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Phoenix, Arizona - Barriozona: You are without a doubt a controversial public servant, who receives both praise and
criticism. Who is Joe Arpaio?
Sherriff Arpaio: There’s only one like me, although some people say: “We should clone you.” But there can only be one Joe
Arpaio. I was born and raised June 14—Flag Day—1932, in Springfield, Massachusetts. Worked hard for my father that
came from Italy and mother; my mother died when I was born, so I went from family to family, but I worked hard. In high
school I played all the sports; worked in my father’s grocery store; joined the Army in 1950, when I turned 18; went on to a
police department in Washington
D.C., then Las Vegas; joined the Bureau of Narcotics, which is now known as the Drug Enforcement Administration; and I
worked almost 30 years with the Federal Government fighting the international drug traffic. I was the Regional Director in
Mexico; lived in Mexico City, I had offices in Bogota [Colombia], and Argentina, so I covered Latin America; and I was the
only Federal Agent in Turkey, in the Middle East, fighting the drug traffic. I was in charge of the DEA—Drug Enforcement
Administration—in Texas, so I know about that border—frontera. I was the Head of the Federal Drug Enforcement in
Arizona; I know about the Arizona border. So I have 14 years experience working on a Mexican-U.S. border. I ran for Sheriff
in 1992. I beat the Sheriff that was in office and I have been reelected ever since. And, I’m going to run for the fifth time next
year and I expect to be reelected again—for all those critics out there and opponents that are always trying to take this
Sheriff down. Ain’t gonna happen!
Barriozona: Many accuse you of deliberately seeking media attention and publicity: What are your thoughts on this?
Sheriff Arpaio: I report to the people. Four million people, I report to—that we know of. So, since I’m elected, the people are
my bosses. I don’t report to any governor, any bureaucrat, or politician. I think the people should know what this Sheriff is
doing. I don’t run a CIA secret organization, so if you say I’m a publicity hound or whatever, you came to me, I didn’t go to
you. They all come to me; am I suppose to say, “Go talk to a Sergeant”, like everybody else says—especially (about)
controversy? There’s only one Sheriff in town, and that’s me, and I talk to the people! So if they want to call me a publicity
hound, that’s okay with me.
Barriozona: Do you believe media attention has contributed to the success of your work as Sheriff?
Sheriff Arpaio: It’s a “love-hate” relationship—especially with the newspapers. The newspapers here won’t print every time
we arrest illegal immigrants on a felony. These are serious crimes—the smuggler and the controversial arresting of the
people being smuggled in. They don’t cover the story, but national (media) does, so if they don’t want to cover it here, it
doesn’t bother me because I get plenty of coverage on national or international (media).
Barriozona: What do you consider to be the most difficult law enforcement problems Maricopa County faces today?
Sheriff Arpaio: I think that one of the problems we have to watch out for is we are increasing our population. We now have
four million; the City of Phoenix is the fifth largest in the country. We are about the second or third largest sheriff’s office in
the United States. So we have to look at the increase of population; we have to look at the environment; of course, my
expertise is in law enforcement—45 years. So as the Sheriff, we have to look in to the jails overcrowding; I don’t have a
defeatist attitude. I have two thousand rooms in the tent, I’m going to build more tents, that “VACANCY” sign will always
shine. Do you think I’m going to do like other people do and put a “NO VACANCY” sign up? Or don’t let them be booked
like in California, if you’re normally arrested on a misdemeanor, they don’t even take you to jail? Never gonna happen
here. I run the jails, any law enforcement officer that wants to arrest anybody, I will take. I will never give an excuse: “Don’t
bring them here I have no room.”
Barriozona: How is the drug smuggling in the U.S.-Mexico border different today than when you worked for the DEA?
Sheriff Arpaio: The smuggling of drugs coming into the United States from Mexico really hasn’t changed that much (from)
when I was the Director there. South America, use to come through Central America and Mexico across the border easier
than going directly into Florida, what they used to do then was called the “French Connection,” the heroin from France;
there was just too much heat, so they switched. Right now the drugs are still coming from South America, instead of going
directly to Miami, they’re coming in through the U.S.-Mexican border, more under control from the Mexico traffickers.
