The president continues to demonstrate his failure to represent the best interests of Americans. His pardon of former sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, who spent his career promoting racial profiling and targeting communities of color, is an affront to justice.
Last December, the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) and partners sued Arpaio on behalf of one of his many victims, a community organizer who was targeted for arrest by Arpaio because of her Latina-sounding last name. NIJC litigator Mark Fleming warned Sheriff Arpaio at the time that, "There is only one U.S. Constitution and the Fourth Amendment applies equally to every arrest." Today President Trump has laid bare his belief that some are above the law, putting himself squarely on the wrong side of history along with the neo-Nazis and white supremacists he rushed to defend in the wake of Charlottesville.
We condemn the president's decision and urge all Americans to be vigilant against his efforts to divide our communities. We stand in solidarity with those who continue to bear the wounds inflicted by Arpaio's harmful and racist actions over the course of decades.