by the DHS, to the kangaroo courts of Postville that denied basic Constitutional protections, our current immigration enforcement system has become so far divorced from the rule of law, it now resembles more the system of a rogue failed-state than the worlds leading liberal democracy.
But we can start to do something about it ... we can demand a return to the true rule of law... One that respects the Constitution and the rights it guarantees.
Rights Working Group, a national coalition of more than 250 community-based groups and policy organizations dedicated to protecting civil liberties and human rights is urging President Obama to place a moratorium on current immigration enforcement practices in order to conduct a full review of DHS policies and programs to ensure that they are compliant with both Constitutional protections and internationally recognized human right standards.
Dear President-Elect Obama,
I am signing this petition to ask your Administration to address the violations of human rights and civil liberties resulting from ill-conceived immigration enforcement policies pursued by the Bush Administration. I believe our government should be committed to upholding due process and civil liberties for all people in the U.S., especially when enforcing the law. Therefore, I urge you to hold the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accountable to protecting the human rights of citizens and non-citizens alike.
Currently, DHS' immigration enforcement policies use extreme measures to lock up undocumented workers, legal permanent residents and, at times, even U.S. citizens. Raids of homes and businesses, often without a warrant, have not only steamrolled over Constitutional protections, but also torn apart communities and families.
Conditions in immigration detention facilities are overcrowded and dangerous and have deteriorated to the point where people are dying in custody from treatable ailments, and people with chronic conditions are not getting the basic medical care they require.
While DHS has taken commendable measures to process numerous naturalization applications delayed by security background checks, over 30,000 such applicants are still waiting to be granted citizenship. Efficient and transparent mechanisms are needed to ensure that, in the future, all eligible immigrants can attain citizenship in a timely manner.
DHS policies which prioritize the appearance of enforcement over this nation's founding principles of liberty and justice for all do not serve the national interest. I am asking your administration to set clear, enforceable legal standards for DHS operations - standards that uphold the dignity and Constitutional rights of all people in the U.S. - and hold DHS accountable to these standards. I join the Rights Working Group in urging you to place a moratorium on current immigration enforcement practices in order to conduct a full review of DHS policies and programs to ensure that they are compliant with Constitutional protections and internationally recognized human right standards.
You can join the fight to restore the rule of law and respect for the Constitution by signing RWG's petition to end the raids and make the DHS and Justice Department respect and uphold the rights of all people living in the US.
Each year approximately 2.8 million students graduate from US High Schools. Some will go on to college, join the military, or take other paths in life, hopefully all becoming productive members of society.
But for approximately 65,000 of them, these opportunities will never be available. Not because they lack motivation, or achievement, but because of the undocumented status passed on to them by their parents.
Lacking legal status and social security numbers, these students, raised and schooled in the US, cannot apply to college, get jobs other than those at the bottom of the economic ladder, or otherwise follow their dreams.
Originally Posted Jan 6, 2008
They grew up on American soil, worked hard and succeeded in spite of all odds, and want nothing more than to be recognized as individuals and not just the holders of a status they had no part in acquiring.
In Washington, politicians have debated the fate of these kids for more than seven years, holding lives and futures in their hands while vying for political advantage.
For these kids, and thousands more who have already managed through sheer force of will to complete their higher education, but now face a life of uncertainty and alienation, the DREAM Act is the only answer
A couple of days ago I received an e-mail from one of my blogmigas about an upcoming press conference hosted by the anti-immigration group, The Federation of American Immigration Reform (FAIR), to discuss "the implications of the recent elections and (their) agenda for immigration reform in the 111th Congress."
Figuring that it's always good to know what the opposition is up to, I decided to sign on to the conference call to get a feel for what strategies they were planning for the upcoming congressional session.
Little did I know that listening to the world according to FAIR President, Dan Stein, would be like falling down a rabbit hole where black is white and white is black.
Backed up by media spokesman, Ira Melman, and Executive director, Julie Kirchner, Stein managed in his 45min presentation to rewrite recent history, rehash long-discredited talking points, ignore or misinterpret reams of factual evidence, and flat out fabricate his own alternative reality.
Once again, New York's Suffolk County is in the headlines for another act of violence against Latinos and immigrants. Over the last few years Suffolk has not only become a center for growing anti-Latino violence, but along with Hazleton PA, Prince William County VA, and Farmers Branch TX, it has become a principal force in the growing movement for local governments to enact their own immigration law.
