Sheriff Joseph Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz., has seen his illegal immigration enforcement powers curtailed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after the Department of Justice accused him of discriminating against Latinos, but he still might run for U.S. Senate, and he has no intention of resigning as sheriff.
“When they ask if I’m going to resign I say, ‘Are you kidding?’ I’ll decide in January what office I’m running for,” Arpaio told The Arizona Republic. “I’m still interested in the (U.S.) Senate race. If I don’t run for Senate I am definitely running for sheriff. Let the people decide.”
A February poll showed Arpaio leading the field if he attempts to replace retiring Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and at the time he had $3.5 million cash on hand from his last reelection campaign for sheriff that he could put towards the Senate race.
DOJ announced last week that it had “found reasonable cause to believe that MCSO, under the leadership of Sheriff Joseph M. Arpaio, has engaged in a pattern or practice of misconduct that violates the Constitution and federal law,” including “wide-ranging discrimination against Latinos.”
Arpaio expressed surprise at the findings. “We had some isolated incidents, and they make it look like it’s systemic,” he said.” We thought we almost had this thing resolved. We gave them more files. Then we wake up in the morning and they do a press conference.” He also called the investigation a politically-motivated “witch hunt.”
“If this is not resolved we’ll see them in court,” Arpaio told the Republic, adding that he’s “still going to enforce the illegal-immigration laws. We still have two state laws to enforce.”
