Joe Arpaio

Mark Osler 8-30-2017

As President Trump has pointed out, others have made bad use of that same power, favoring cronies (Scooter Libby) and benefactors (Marc Rich.) He is right about that. Both of those made my stomach turn. I was a federal prosecutor when President Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, and it was infuriating — rewarding a fugitive cut against everything I worked for. In pardoning former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, though, Trump has done something worse: The president has not only rewarded someone who is unrepentant, but he has celebrated the crime itself. When asked about the pardon, Trump said of Arpaio that “He’s done a great job for the people of Arizona, he’s very strong on borders, very strong on illegal immigration, he is loved in Arizona ...”

Noemi Romero 9-16-2014
Noemi Romero's Family. Photo from Define American

Noemi Romero's Family. Photo from Define American

America was a free country. There, freedom is everything. Growing up, that was the picture I had. America was the country where you’re free to do whatever you want.

It all changed when I turned 16. I woke up excited, ready to go to the DMV and get my driver’s license like all my friends were doing -- and then my parents told me that I was here illegally. I was undocumented. Reality sunk in. America was not a free country for me.

Maryada Vallet 6-27-2012
Jonathan Gibby/Getty Images

Protesters opposed to Arizona's Immigration Law SB 1070 rally for immigrant rights. Jonathan Gibby/Getty Images

Even at 10 p.m., the dry heat caused the collapse of multiple people of faith gathered in a candlelight vigil outside Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s infamous tent city jail on Saturday evening. Earlier in the day, nearly 120 miles due south of Phoenix, the bodies of three immigrants who died of heat stroke were found. In one of those cases of tragic death, the man who collapsed was Guatemalan and his pregnant wife sat by his side.

Arizona continues to lead the way in the border humanitarian crisis and with immigrant rights violations. As a humanitarian, ally, and advocate, I came to the migrant justice movement with the belief that the U.S. immigration system and border policies were merely broken, but I am convinced now that these violations of human dignity are the symptoms of systemic racism targeted at immigrants.

The system is not broken, it is meant to break people.

Randall Amster 8-16-2010
The clock nudged toward midnight on a cool Arizona summer evening.
Ian Danley 4-15-2010
The following blog is a response to the passage of controversial immigration legislation in Arizona.
Connie Anderson 4-06-2009
In a stunning turnabout, some of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's firmest allies distanced themselves from his hard-line tactics when the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted to postpone accepting $1.6 m
Nate Van Duzer 2-18-2009

It was very humiliating to be handcuffed in front of my family's business, in front of customers and neighbors.