Under the leadership of its County Executive, the county has enacted some of the toughest anti-immigrant laws in the nation, making its chief executive, Steve Levy, a national spokesman for the restrictionist cause. .... and his county a hotbed of anti-immigrant hate.
They told police they wanted to beat up someone who looked Hispanic.
That was the motive, police said, that a mob of seven young men had in mind when they attacked a Patchogue man, who ended up being stabbed to death minutes before midnight Saturday, Suffolk police said.
"These individuals told detectives that they were looking to beat someone of Latino heritage," said Det. Lt Jack Fitzpatrick, commander of the homicide squad, adding that the victim, Marcello Lucero, 37, is of Ecuadorian descent.
Fitzpatrick said the seven suspects drove around Patchogue searching for victims and found Lucero and another Ecuadorian man.
Now that we've had 48 hours to absorb the events of November 4th, and been subjected to a constant barrage of analysis, statistics, and pronouncements about the meaning of everything we've witnessed over the last two years, it seems to me that it all comes down to simple human truths:
With only seventy-five days left in office, George Bush has finally taken some action to fix the woefully outdated and inefficient infrastructure of the U.S Citizenship and Immigration Service that handles millions of immigration cases each year.
Eight years after first requesting modernization of a system that still relies on pre-computer age technologies to handle 70 million paper-based files, the agency is finally going to enter the 20th century.
I guess all that can be said is .... Better late than never.
But one can only wonder about all the human suffering that could have been avoided if George had only had the political courage to do this eight years ago instead of waiting until he was just about out the door to "sneak" it past the rabid right-wing who wanted all DHS resources spent on walls, raids, and detention camps.
The Bush administration has launched a massive overhaul of the nation's long-troubled immigration services agency, tapping an IBM-led industry consortium to re-invent the way government workers help immigrants obtain visas, seek citizenship and get approval to work in the United States.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service announced that it has asked IBM to be its "solutions architect" to change the technology and processes used by its 16,000 government and 6,000 contract workers at 280 locations nationwide.
The contract, awarded this week and the largest federal homeland security bid on the market, includes a $14.5 million, 90-day assessment period with options over five years worth $491.1 million, and a ceiling value of up to $3.5 billion if Congress approves a broad overhaul of the nation's immigration laws that unleashes a flood of applications for legal status or other actions
...
The USCIS transformation effort is a long-awaited, much delayed undertaking that is years behind initial schedule yet considered a cornerstone of any broader effort to fix an immigration system all sides say is one of the most broken bureaucracies in the federal government.
The agency, which was spun off from the former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services and merged into the Department of Homeland Security in 2003, receives about 6 million to 8 million applications from immigrants a year, but relies on a pre-computer age, paper-based system of 70 million files identified by immigrants' "A-numbers" or alien registration numbers.
The system costs tens of millions of dollars a year for to archive, store, retrieve and ship files; has led to the loss or misplacement of more than 100,000 files; and contributed to backlogs of hundreds of thousands of cases and delays of months and years, auditors have found.
Immigration officials say modernization efforts have been delayed since 1999 by funding problems, inertia, increased security demands, and the DHS reorganization....but has been delayed by bureaucratic infighting, indecision and caution as other major homeland security contracts have gone off track, such as SBInet, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection effort to build a "virtual" fence using surveillance technology on the border...
Tomorrow afternoon, Sheriff Joe Arpaio plans to parade 220 chained immigrant detainees, carrying their own bedding, through the streets of Phoenix from the county jail to their new home in a newly expanded area in Arpaio's infamous "Tent City"
It's only fitting that in the closing moments of the most lawless administration in our nation's history, President Bush chose as his final act, to grant clemency to two rogue Border Patrol agents who shot an unarmed man in the back, then attempted to cover up their crime. From its inception, this administration has always been based on the assumption that those in positions of authority are beyond the constraints law and that cover-ups, secrecy, and lies are acceptable means to an end.
Welcome to today's episode of the "Sheriff Joe Apartheid Show" courtesy of Dennis Gilman at 
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the right-wing Center for Immigration Studies, has taken to the pages of the National Review to outline what he claims is 
A couple of days ago I received an e-mail from one of my blogmigas about an upcoming press conference hosted by the anti-immigration group, The Federation of American Immigration Reform (FAIR), to discuss "the implications of the recent elections and (their) agenda for immigration reform in the 111th Congress."
With only seventy-five days left in office, George Bush has finally taken some action to fix the woefully outdated and inefficient infrastructure of the U.S Citizenship and Immigration Service that handles millions of immigration cases each year.
