New York, NY – Donald Trump’s pardon of former Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio is a flagrant attack on American immigrants, and an unprecedented insult on the American criminal justice system.

Joe Arpaio terrorized and harassed Latino workers, regardless of immigration status, for the six terms he served as sheriff of Maricopa County. Under him, illegal racial profiling of law-abiding citizens ran rampant in the most populated county in Arizona, and he institutionalized systematic discrimination against Latino workers across Phoenix that included frequent violations of the U.S. Constitution.

UNITE HERE is proud to have challenged his election in multiple cycles with the “Adios Arpaio” campaign focused on activating Latino voters in Maricopa County—voters who ultimately threw Arpaio out of public office last November.

Donald Trump’s pardon of convicted criminal Joe Arpaio is an attack on immigrants writ large, and shows Trump’s support for Arpaio’s illegal practices. With a dozen TPS expirations looming in the next year and the fate of DACA at imminent risk, we are deeply troubled that Trump is pardoning criminals and sympathizing with racial bigots instead of protecting the law abiding, tax-paying immigrant workers on those programs who make the American economy run, and make this country truly great.

###

UNITE HERE represents 270,000 members working in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, transportation, and airport industries in the U.S. and Canada, including many immigrant and Latino members. Learn more at www.unitehere.org.