LGBT rights groups have condemned
President Donald Trump's decision to pardon former Maricopa County
Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
The 85-year-old Arpaio served as
sheriff for 24 years. In July, a federal judge found Arpaio guilty
of criminal contempt of court, finding that he had defied a judge's
order to stop arresting immigrants suspected of being in the United
States illegally.
“I am pleased to inform you that I
have just granted a full Pardon to 85 year old American patriot
Sheriff Joe Arpaio,” Trump tweeted on Friday. “He kept Arizona
safe!”
Arpaio told the AP that he was grateful
for the pardon.
“I appreciate what the president
did,” he said. “I have to put it out there: Pardon, no pardon –
I'll be with him as long as he's president.”
JoDee Winterhof, senior vice president
for policy and political affairs at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC),
the nation's largest LGBT rights advocate, said that by pardoning
Arpaio Trump was “aligning himself with his nationalist, racist,
anti-LGBTQ supporters.”
“Joe Arpaio must be held accountable
for his long record of violating the civil rights of Maricopa
County’s Latinx population, and carrying out a hate-filled agenda
through extreme racial profiling,” Winterhof said in a statement.
“During his tenure, Arpaio has attacked nearly every marginalized
community, including using anti-LGBTQ schemes to humiliate inmates at
his ‘Tent City’ prison. By pardoning Arpaio, Trump is again
aligning himself with his nationalist, racist, anti-LGBTQ supporters
– only two weeks after the violent extremism in Charlottesville.”
“This pardon is yet the latest
example that bigotry and intolerance are core pillars of Trump's
Presidency,” GLAAD Director of Spanish Language and Latinx Media &
Representation Monica Trasandes said in a statement. “Trump is
sending a chilling message of support for racial profiling, inhumane
inmate abuses, and unlawful defiance for the federal court system.
The LGBTQ community must stand with all immigrants and communities of
color as we fight back against the dangerous and discriminatory
agenda of the Trump Administration”
The New York Times in 2008
described Arpaio as “America's worst sheriff.”