However, there is a lot of violence; a lot of wars going on at the border; they’re killing police officers, a lot of threats out
there. So there seems to be more of a war going on today then when I was over there.
Barriozona: You spent some time in Mexico: How did you feel about the people there—the Mexican people?
Sheriff Arpaio: I spent four years in Mexico. I used to meet with Presidente (Luis) Echeveria, [Pedro] Ojeda Paullada, de
Procuraduría (from the Attorney General’s Office). I had a great relationship with the Mexicans and the Mexican people. The
Attorney General would come to my house—and my wife liked to cook a blueberry pie—and the Attorney General loved
blueberry pie. So I got more work done—cooperation—with the Mexican Government over blueberry pie than the “big stick”
—the big stick. So I have compassion for the Mexican people, for all people around this world. The Italians, my mother and
father were Italian, I’m proud to say. I have an Italian background; on the other hand I’m still an American first, a U.S.
citizen. So I got a lot done; in Argentina, all over, I have a mutual respect type of philosophy and that’s how you get things
done.
Barriozona: Illegal immigration seems to be out of control: What impact do you believe your department’s enforcement is
having on this issue?
Sheriff Arpaio: I think we are having an impact. Because a lot of people don’t want to hear this, I don’t know about building
a fence, that’s just going to sell more shovels and more ladders. I say, when you come across the border, you arrest them.
There is a Federal law, anybody crossing the border is here can get six months in jail. Nobody enforces that law. See the
people we arrested under the State law, they can’t work behind bars—I’m mean, they can work cleaning the floor (in the
jail) —but they can’t work (elsewhere), make money to send back to their loved ones. So if you arrest them as they come
across, there is no reason to come across if you’re going to end up in jail or in tents down there. So that’s going to keep
people from coming across. Economically: why would you come here if you’re going to go to jail, you can’t work to send
money back to your family? So why do we enforce the law that nobody wants to enforce? They talk about security, no one
has said let’s arrest them. No one has said put them in jail; “oh, let’s enforce the border,” okay. Are they doing it now?
Yeah, but what do they do, they send them back. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth! They don’t want to put them
in jail! That’s as simple as I’m saying. And if you say the Hispanic community, some of them are against me, I don’t think
they really understand the situation. I have been married fifty years, my wife deserves a maid. Do you think that I can’t hire a
maid and pay cash—an illegal—do you think I can’t do that? But I won’t do it. And it’s not fair for the legitimate company
that I have to pay double to that company when I could have paid half, if I hired illegals. Do you understand? Of course, if I
hired an illegal, I’d be in the front page all over the world. If anybody else hires an illegal, they pay cash, nobody cares. I
wonder how many people are hiring illegals, from all walks of life? Then they say one thing, but they are doing another
thing. But I’m not! I’m going to follow the law!
Barriozona: “America’s Toughest Sheriff…”
Sheriff Arpaiio: …The world’s…
Barriozona: …how does this title suit you, and if you could choose a title to describe yourself, what would it be?
Sheriff Arpaio: I’m a romantic. I’ve been married for fifty years. I’m really not a tough guy, I’m tough in my job, but I have
compassion. I mean, do you think if I’m arresting all these people I go home at night and celebrate? I don’t celebrate. You
know, I have some compassion for the criminals. I used to associate with criminals; I did a lot of undercover work all over
the world. And when you work undercover you sometimes use informants, do you think the informants are priests? The
informants are bank robbers and everything else. So I’ve associated with the criminal, it doesn’t bother me, I understand
the criminal mind. But my philosophy is: You do something wrong, you have to pay for it. You have to pay; you play you pay.
