TENT CITY ARIZONA

So hopefully, if you're interested in social justice and human rights you've been keeping tabs on the situation in Arizona. Pretty Crazy Right. So if you're undocumented, you can be picked up just because well, the police think you just might be illegal. Arizona Law SB1070 is the latest in a long list of draconian laws that towns, counties and states have enacted in the past few years throughout the United States. Last year, I spent a few days in Tent City in Maricopa County. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio set up a "Tent City" as an extension of the Maricopa County Jail in an effort to tackle over-crowding without building a new jail. All inmates in Tent City are required to wear pink underwear and old fashioned striped jump suits.

Since 2006 ‘America’s Toughest Sheriff’ as Arpaio likes to be called, has increasingly focused energy on the undocumented Latin American community in Maricopa County. The County Sheriff's office has approximately 162 federally trained 287(g) officers. Under 287(g), ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) provides state and local law enforcement with the training and subsequent authorization to identify, process, and when appropriate, detain immigration offenders they encounter during their regular, daily law-enforcement activity.