--- title: Donald Trump's Joe Arpaio Pardon Defends Racism: Jorge Ramos description: Jorge Ramos writes: "Trump had the chance to be on the right side of history, with tolerance and diversity. But he chose to be with Arpaio." canonical: https://time.com/4919991/jorge-ramos-donald-trump-joe-arpaio-pardon-racism/ author: Jorge Ramos article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-29T15:09:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T11:13:05.328Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Jorge Ramos: Trump’s Arpaio Pardon Is a Defense of Racism og:description: 'Trump is sending the message that racism is something normal' og:url: https://time.com/4919991/jorge-ramos-donald-trump-joe-arpaio-pardon-racism/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt71e2de61d05cc801/6988dbabab6d7784406af996/donald-trump-joe-arpaio-pardon-jorge-ramos.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Donald Trump, Joe Arpaio og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Jorge Ramos: Trump’s Arpaio Pardon Is a Defense of Racism twitter:description: 'Trump is sending the message that racism is something normal' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt71e2de61d05cc801/6988dbabab6d7784406af996/donald-trump-joe-arpaio-pardon-jorge-ramos.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Jorge Ramos: Trump’s Arpaio Pardon Is a Defense of Racism > Sponsored content. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=a227800e-3e36-4a7f-88a9-4cea9bcfb4f4&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) by [Jorge Ramos](https://time.com/author/jorge-ramos/) ## Jorge Ramos Aug 29, 2017 3:09 PM UTC  In this Jan. 26, 2016, file photo, then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is joined by Joe Arpaio, the then sheriff of metro Phoenix, during a news conference in Marshalltown, Iowa. In this Jan. 26, 2016, file photo, then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is joined by Joe Arpaio, the then sheriff of metro Phoenix, during a news conference in Marshalltown, Iowa. Mary Altaffer—AP by [Jorge Ramos](https://time.com/author/jorge-ramos/) ## Jorge Ramos Aug 29, 2017 3:09 PM UTC It was Friday night. [Harvey](http://time.com/4918644/hurricane-harvey-before-after-photos-houston/) had become a [Category 4 hurricane](http://time.com/4919224/hurricane-harvey-houston-policy/) and was about to hit the Texas coast. That’s when [Donald Trump](http://time.com/4919792/trump-texas-houston-hurricane-harvey/) announced his [pardon of Sheriff Joe Arpaio](http://time.com/4916920/donald-trump-pardons-joe-arpaio/). The [worst storm to hit the mainland in 12 years](http://time.com/4918744/hurricane-harvey-houston-damage-drone/) was not on the radar of Trump’s political calculations. The hurricane could wait. The pressing matter was to [pardon a man](http://time.com/4876374/donald-trump-joe-arpaio-pardons-history/) who had violated the Constitution, discriminated against Latinos and had been [convicted of criminal contempt of court](http://time.com/4545857/arizona-sheriff-joe-arpaio-charged/). A 2007 lawsuit accused the sheriff’s office of stopping and detaining people because of the way they looked. Three years later, the Justice Department sued Maricopa County, claiming that Arpaio’s agents “engaged in a widespread pattern or practice of law enforcement and jail activities that discriminated against Latinos.” That’s racism. In 2011, a judge ordered Arpaio to stop his racial profiling practices in Maricopa County, Arizona, but he simply defied the order. He was going to be sentenced in October and faced up to six months in jail. Now he doesn’t have to worry about it. Trump saved him. [Trump chose to protect a man](http://time.com/4919350/joe-arpaio-donald-trump-pardon-defense/) who openly discriminated against Latinos and destroyed many families since he was elected Sheriff of [Maricopa County](http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2017/03/28/joe-arpaio-racial-profiling-lawsuit-costs-maricopa-county-another-400k/99712036/) in 1993\. Trump chose to pardon an elected official who humiliated detainees by forcing them to wear pink uniforms and to live in an open-air jail — the so called Tent City — where temperatures sometimes reached over 110 degrees. Once I visited [Tent City](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkuOhsoyJyU) in 2013, and Arpaio was unrepentant. He liked to say that he was just doing his job and that Latinos loved him. No, they don’t, I immediately replied. But he wasn’t listening. At the end of the interview, he made me listen to the song, “My Way,” by Frank