The former sheriff told Univisión News that he was just doing his job when he imposed tactics that included racial profiling, and that he will never apologize for the fear and terror he caused to the Latino community in Arizona’s Maricopa County.
These tactics included hunting down illegal immigrants at their work places, neighborhoods, the highways they transited on, and even at the side walks they used to get home.
Arpaio said during an interview: “An apology for doing my job? That would never happen,” he continued: “I think if I stood on a big tower and I screamed at everyone, at all Hispanics, and I said that I disagreed with all the deportations and said ‘I love you all’ it wouldn’t make any difference.”
The ex-sheriff was found guilty of racially profiling while being in law enforcement. Arpaio, after avoiding a jail sentence following a controversial pardon from President Donald Trump, has expressed an interest in running for political office.
Trump’s pardon came right before his repeal of DACA, and this has angered the Latino community, increasing racial tensions. Arpaio said he has no issue with the timing of the two decisions and that the Dreamers “must wait a little and have some confidence in the president.”
He also made sure to point out: “By the way, I’m not a Dreamer, my mother and father came here legally from Italy. I’m a U.S. citizen, proud to be a citizen of the United States. My whole life was dedicated to defending my country. So I think he (Trump) knows what he’s doing. I back him up on that. I back him up on anything he does, OK?”
Even though the Justice Department found that Arpaio’s officers called Latinos “wetbacks,” “Mexican b*tches,” “f*cking Mexicans” and “stupid Mexicans,” he doesn’t think his reputation as the department’s leader suffered with that demographic.
To this, he also added: “I don’t really think they hate me when you get right down to it. I get threats. But I don’t get the threats from the Hispanics”.
Arpaio, who is 85 years old, was defeated for re-election this past November after serving seven terms as sheriff. During his 23 years on the job, Arpaio was constantly accused of racially profiling Latinos and engaging in unlawful policing, but none of it matters now that he has Trump’s pardon.
