Arpaio Doesn’t Deserve a Pardon

There might not be any discernible political ideology or values that are held by the current president of the United States, but what is obvious is that there is one thing he holds in high importance — undying loyalty.

Trump showed his ironclad loyalty when he gave his first pardon to the controversial former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, Joe Arpaio, or “America’s Toughest Sheriff”, as the media has dubbed him. (A nickname Arpaio embraces, by the way).

This pardoned criminal will, on Sept. 29, visit a county which according to the Migration Policy Institute, is made up of a population that is 52 percent Hispanic and Latino and has, according to estimates, about 85,000 undocumented immigrants.

In a slap to the face to a large part of the community, the Fresno Republican Party has invited Arpaio to be a special guest for a GOP fundraising event on Sept. 29.

Local community leaders and officials who support Arpaio should be ashamed for choosing this man over the members of their own community.  

In their endorsement of Arpaio, the GOP is showing they are not working in the interest of Latin and Hispanic people, or undocumented immigrants.

It’s no surprise that Arpaio and Trump found respect for one another given that Trump spearheaded the Obama Birther Movement, started his presidential campaign on an anti-immigration, xenophobic platform, enacted a travel ban against predominantly Muslim nations and continues to espouse disparaging stereotypes towards immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries.

That this is the man to whom Trump gave his first pardon to is unsettling. Who knows what other crimes against humanity the president will later pardon.

Besides being a fan of Arpaio for supporting him early on, sending a deputy to Hawaii on taxpayers’ dime to locate Obama’s birth certificate, and in Trump’s words, doing a lot “in the fight against illegal immigration,” Arpaio represents what Trump would like to be: an authoritarian.

The documented abuses of power that took place under Arpaio’s jurisdiction and in the jails he ran really calls for him to be redubbed “America’s Cruelest Sheriff.”

A quick timeline of Arpaio’s infamous career as Sheriff of Maricopa County:

1994: Arpaio erects a tent city for inmates which he describes as a “concentration camp.” Amnesty said the tent city was not an “adequate or humane alternative to housing inmates.”

1997: The Justice Department sues Maricopa County for using excessive force and inmate mistreatment, but charges are later dropped.

1999: Maricopa County awards $8.25 million to the family of an inmate who died after a struggle with guards in 1996.

2008: A federal judge rules that conditions in Arpaio’s jail are unconstitutional after a lawsuit is filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

2017: Arpaio is found guilty of defying a federal judge’s order to stop racially profiling Latinos and faces up to six months in jail. He is later pardoned by President Trump.

This is just a quick overview of some of the inhumane activities that Arpaio perpetrated in the jails and county he supervised, but a more indepth look will illustrate Arpaio’s disdain for the rule of law or human compassion.

Critics of Arpaio are planning to protest the former sheriff’s visit to Fresno, starting at 5:30p.m. at 5707 E Blach Ave. in Fresno.

This pardoned criminal will, on Sept. 29, visit a county which according to the Migration Policy Institute, is made up of a population that is 52 percent Hispanic and Latino and has, according to estimates, about 85,000 undocumented immigrants.

In a slap to the face to a large part of the community, the Fresno Republican Party has invited Arpaio to be a special guest for a GOP fundraising event on Sept. 29.

Local community leaders and officials who support Arpaio should be ashamed for choosing this man over the members of their own community.  

In their endorsement of Arpaio, the GOP is showing they are not working in the interest of Latin and Hispanic people, or undocumented immigrants.