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Trump pardons Joe Arpaio, former sheriff convicted in racial profiling case Trump pardons Joe Arpaio, former sheriff convicted in racial profiling case
(35 minutes later)
Donald Trump has pardoned former sheriff Joe Arpaio, the hardline Arizona lawman who was convicted of contempt of court in July for defying a judge’s order to stop racially profiling Latinos.Donald Trump has pardoned former sheriff Joe Arpaio, the hardline Arizona lawman who was convicted of contempt of court in July for defying a judge’s order to stop racially profiling Latinos.
Trump had signaled his intention to grant the pardon at a rally in Phoenix on Tuesday evening, when he suggested Arpaio was “convicted for doing his job”.Trump had signaled his intention to grant the pardon at a rally in Phoenix on Tuesday evening, when he suggested Arpaio was “convicted for doing his job”.
Arpaio’s life and career “exemplify selfless public service”, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Saunders said in statement Friday night. “Throughout his time as Sheriff, Arpaio continued his life’s work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration. Sheriff Joe Arpaio is now eighty-five years old, and after more than fifty years of admirable service to our Nation, he is worthy candidate for a Presidential pardon.” Arpaio’s life and career “exemplify selfless public service”, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Saunders said in statement Friday night. “Sheriff Joe Arpaio is now eighty-five years old, and after more than fifty years of admirable service to our Nation, he is worthy candidate for a Presidential pardon.”
Over a 24-year tenure as sheriff of Maricopa county, Arpaio gained notoriety for detaining hundreds of undocumented immigrants in a Tent City jail and forcing them to wear pink underwear. In an interview with the Arizona Republic moments after his pardon was publicly announced, Arpaio hinted at a return to politics.
This is a breaking new story, more detail to follow ... “I told my wife that I was through with politics,” he told the paper. “But now I’ve decided I’m not through with politics because of what’s happening. I didn’t ask for a pardon. It has nothing to do with a pardon. I’ve been saying this for the last couple of months. I’ve got a lot to offer.”
Arpaio said his age would not slow him: “Everybody puts my age. I can outgun anyone.”
Over a 24-year tenure as sheriff of Maricopa county, Arpaio gained notoriety for detaining hundreds of undocumented immigrants in a Tent City jail and forcing them to wear pink underwear. The sheriff courted controversy and media attention – calling his own jail a “concentration camp” and selling replica pink underwear to the public – as he became a national figurehead for the virulent xenophobia that Trump embraced in his presidential campaign.
In November, amid a surge in Latino voters, the then 84-year-old lost his bid to win a seventh term as sheriff.
While many local law enforcement agencies leave immigration matters to the federal agency charged with enforcing it, the Maricopa sheriff’s department aggressively pursued the arrest of undocumented immigrants under Arpaio.
His criminal conviction stems from his 2011 refusal to comply with a judge’s order to halt the practice of engaging in traffic stops that targeted Latino drivers. Arpaio continued the traffic patrols for nearly a year and a half after the court order. Federal prosecutors charged him with misdemeanor contempt of court in 2016, arguing that his defiance of the order was politically motivated.
Arpaio had been scheduled to be sentenced in October and could have faced up to six months in jail.
Trump said on Tuesday that he was waiting to issue the pardon because he did not “want to cause any controversy”.
But not even an impending hurricane could prevent the onslaught of outrage at the presidential pardon in a country still reeling from the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville and Trump’s equivocation on denouncing neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan.
“By pardoning Joe Arpaio, Donald Trump has sent another disturbing signal to an emboldened white nationalist movement that this White House supports racism and bigotry,” the American Civil Liberties Union tweeted. The ACLU represented Latino residents of Maricopa county in the lawsuit that resulted in Arpaio’s contempt conviction.
In a statement, ACLU deputy legal director Cecilia Wang called the pardon “a presidential endorsement of racism”.
The reaction among Arizona lawmakers was sharply divided.
Phoenix mayor Greg Stanton, who had accused Trump of stoking racial tensions with his Phoenix rally, called the pardon a “slap in the face to the people of Maricopa County, especially the Latino community and those he victimized as he systematically and illegally violated their civil rights”.
Republican congressman Paul Gosar welcomed the pardon, saying in a statement that it “reflects the very reason we voted President Trump into the Oval Office, to uphold the rule of law”.
But Democratic congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema said on Twitter: “I am dismayed by the President’s decision to pardon Joe Arpaio. Arpaio hurt Arizonans and cost taxpayers a great amount of grief and money. He should be held accountable. No one is above the law.”
The sentiment was echoed by Democratic congressman Raul Grijalva: “His whole life he has acted with the liberty of being above the law. Now Trump proves that right.”