If you think Arizona’s new immigration laws are a little tough, you haven’t seen anything yet. Up to 100,000 had been expected to march in Los Angeles in something of a May Day protest over what most Hispanics are madly screaming is “racial profiling” in the neighboring state.

But what they don’t know is that early next week the “world’s toughest lawman” will likely announce he’s “taking over” in the next election. That’s right – ‘Sheriff Joe’ Arpaio, age 77, is expected to announce that he’s going to be the new governor of Arizona.

Oh, it’s already been a wild week in the Wild West. On the Friday before, Arizona’s Republican Gov. Jan Brewer signed quite a controversial bill into law that makes it a state crime not to carry proof of legal immigration status. It also requires Arizona’s state and local police to ask about a person’s immigration status “if there is reasonable suspicion that he or she is in the country illegally.”

Gov. Brewer, calling the law “another step forward in protecting the state of Arizona,” is among many who are concerned about a spike in violence along the US-Mexican border and, just recently in the Arizona desert, a deputy sheriff was shot with an AK-47 rifle when he came across some drug-cartel “hombres” transporting a large amount of marijuana.

But the best story yet is that Joe Arpaio, the Massachusetts-born sheriff who has made sensational headlines by making his prisoners wear pink underwear and sleep in tents, is on the verge of throwing his hat into the governor’s race. If he does – you can “bet the ranch” his will land on the hat-rack to stay because he’s easily the most popular politician in the state.

Gov. Brewer, you’ll remember, has never won a race. Jan got the job “by default” in January of 2009 when Barack Obama picked Janet Napolitano to be his Secretary of Homeland Security. But the thinking in Arizona is that she is the front-runner in this year’s race, her 38 percent in the first polls almost 20 points ahead of her nearest challenger.

That is, unless ‘Sheriff Joe’ enters the race like he’s expected to do, this happening just after Vice President Joe Biden appears in Phoenix to add his two-cents-worth to the immigration dilemma on Monday. If ‘Sheriff Joe’ does, the political pundits say Gov. Brewer would slip to 25 percent in the polls behind Arpaio’s 33 per cent.

Arpaio is undoubtedly the league-leader on crackdowns of illegal immigrants. His relentless “sweeps” of immigrant-heavy neighborhoods are legendary. Officers stop people for the smallest infraction – jaywalking or broken taillights – and demand identification and immigration information.

‘Sheriff Joe’ doesn’t apologize for it, either. After his latest sweep just this week, he scoffed at the hint of racial profiling. “I’m an equal-opportunity guy, I lock everybody up,” he said at a news conference Thursday. “We don’t go on the street corner and grab people because they look like they’re from another country.”

His critics say that’s not true, and while Gov. Brewer modified the wording of the state’s new law yesterday to assure it clarifies the intent of not profiling American citizens, Arpaio’s deputies have caught 6,000 illegal immigrants since 2008 and identified 32,000 more in the tough jails he runs.

‘Sheriff Joe’ has made his Maricopa County famous time after time. He makes some of his prisoners, those who are found guilty of DUI-related deaths, literally dig graves at cemeteries and watch the services in their boldly-striped convict’s garb. One time, when he had to transport 200 illegal immigrants from one jail to another, he marched them by foot through the hot streets.

Arpaio came into power when he retired after serving 25 years with the Drug Enforcement Administration. Further, he served with the DEA in Turkey and Mexico before becoming head of the agency’s Arizona branch so he’s an expert, indeed, on what it takes to protect America’s southwestern border.

For the record, ‘Sheriff Joe’ has been re-elected four times, all by double-digit margins, since 1993. Now, what that really means is that two-thirds of all the people who live in Arizona actually live in Sheriff Joe’s Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and Scottsdale. They love the guy.

So, as the Obama administration frets over legalizing illegal immigrants and the zealots are boycotting Arizona to such an extent the New York-based AriZona Beverage Co. is scared they soon sell no more ice tea, watch what happens when ‘Sheriff Joe,’ a 77-year-old who doesn’t coddle, soon takes over “the territory.”

Believe me on this – you ain’t seen nothing yet.