海角大神

Will an outcome of Trump's Phoenix rally be a pardon for Joe Arpaio?

President Trump has said that a pardon is not out of the question for his supporter, a former sheriff known for his controversial approach to immigrants. 

Chasing after undocumented immigrants made Joe Arpaio a household name, but in time, his crusade became a double-edged sword. Public criticism mounted, racial profiling lawsuits poured in, and last year residents of Maricopa County, Ariz., voted him out after serving 24 years as their sheriff.

Now, the man who liked to be called 鈥淎merica鈥檚 toughest sheriff鈥澨齛waits sentencing for a criminal contempt conviction, after he was found guilty in July of defying a court order to stop detaining people suspected of living in the country illegally. Arpaio may get a reprieve for the misdemeanor charge if President Trump 鈥� whom he supports 鈥� pardons him, which some observers think could happen as early as Tuesday night's at Mr. Trump's rally in Phoenix.听

Mr. Arpaio calls his conviction a travesty of justice. While he won鈥檛 delve into the legal aspects of the case in a phone interview 鈥� he referred most questions to his lawyer, who didn't respond to the Monitor's requests for comment 鈥� he makes it clear he has no regrets about enforcing immigration law.

鈥淲e were doing our job,鈥� he says.

The impacts of a pardon听

Although Arpaio is not scheduled to be sentenced until Oct. 5, the outcome of a pardon now, some say, could be to lead others in law enforcement to take the same approach Arpaio did and fan the current flames of racism in the United States.

鈥淭o pardon this kind of racist conduct now ... is more than a dog whistle,鈥澨齭ays Paul Charlton, a lawyer who spent 10 years as a US attorney in Arizona. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an affirmative pat on the back to those who wish to conduct the same kind of racially motivated law enforcement.鈥�

The concern is for 鈥減laces where sheriffs or police chiefs want to take up the invitation of the Trump administration to engage in Arpaio-style tactics,鈥� says Cecillia Wang, a lawyer in a civil suit against Arpaio and deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union. 鈥淲e鈥檙e concerned about what the pattern is going to be.鈥�

Trump indicated last week, in an interview with Fox News,听that he is considering a pardon of Arpaio .

鈥淗e has done a lot in the fight against illegal immigration,鈥� the president told Fox news anchor Gregg Jarrett. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a great American patriot and I hate to see what has happened to him.鈥澨�

Mr. Jarrett, who is also an attorney, said in a Fox broadcast that 鈥渢here鈥檚 a better than 50 percent chance鈥� that Trump could pardon Arpaio at the Tuesday rally. He also suggested that if Arpaio鈥檚 recent conviction had been put to a jury, he believes he more than likely would have been acquitted.听A defendant is typically not entitled to a jury trial if the potential sentence is six months or less, however, other observers say.

In Phoenix, Mayor Greg Stanton and Democratic state lawmakers have called on the president to postpone the planned rally. Police are bracing for major protests.

鈥淚f President Trump is coming to Phoenix to announce a pardon for former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, then it will be clear that his true intent is to inflame emotions and further divide our nation,鈥� Mr. Stanton said .听

Humbled by the possibility of a pardon听

Arpaio, who is in his mid-80s and noticeably more reserved in the interview, says he鈥檚 humbled by the possibility of a pardon from a man whose politics he has long admired.听As sheriff, he endorsed Trump early in his campaign and often spoke at rallies where both pushed for toughened immigration laws.

鈥淚鈥檝e always supported him and I always will,鈥� Arpaio says of Trump.

Until his recent bench trial, Arpaio had largely听been out of the spotlight he reveled in for much of his long tenure as the top lawman in Arizona鈥檚 most populous county.听

After he was first elected in 1992, Arpaio developed a reputation for being tough on crime and big on theatrics. He forced inmates to live in outdoor tents during searing summers, made them wear pink undergarments, and resurrected chain gangs, all under the glaring lights of television. In the mid-2000s, buoyed by the raging debate over illegal immigration that gripped the nation, he turned his attention to those here unlawfully. The the Maricopa County Sheriff鈥檚 Office (MCSO)听stopped drivers, and raided workplaces, detaining people for months at a time. Several of these raids were in response to听听听from constituents.

