President Donald Trump has pardoned former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the White House announced late Friday afternoon.
Arpaio is a fervent Trump fan who was convicted of criminal contempt of court in July for violating a federal judge’s order to stop targeting Latinos in traffic stops.
Trump did not announce the presidential pardon during his rally in Phoenix on Tuesday, as many expected, but he did say “I’ll make a prediction – I think he’s going to be just fine, OK. But I won’t do it tonight because I don’t want to cause any controversy.”
Arpaio was simply doing his job in fighting illegal immigration, the president said at the rally.
Friday’s statement from the White House touted Arpaio’s lengthy law enforcement career and cited his “life’s work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration.”
The release ended with the statement “he is a worthy candidate for a Presidential pardon.”
Arpaio and his supporters have long denounced the contempt of court charge as politically motivated.
Immigration activists and Democratic leaders had previously criticized the possibility of a presidential pardon.
“It would absolutely be a miscarriage of justice,” Laila Ikram of the Council on American and Islamic Relations said on Tuesday before the rally.
U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Arizona, said Tuesday before the rally that if Trump pardoned Arpaio, it would “deepen the divisions that are already deep enough in the country.”
Arpaio, 85, was scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 5.
A former Drug Enforcement Administration agent, Arpaio served as the Maricopa County Sheriff for six consecutive terms. During his 24 years in office he became known as “America’s toughest sheriff.”
Arpaio, widely known for being being tough on crime and illegal immigration, instituted “creative” punishments for inmates, such as dressing them in pink clothing. He also ordered the construction of Tent City, an outdoor prison near downtown Phoenix that drew criticism from human rights groups for years.
In 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice issued the results of an investigation into the Arpaio-led Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office that specifically called out practices of racial profiling and discrimination against Latinos. The report said the MCSO engaged in “unconstitutional policing” and threatened civil action against the Sheriff’s office if action wasn’t taken to correct the policies.
After Arpaio failed to make changes, the DOJ filed a civil case against him and the MCSO in 2012. In 2013, following another class action lawsuit over discrimination involving traffic stops, Arpaio was ordered to change MCSO policies to stop racial profiling against Latinos and detaining people solely on the suspicion they were in the country illegally. He didn’t comply and in 2016, was charged with criminal contempt of court.
Arpaio ran for a seventh term as Sheriff last year, but he was defeated by Paul Penzone, a former Phoenix police officer, in the November election.