Trump Pardons Joe Arpaio, Who Became Face of Crackdown on Illegal Immigration
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Friday pardoned Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff whose aggressive efforts to hunt down
and detain undocumented immigrants made him a national symbol of the divisive politics of immigration and earned him a criminal contempt conviction.
“I won’t do it tonight because I don’t want to cause any controversy,” the president said Tuesday night
at a campaign-style rally in Phoenix, after asking, “Was Sheriff Joe convicted for doing his job?”
“I’ll make a prediction: I think he’s going to be just fine,” Mr. Trump said.
In a two-paragraph statement, the White House said
that Mr. Arpaio gave “years of admirable service to our nation” and called him a “worthy candidate for a presidential pardon.”
Mr. Trump called Mr. Arpaio “an American patriot” in a tweet later Friday.
In his own tweets, Mr. Arpaio thanked Mr. Trump and called his conviction “a political witch hunt by holdovers in the Obama justice department.” He also pointed his supporters to a website
that was accepting donations to help him pay off his legal fees.
Kelli Ward, a former Arizona state senator who is challenging Senator Jeff Flake in a Republican primary for his seat in
2018, called Mr. Arpaio “a patriot who did the job the Feds refused to do.” Mr. Trump has endorsed Ms. Ward’s candidacy.