US President, Donald Trump is hardly never under fire and barely two days after his controversial 77-minute rant at the Phoenix rally in Arizona, the president has made yet another decision that has earned him a slew of criticism.

On Friday, Trump granted the first presidential pardon in his administration to Joe Arpaio, a former sheriff who was found guilty of criminal contempt after he flouted the court’s order to stop racial profiling of Latinos. President Trump tweeted, “I am pleased to inform you that I have just granted a full Pardon to 85 year old American patriot Sheriff Joe Arpaio. He kept Arizona safe!”.

While parts of the US have been hit by life-threatening category 4 storm, Hurricane Harvey, Trump has successfully brewed another political storm by granting  pardon to a man who is guilty of victimizing immigrants.

Who is Joe Arpaio?

The 85-year-old known as “America’s toughest sheriff” served as sheriff of Maricopa County in Arizona for 24 years, from 1993 to 2016. In November 2016, he ran for a seventh term as sheriff and lost.

If you’ve ever heard of or come across photos of Arizona’s infamous outdoor jail called “Tent City” where inmates are forced to wear pink underwear and pink sandals, then you probably know Joe Arpaio. Building a jail he has once himself described as a “concentration camp” is one of his biggest achievements and all-time greatest source of pride. He was so invested in the work he did at the military-style jail that he usually invited the media to see the detainees and he also gifted signed pairs of the inmates pink underwears to his important guests as souvenirs.

The new sheriff at the county has promised to close down the 24-year-old jail before the end of 2017 but it still holds hundreds of Latino prisoners who made up the entire percentage of Arpaio’s targets and purpose for building Tent City in the first place.

In an exclusive report on Tent City by The Guardian UK, Arpaio was said to have focused on clamping down on illegal immigration in 2007 when “the border state of Arizona became the main gateway for more than 50% of undocumented migration and fears grew over terrorism”.

Arpaio drew outrage and multiple lawsuits from former inmates and civil organisations with some describing his operation as “unconstitutionally inhumane and unconstitutionally dangerous”.

In 2011, a court order barred Arpaio and his officers from detaining Latino motorists “based solely on suspicion” that they were in the United States illegally. In an apparent disregard for that order, Arpaio was scheduled to be sentenced on October 5 for up to six months in prison.

Arpaio clearly shares similar views on immigration as President Trump and was a major supporter of his campaign in 2016. He, just like Trump, was at the forefront of the investigations into documents that prove former president, Barack Obama was not born in the US.

Arpaio has been described as a “notorious figure” and despite the backlash that has trailed his pardon, he has declared an intention to go into politics. He said “I’m not through with politics because of what’s happening. I didn’t ask for a pardon. It has nothing to do with a pardon. I’ve been saying this for the last couple of months. I’ve got a lot to offer.”

Tolu

Your pop culture/entertainment go-to. Music head. Wallflower. I do not like to write. On a mission to decipher covfefe.