Reports surface President Trump considering to pardon Arpaio within hours of reading a pre-written statement condemning racism

About 267,000 undocumented immigrants identify as LGBTQ

NEW YORK – GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, today released the following background information on Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio after Fox News reported that President Trump is considering to pardon him from his criminal contempt conviction. Arpaio, who served as sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona for 24 years, was found guilty of issuing racist, anti-immigrant policies after a judge ordered Arpaio to stop targeting immigrants for traffic stops and detaining undocumented immigrants without a legal basis. Joe Arpaio also gained national attention for his inhumane Tent City jail, which he boasted was a “concentration camp.”

Reports of a possible pardon were published within an hour of President Trump condemning the horrific violence committed by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend.

According to the Williams Institute, an estimated 267,000 adult undocumented immigrants identify as LGBTQ (Latinx, Black, Asian, and Muslim). Joe Arpaio’s anti-immigrant ideology has created an environment in Arizona that increased the profiling, deportation, and detention of immigrants, which included LGBTQ immigrants. Transgender immigrants are often disproportionately detained in immigration centers and suffer a higher rate of abuse.

Arpaio currently faces up to six months in prison at his sentencing, which is scheduled for October 5.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Racist and Anti-Immigration Record

• Bragged that he had built a concentration camp. “I already have a concentration camp…It’s called tent city.”
• Found guilty of criminal contempt of court for his willful defiance of “orders to stop detaining undocumented immigrants without legal basis.”
• Engaged in racial profiling in order to detain undocumented immigrants.
• Insisted President Obama’s birth certificate is forged and says he will not give up trying to prove it.
• Investigations show Arpaio and his deputies “failed to investigate of conducted only the sketchiest of inquiries into hundreds of sex crimes between 2005 and 2007, investigations by Arizona law enforcement agencies have shown. Many of those cases involved molested children.”
• Branded by The New York Times Editorial Board as “America’s Worst Sheriff.”

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