Joe Arpaio, the former Maricopa County sheriff, has demonstrated time and time again that he is xenophobic and anti-Latino. In 2017, a judge found Arpaio guilty of contempt of court for not putting an end to traffic patrols that targeted immigrants and Latinos, despite a court order. He also mishandled at least 400 sexual assault cases, some of which were allegations of child molestation. According to Rewire, in most of the cases, his office either didn’t investigate the cases or did so poorly. A police officer told the Associated Press that a large percentage of the victims were the children of undocumented immigrants, a group that Arpaio has targeted. Yet, despite the mounds of evidence, he went on Univision and told viewers that he wants immigrants to come to his country and that he has a lot of respect for them.
Arpaio plans to seek the support of Latinos when he runs for office again, even though all he’s done is vilify them. He maintained that he is not a racist, and then he tried to prove that he’s not racist by saying that he has grandchildren who aren’t white.
Check out the video here, and then watch him be completely unremorseful about his treatment of Latinos below.