And you should be punished. We use to punish our children when we were young; we use to take privileges away from our
kids when they did something wrong. So I can never understand why no one uses the word “punishment” in the jail or
prison. It’s always “education,” “rehabilitation,” you never want to punish anybody or take away their privileges. But we can
punish and take away privileges from our children—we use to—but we can’t do that? Why is it bad to say, “you do
something wrong you have to not live in the Hilton Hotel”? Why is it wrong? Because I took away their television, except for
the weather channel and the food channel, and the only reason I keep the TV is because a judge said 20 years ago they
had to have it. I took away all their movies; I took away their pornography; I took away their coffee; took away their salt; okay,
I can go on and on. I give them 15 cent meals instead of steak; they eat a bologna sandwich and an orange at brunch—
only two meals—then (we) give them a hot meal. Why do they have to live nice when they did something wrong? I can’t
understand that. But everybody else doesn’t want to understand, not everybody, you understand? Evidently, since I have
four million bosses—that we know of, there’s a few roaming around that we don’t know are here, okay—but if I have four
million bosses, isn’t it nice to report directly to them and not have to report to a governor or a bureaucrat? And evidently, the
people like what I’m doing. Now, I don’t do this job to build up a resume. When I leave here, I’m going to ride off into the
sunset—it won’t be on a horse, cause I haven’t been on a horse—and I know the day I leave, you won’t be asking me to
talk to me: I’m a nothing. So, I don’t understand that. Also, I don’t get a big salary; I have fifty people who work for me who
make more money than I do. So it’s not for money; it’s not to be the Governor, which I could have been—so why do I do
this? I work 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. Why do I do this? That’s a good question isn’t it? And it’s hard for me to
answer, but I will give you the answer: Whatever I do, I always do strong. I don’t do things halfway. But the real answer is
this—and all politicians will tell you the same thing—oh, I’m here because I serve the people—they don’t even say that
anymore, they should, but they do serve the people. But I’m here with my special link connection that I have with the people
of this county, if I didn’t have the people that want me, I’d leave tomorrow, leave tomorrow; I don’t need this job.
Barriozona: What training do your officers receive?
Sheriff Arpaio: Our people are well trained. We have a great academy. We built a brand new academy; I worked hard to do
that 5 years ago. And even other law enforcement (agencies) ask me to train their cops. On the immigration, we’ll have the
largest compliment—group—trained by the Immigration Customs Enforcement—ICE. We already have graduated 72, we
have 40 more now, and we’re going to have 160, the largest in the history of the United States, trained where we can put
our Federal hat on to enforce the immigration laws. As far as all my officers working in the jail, they’re well trained. We
have almost 4000 employees; second largest Sheriffs office in the United States. I’m going to keep leading this office, I’m
not going to give it up to any so called opponent, and I’m going to keep going. I’m going to keep going and when I feel I can’
t do the job, then I’ll leave.
Barriozona: Is there anything you’d like to add?
Sheriff Arpaio: I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak to you. I don’t want to insult you, but I’ll talk to anybody. I even
talk to the inmates; I go in the tents, I slept in the tents twice.
Barriozona: During the summer?
Sheriff Arpaio: No, I’m not stupid, I’m not that stupid. But I went to purposely tell the inmates: if I can sleep here, shut your
mouths and stop complaining. You understand? As far as illegal immigration, I don’t think it’s going to stop, I think it’s
going to continue; I don’t think Congress has the guts to come up with a final plan, but I’m going to do what my job is
fighting illegal immigration. We have a lot of investigations going on other matters, I want to be here to make sure those
cases are done properly. They may be controversial investigations against certain people, but I’m going to be here to
make sure we get the proper conclusion and we will continue to do what I’ve been doing.
Copyright © 2006 Hispanic Institute of Social Issues
Grassroots Journalism
www.barriozona.com
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By Eduardo Barraza
BARRIOZONA
June 16, 2007
Sheriff Arpaio's Formula: Toughness with "Compassion"
The four-time elected Maricopa County Sheriff talks about his life, his work, Arizona hot issues, and his
unfinished quest to continue being the toughest -yet compassionate- Sheriff.