VivirLatino

via Latina.com comes the latest news of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s “law enforcement.”

The most recent atrocity committed by the self-proclaimed “America’s Toughest Sheriff” involves a woman who was detained while 9-months pregnant. Alma Minerva Chacon’s case has been receiving media attention due to the brutality with which she was treated. The very same night of her arrest, Chacon went into labor and found herself afraid and alone, being rushed to a local hospital with her hands and legs chained in shackles.

Once she reached the hospital, nurses repeatedly begged the Sheriff’s staff to allow them to unchain the mother, but they refused and Chacon was forced to give birth while still shackled to the bed. At one point, the nurse asked for them to release her so that she could be escorted to the bathroom for a urinalysis, but even that request was denied. But the worst came once Chacon gave birth to her baby girl.

Still chained to the bed, Arpaio’s police staff refused to allow Chacon to hold her newborn baby and then warned her that if no one came to pick up the child within 72 hours, she would be turned over into state custody. Telemundo 52 sat down with Chacon and let her tell her side of the story. Check out the interview below and if you don’t support Sheriff Arpaio’s barbaric practices sign the petition at www.SheriffJoeMustGo.com

Let’s say this woman did commit the most violent of violent offenses. Let’s say she killed five border patrol agents as she illegally crossed into the U.S.. And then spit on their bodies as she crossed past them.

Does she deserve to be shackled while giving birth? Are there no standards of humanity that the U.s. government must hold itself to? When you commit a crime–are you suddenly devoid of humanity? Entitled to no human rights at all?

This horrific practice doesn’t just happen to undocumented workers, either.