If you were detained in one of these raids, it was likely to be a traumatizing 鈥� potentially even life-changing 鈥� experience, says Francisca Porchas, organizing director of Puente Arizona, a grassroots migrant justice organization based in Phoenix that sued the MCSO听.

听鈥淭o have this man being pardoned is to say we don鈥檛 really care about all the harm he鈥檚 done, we don鈥檛鈥� really care about your suffering, we鈥檙e ok with this level of racism,鈥� says Ms. Porchas.

Controversial practices

With his agency鈥檚 immigration sweeps in Latino neighborhoods came accusations of racial discrimination and legal challenges from detainees, advocacy groups, and the federal government. Arpaio鈥檚 misdemeanor conviction stems from a years-long racial profiling case that the MCSO lost, with investigators finding that the agency engaged in racial profiling, unlawful traffic stops, and discriminated against non-English speakers in its jails, among听.听

US District Judge G. Murray Snow in December 2011 ordered the agency to stop arresting individuals suspected of no other crime than being in the country illegally. But Arpaio's deputies continued the practice 鈥� which the judge had ruled unconstitutional 鈥� for at least 18 months. All told, the MCSO detained at least 171 people in violation of the court's order, according to federal prosecutors.

Despite Arpaio鈥檚 legal defense that the court order was too ambiguous to be understood, Judge Snow 鈥� a George W. Bush appointee 鈥� found him guilty first of civil contempt and subsequently referred the case to the Department of Justice for criminal contempt charges. Last month, US District Judge Susan Bolton found him guilty听, saying he showed a "flagrant disregard" for Judge Snow's orders.

Arpaio faces up to six months in jail, but observers say it鈥檚 unlikely he will serve any time.

While the Constitution sets very few limits on the presidential power of pardon, Mr. Charlton, the former US attorney, says a pardon of Arpaio would break with a long tradition of how when power is used.听

鈥淭hose are for wrongful convictions, sentences that may have been excessive. Neither of those events has occurred here,鈥� he adds. 鈥淛oe Arpaio is not deserving of the mercy that underlies the pardon authority given to the president.鈥�

Arpaio blames much of his legal woes on the Obama administration. In 2012, the Department of Justice sued Arpaio for discrimination against Latinos and abuse of power, later settling the case. And as the then-sheriff campaigned for a seventh term in 2016, federal prosecutors announced four weeks before the听Nov. 8听election that they would pursue criminal contempt charges against him, a rare legal move.

But it was the words of Arpaio's own subordinates, and Arpaio himself, that Justice Department prosecutors leaned on to secure Arpaio's prosecution. One officer, Sergeant Brett Palmer, testified that Arapaio听听to continue enforcing federal immigration law, in violation of Judge Snow's order. Arpaio himself spoke frequently about defying the order, including one video clip shown during the trial where he tells an inmate at his jail that 鈥淣obody is higher than me. I am the elected sheriff by the people. I don鈥檛 serve any governor or the president.鈥� Judge Bolton quoted Arpaio directly more than 20 times in her opinion last month.

Local support听

Bill Beamish, an Arpaio supporter who lives in the same suburb of Phoenix as the former sheriff, says the charges against the former sheriff were nothing less than a political witch hunt.

鈥淗e was trying to follow the letter of the law as best as he understood it,鈥� Mr. Beamish says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a rigged system, I鈥檓 afraid, so it wouldn鈥檛 matter whether it was Joe trying to do his job or somebody else doing something else that maybe wasn鈥檛 in the current politically correct circles.鈥�

Arpaio may no longer be in law enforcement, but that doesn鈥檛 mean he鈥檚 done talking about his exploits. He鈥檚 writing a book and is involved with a fledgling organization created in his name to advocate for conservative causes.

鈥淚've got some irons in the fire," he says. "We鈥檒l see what the future holds.鈥