Joe Arpaio, ‘America’s Toughest Sheriff,’ Wants His Old Job Back

PHOENIX, AZ — Joe Arpaio, the former Maricopa County sheriff who was convicted of federal contempt-of-court charges in 2017 for racially profiling Latinos and then pardoned by President Trump, wants his old job back.

The now 87-year-old Arpaio announced his intention on Sunday, the second anniversary of Trump’s pardon. “Watch out world! We are back!” he wrote, pledging to bring back some of the extreme policies that earned him the reputation as “America’s toughest sheriff.”

“I will continue to stand and fight to do the right thing for Arizona and America, and will never surrender,” Arpaio wrote in his announcement. “Those who break the law will have to deal with this sheriff.”

Among the most controversial of the policies Arpaio pledged to revive was the “Tent City Jail,” an outdoor encampment for inmates in triple-digit temperatures that he once referred to as a “concentration camp.” He also forced inmates in his jail to wear pink underwear and fed inmates Nutraloaf, a 15-cent meal used as a disciplinary measure in other prisons, only twice a day.

He also pledged to reinstitute a volunteer posse “to its former strength and continue to enforce all Arizona laws that deal with drug trafficking, sex trafficking and other crimes associated with the border and illegal immigration.”

“The last four years have proven to be a time of lost opportunities to continue the kind of tough policing this county needs,” he said in the campaign announcement. “Once back in office, I will use my position to restore pride to our law enforcement ranks, not only here, in the fourth-largest county in America, but across the country.”

Arpaio, a Republican, lost his bid for a seventh term in 2016 to current Sheriff Joe Penzone, a Democrat, who said in a statement Sunday that “politics has no place in law enforcement,” news station KNXV reported.

“I work every day building a professional, transparent office committed to integrity that puts the safety of Maricopa County families first. The heightened level of professionalism, emphasis on accountability, fiscal responsibility, reduction of lawsuits, and focus on public safety cannot be denied,” Penzone said. “I look forward to continuing our mission with the overwhelming support from the community who has entrusted me with the honor of serving. …”

Jerry Sheridan, a former chief deputy for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, said in a statement to KNXV that while he and Arpaio agree on issues such as bringing back Tent City and rebuilding the posse, “our styles and priorities are quite different.”

He said he will remain on the Republican primary ballot and "offer voters a 38-year veteran of the Sheriff's office as a candidate who can win in 2020."

Alessandra Soler, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, said “Arpaio is a racist — and he should never hold public office again.”

“When Joe Arpaio talks about “those who break the law,’ he should be referring to himself,” Soler said in a statement. “Following our lawsuit against him and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, a federal court found that Arpaio's office profiled and illegally detained Latinos and violated their constitutional rights. President Trump might’ve pardoned him, but those who had families and communities destroyed by his unlawful tactics have not.”

The Arizona ACLU filed a lawsuit in 2007 on behalf of a group of Latinos who said they had been targeted by Arpaio’s deputies because of their ethnicity. Judge Murray Shaw ruled in 2013 that was happening, and that Arpaio was ignoring the ruling as a political move. He asked the Justice Department to file criminal contempt charges.

Arpaio was convicted of a federal contempt-of-court charge in 2017 after he was twice ordered to stop traffic patrols that racially profiled Latinos. The charge carried a sentence of up to six months in jail, but saying he had been “convicted for doing his job.”

Arpaio told the Los Angeles Times in 1994 that he deliberately sought the limelight to “send a message to the bad guys.”

“I want them to know that it’s so bad in my jail that they won’t want to commit crimes here,” he said at the time.

The strategy made Arpaio the target of numerous federal investigations, including one into misspending of $100 million in jail funds and his criminal investigations of his political enemies.

The Justice Department began looking into his techniques in 1995 after he forced male inmates to wear pink underpants and reintroduced chain gangs, then sued the Maricopa County in 1997. The lawsuit alleging excessive force and mistreatment of inmates was later dropped.

Last year, Arpaio was among three Republican candidates in Arizona’s primary for the U.S. Senate. He finished last in the three-way race won by Martha McSally, who lost a close general election race to fill the seat occupied by late Sen. John McCain.

McSally was later appointed to fill the unexpired term of former Sen. Jon Kyl.