Sinatra, which he played on his cell phone. And then he walked away. Trump’s sympathy for Arpaio was marked by a lie. In 2012, Donald Trump sent [the following tweet](https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/225620165138726912?lang=en): “Congratulations to ‪@RealSheriffJoe on his successful Cold Case Posse investigation which claims ‪@BarackObama ‘birth certificate’ is fake.” Arpaio falsely claimed that Obama’s birth certificate was a forgery. Both Arpaio and Trump, with no evidence, kept that falsehood alive for years. It’s no coincidence that Arpaio became one of the first Republicans to support Trump’s candidacy for the White House. By pardoning Arpaio, President Trump is defending racism. The Department of Justice, the [ACLU](http://time.com/4918662/aclu-donald-trump-transgender-military-ban-lawsuit/) and two judges agreed that Arpaio practiced and promoted racial profiling. His agents stopped Hispanics simply because they assumed that they were undocumented. Many mistakes were made, and justice was not served. Arpaio didn’t care. He kept on doing things his way. President Trump missed a great opportunity to distance himself from racism. But I’m not surprised. On June 16, 2015, when he announced that he was running for the White House, he made racists remarks by saying that [Mexican immigrants were criminals and rapists](http://time.com/4473972/donald-trump-mexico-meeting-insult/). Then, during the campaign, he doubled down on that by stating that [Judge Gonzalo Curiel](http://time.com/4747465/gonzalo-curiel-donald-trump-dreamer-daca-juan-manuel-montest/) couldn’t do his job because of his Mexican heritage. Also, he called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” If this is not racism, then what is? Trump was visibly upset by the criticism in the media after the recent racist violence in [Charlottesville, Virginia](http://time.com/4917524/joe-biden-trump-charlottesville-response/). But it was a crisis of his own making. It [took him two](http://time.com/4899813/donald-trump-charlottes-ville-remarks-transcript/) days to condemn the KKK by name. Then he equated Neo-Nazis with the demonstrators protesting against racism and said that “very fine people” were marching alongside white supremacists. [Trump](http://time.com/4910203/donald-trump-charlottesville-protest-poll/) even described the monuments of Confederate leaders that believed in slavery as “[beautiful statues](http://time.com/4904510/donald-trump-twitter-confederate-statues/).” If President Trump really wanted to put aside the suspicions of racism and distance himself as much as possible from the alt-right movement, any senior advisor would have recommended not to pardon Arpaio. But he did it anyway. Racism is never O.K., even if condoned by the President of the United States. By legally protecting Arpaio, Trump is sending the message that racism is being accepted as something normal and that it even deserves a presidential pardon. Trump had the chance to be on the right side of history, with tolerance and diversity. But he [chose to be with Arpaio](http://time.com/4917014/joe-arpaio-pardon-reaction-john-mccain-jeff-flake/). That’s the man he saved in the middle of the storm. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4919991/jorge-ramos-donald-trump-joe-arpaio-pardon-racism/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4919991/jorge-ramos-donald-trump-joe-arpaio-pardon-racism/"},"headline":"Jorge Ramos: Trump’s Arpaio Pardon Is a Defense of Racism","datePublished":"2017-08-29T15:09:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T11:13:05.328Z","description":"\"Trump is sending the message that racism is something normal\"","url":"https://time.com/4919991/jorge-ramos-donald-trump-joe-arpaio-pardon-racism/","keywords":["Race","politics","Racism","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt71e2de61d05cc801/6988dbabab6d7784406af996/donald-trump-joe-arpaio-pardon-jorge-ramos.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jorge Ramos","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jorge-ramos/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt71e2de61d05cc801/6988dbabab6d7784406af996/donald-trump-joe-arpaio-pardon-jorge-ramos.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump, Joe Arpaio","caption":"Donald Trump, Joe Arpaio","creditText":"Mary Altaffer—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/race/","name":"Race"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4919991/jorge-ramos-donald-trump-joe-arpaio-pardon-racism/","name":"Jorge Ramos: Trump’s Arpaio Pardon Is a Defense of Racism"}}]}] ```