Joseph Michael Arpaio is an American former law enforcement officer and politician. He served as the 36th
Sheriff of
Maricopa County, Arizona for 24 years, from 1993 to 2017, losing reelection to Democrat
Paul Penzone in 2016.
Arpaio styled himself as "America's Toughest Sheriff". Starting in 2005, he took an outspoken stance against
illegal immigration. In 2010, he became a flashpoint for opposition to Arizona's
SB1070 anti-illegal immigrant law, which was largely struck down by the
Supreme Court of the United States. Arpaio is also known for investigating former U.S. President
Barack Obama's
birth certificate, and, as of 2018, he continued to claim without evidence that it was forged.
Arpaio has been accused of
various types of
police misconduct, including abuse of power, misuse of funds, failure to investigate sex crimes, improper clearance of cases, unlawful enforcement of
immigration laws, and election law violations. A Federal court monitor was appointed to oversee his office's operations because of complaints of
racial profiling. The
U.S. Department of Justice concluded that Arpaio oversaw the worst pattern of racial profiling in U.S. history, and subsequently filed suit against him for unlawful discriminatory police conduct. Arpaio's office paid more than $146 million in fees, settlements, and court awards.
Over the course of his career, Arpaio was the subject of several federal
civil rights lawsuits. In one case he was a defendant in a decade-long suit in which a federal court issued an
injunction barring him from conducting further "immigration round-ups". A federal court subsequently found that after the order was issued, Arpaio's office continued to detain "persons for further investigation without reasonable suspicion that a crime has been or is being committed." In July 2017, he was convicted of criminal
contempt of court, a crime for which he was
pardoned by President
Donald Trump on August 25, 2017. In a separate racial-profiling case which concluded in 2013, Arpaio and his subordinates were found to have unfairly targeted
Hispanics in conducting traffic stops.
Arpaio stated in a September 2017 interview with
American Free Press that he would consider running for office again, including the
United States Congress, if President Trump asked him to. Arpaio has announced his intention to seek the Republican nomination for the
U.S. Senate in 2018.
