Tent City jail awaits more illegals in Arizona

By Silvia Ayuso Jul 29, 2010, 15:51 GMT

Phoenix, Arizona - 'Vacancy,' announces a neon sign flickering above Tent City, the makeshift jail set up by Arizona's Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

It is not a bad joke, but a message to the authorities.

'I don't want any police chief or politician that tells me and says 'we can't book them into jail because the sheriff doesn't have any room',' Arpaio explains.

The sheriff's record in detaining and deporting undocumented migrants - a quarter of all such deportations in the United States, by his own account - has turned Arpaio into the nightmare of immigrants in Arizona and in much of the rest of the country.

'So my message is this: I have plenty of room. I will take 2,000 more tomorrow if I have to. I have the room, that's not gonna be an excuse,' says the man, who likes to call himself 'America's toughest sheriff.'

A federal judge has blocked a key provision of the SB1070 immigration law that entered into force this Thursday in Arizona.

But for Arpaio, the battle for the law is not lost, and he does not want to leave any doubts about his determination to continue exercising zero tolerance towards illegal immigration.

'I just made another section (in Tent City) in case the police will enforce this new law, he said just after the federal court order was announced on Wednesday.

Arpaio was referring to the so-called Section SB1070, which is still empty and separated from the other tents by a high metal fence.

The 'nice' new section, as Arpaio describes it, is in no way different from the rest of the controversial makeshift prison whose inmates are serving sentences of up to one year for minor offences.

The five tents of the new section, which consist of plastic sheets on iron structures, have room for 22 prisoners each.

Like the rest of the inmates in Tent City, the eventual newcomers would have to sleep on hard and narrow beds which have been crammed close together on the concrete floor.

Arpaio takes obvious pride in the prison, which was created in 1993, despite the criticism that is pouring in from human rights groups.

The sheriff even organizes guided tours for people interested in visiting Tent City. Most of the visitors are journalists these days, with prison guard Renee Ansley acting as guide.

Temperatures are hovering at around 40 degrees Celsius at the end of July - 'It's very hot in the desert,' Arpaio quips -, and many of the inmates have no energy for anything but lying on their beds.

Others seek shade in the area covered by gravel which gets into their plastic sandals.

The heat has made many of the inmates take off their white-and- gray-striped shirts, with the text 'sheriff's inmate' on the back.

The 'old-style' striped uniform was Arpaio's idea. The prison also gives the inmates pink underpants, socks and towels, the colour of which - prison sources claim - was not chosen with the intention of humiliating them.

The colour helps to identify prison property, pink has a 'calming' effect - and 'it's fun,' Ansley says with a smile.

For Cesar Tovar, an undocumented Mexican serving a sentence at Tent City, the colour of the prison clothes is the least of his worries.

'Personally I don't mind it. It is what they give us,' he says with a shrug.

The migrants Tovar shares a tent with are more concerned about the heat in the prison, which he says gets 'too hot' under the scorching sun.

The inmates are anxious to leave Tent City, but they are also a little fearful of that moment, aware that they can be deported or handed over to immigration officials.

'We are now serving our sentences, and there is no reason to send us over to immigration,' Tovar says.

The Mexican admits to being worried about his undocumented relatives who - he fears - could also end up at Tent City if the federal court order does not stop Sheriff Arpaio from rounding up illegals in the same way as he has done so far.

'We're gonna continue our operations, nothing will change in our fight to illegal immigration,' Arpaio vowed after the SB1070 was suspended.

His prison does, after all, have room for many more inmates, as its neon sign points out.