At 1:00 p.m. today Joe Arpaio, the infamous sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, will chain up some 200 immigrant prisoners and force march them to his nearby tent city for incarceration. Media are welcome and encouraged to view the march, another sick stunt in the Gestapo Sheriff’s widening repertoire of humiliations. With some 10,000 prisoners currently jailed in the County, the tent city will, the sheriff asserts, serves “as a management tool for potential jail overcrowding.”

*Video by America’s Voice

After marches, sheriff, what’s next? Box cars?

Frankly, however, the question before us is why this shoddy sheriff is getting away with “law enforcement” run amok. Where are the lawsuits against him? Where are the protests to shut him down? Where are the arrests for civil disobedience? Where are the incensed civic and religious leaders? Where are the civil and human rights advocates? Where is the national immigrant rights movement? Where are the politicians? Where is the federal government? Where?

Ten thousand prisoners in a county jail? A tent city for overflow, with an electrified fence? We’ve seen this horror show before. This is an incarceration empire emerging, generously supported by the people of Arizona. The state government recently gave Arpaio 1.6 million dollars back to fight “illegal immigration,” in spite of his tactics. If immigrant prisoners misbehave, we’re assured, they will be on a chain gang cleaning up the valley. Welcome to the Weimar Republic in the desert.

Today we learn that in 2006 ICE’s National Fugitive Operations Program quietly ignored its mandate requiring 75% of those arrested to be criminals, and began rounding up any undocumented immigrants they could. A Migration Policy Institute report released today indicates that some three-quarters of all the people ICE apprehended over a five year period had no criminal records. $625 million down the drain; 96,000 apprehended. Many of them are now residents of Arpaio’s tent city—“criminals” all.

How ironic that this week marks the beginning of the elephant cruelty trial. Animal rights groups have brought suit to stop alleged mistreatment of elephants by the circus in a showcase trial garnering headlines nationwide. Elephants chained. Elephants marched. Elephants. A real trial.

Much has been said and written of Arpaio. Enough. No more excuses. The responsibility to reign him in is ours. Stop the circus.