Joe Arpaio, the controversial ex-sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona announced on Sunday that he’ll be running for his old job once again, two years after he received a presidential pardon from Donald Trump for a federal contempt-of-court conviction.
“On this day, August 25, 2019, after consultation and approval from my wife of 61 years, Ava, I have decided to run to be re-elected Sheriff,” Arpaio said in a press release. “Watch out world! We are back!”
In the press release, Arpaio vowed to reinstate some of the problematic policies that made him infamous including the Tent City Jail, where he housed immigrants in outdoor tents in the scorching Phoenix heat, NBC News notes.
Dubbed “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” Arpaio was known for boasting about forcing inmates to wear pink underwear, feeding inmates only twice a day with “Nutraloaf,” which, as NBC News notes, other prisons serve as a form of discipline and other measures that prompted several civil rights lawsuits.
He also drew outrage when he persistently targeted Latinx people in his signature immigration patrol, racially profiling individuals and arresting them based on the suspicion that they were undocumented.
When a federal judge ordered him to stop this targeted profiling, Arpaio ignored the judge’s orders, leading to him being charged with contempt of court.
Even amidst these legal problems, Arpaio ran for a seventh term as sheriff of Maricopa County in 2016 but ultimately lost that election.
Now, exactly two years ago to the date which President Donald Trump pardoned him, he’s back and making another attempt for his 7th term.
“The last four years have proven to be a time of lost opportunities to continue the kind of tough policing
this county needs,” Arpaio said in the press release. “Once back in office, I will use my position to restore pride to our law enforcement ranks, not only here, in the fourth-largest county in America, but across the country.”