The Nascent Trumpian Vision of Effective Policing: The Joe Arpaio Era

We understand the vision Donald Trump has for judicial excellence. He has certainly inspired trial court judges like U.S. District Judges Matthew Kacsmaryk (evangelical gun supporter and FDA hater) and Aileen M. Cannon (delay Trump’s trial any way you can), both Trump appointees, and “stop the steal” supporting US Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas. Trump’s political overview is certainly well-evidenced by his open admiration for autocrats, but he seems laser focused (like his MAGA flock) on how to use a democratic election to implement autocracy; his teacher: Hungary’s PM Viktor Orban. But his definition of a great chief law enforcement leader is the man he pardoned in 2017: ex-Maricopa County Sheriff, Joe Arpaio.

In his 24 years as the elected Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona (Phoenix area), Joe was proud to be labeled the toughest elected sheriff in the nation. He housed county jail inmates in his infamous “Tent City Jail,” where summer temperatures reached over 130 degrees. Inmates wore pink socks and underwear and worked on chain gangs in sweltering heat. Arpaio’s successor closed Tent City in 2016. Tent City was just one nastgy; Joe’s cruelty also extended to those not yet incarcerated.

In 2011, a federal trial court found that Joe routinely relied on racial profiling and illegal detentions to target Latinos (Melendres v Arpaio, affirmed on appeal in 2013). The court reviewed Arpaio’s ordered pattern of unlawful practices in his immigration sweeps and traffic stops. The US Department of Justice labeled Arpaio’s practices as “unconstitutional policing.” The courts agreed. The kind of racial profiling inherent in newly enacted statutes in Texas and several other red states that allow officers to stop and arrest individuals they believe are undocumented aliens. But with Trump’s new Supreme Court, where the Constitution seems to have faded in significance, perhaps what was illegal 2011 is just fine today. Hey, if you look Latino or have an accent, you are fair game.

That 2011 case did not please Joe Arpaio. He refused to change his standing orders and continued his unlawful crackdown on illegal immigration for a further 18 months. In 2017, he was convicted of criminal contempt by a federal judge in Arizona for defying that court order. Trump thoroughly enjoyed issuing a pardon to Sheriff Joe for doing what Trump believes should be the way to handle undocumented immigrants: round them up in sweeps and put them away. As usual, in his current presidential campaign, Trump has doubled down on sweeps and detentions. By the way, Joe ran for higher office… but lost.

The bigger question is how did Maricopa County fare under Sheriff Joe’s tenure? There were many more lawsuits that the Country had to deal with thanks to their highest law enforcement officer. “Seven years after Joe Arpaio was ousted as sheriff of Arizona’s most populous county, taxpayers are still footing the bills from a racial-profiling verdict over his signature immigration crackdowns — and those costs have been getting heavier since.

“The tab for the legal and compliance costs in overhauling the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is expected to reach $314 million by midsummer 2025, including $41 million approved Monday [5/20] by county officials — the most expensive for Maricopa County taxpayers since the lawsuit was filed in 2007.

“Nearly 11 years ago, a federal judge concluded sheriff’s deputies had racially profiled Latinos in Arpaio’s traffic patrols that targeted immigrants. Consequently, the judge ordered costly overhauls of the agency’s traffic patrol operations and, later, its internal affairs unit.

“The taxpayer spending is expected to continue until the sheriff’s office attains full compliance with the court-ordered changes for three straight years. Though progress has been made on some fronts, the agency hasn’t yet been deemed fully compliant.

“The money being spent on turning around the sheriff’s office looms large in law enforcement and political circles in Arizona… Earlier this year, the heavy compliance costs were cited by critics who said the city of Phoenix should resist entering a consent decree with the U.S. Justice Department, which is investigating the city’s Police Department… The overwhelming majority of the spending goes toward hiring employees to help meet the court’s requirements and a separate staff working on the court’s behalf to monitor the sheriff’s office’s compliance with both overhauls…

“Arpaio led 20 of the large-scale patrols targeting immigrants from January 2008 through October 2011. Under Arpaio’s leadership, the agency continued immigration enforcement in smaller, more routine traffic patrols until spring 2013.” Jacques Billeaud, writing for the May 23rd Associated Press. Walking while “brown” will join “driving while Black” as probable cause everywhere in the land if Trump gets elected and his courts play ball with him. That is the MAGA plan.

I’m Peter Dekom, and that such scofflaw efforts draw massive support from the MAGA GOP should scare us all… but they don’t anymore.