Joe Arpaio Quotations

I would have liked to see where we would have the authority to arrest illegal aliens just by being here illegally and book them into our jails, but that's not going to happen.

We may need some clarification, but it gives me the authority now to arrest everybody involved in that situation and not have to rely on the feds,

We took away coffee, that saved $150,000 a year. Why do you need coffee in jail? ... Switched to bologna sandwiches, that saved half a million dollars a year.

I will continue to enforce all the laws, including illegal immigration. Nothing changes.

We're coming into this town full force and we're going to take care of this problem like we did the drug and the graffiti problem.

When we go to court, they are going to have to come up with all the evidence where they are accusing me and my dedicated deputies of racial profiling. It's always easy to throw the race card in there and that's what they're doing in Washington today, that they're concerned about racial profiling.

So you don't speak English, you have no ID, you can't tell where you're from... that's suspicion, it's lower than probable cause. And then we have a right to call immigration and check you out.

I needed a place to put the dogs. The prisoners ruined the jail, so I put the prisoners in the tents and I had a nice place to put the dogs. We treat the cats nice too, and horses. I have the inmates take care of the animals. It's therapy too, you see.

I'm the elected sheriff, ... I serve the people. I don't serve the mayor. I don't serve some politicians.

I'm working on Leno. He's from my home state, Massachusetts. And my home country, Italy. I said, 'Hey, Jay, why don't you have me on your show? Afraid I'll be funnier than you?'

I'm elected. I don't report to any politician. I report to the people. If I had to report to any politician, I'd quit tomorrow. I'm not tall, dark and handsome. They don't vote for me because I look like a movie star. I can't get that vote. People keep voting for me because they like what I do.

I want to make this place so unpleasant that they won't even think about doing something that could bring them back.

But hey, controversy - well, it hasn't hurt me in 50 years.

This has been very controversial. It should not have been. It's only because this guy is a celebrity. My deputies did the right thing. They charged him with reckless driving. There was no evidence that he was under the influence while driving, and that's the way it goes. Period.

It's a design flaw, ... A little flaw, but they latched on to it.

A ‘liberal paradise’ would be a place where everybody has guaranteed employment, free comprehensive health care, free education, free food, free housing, free clothing, free utilities and only law enforcement personnel have guns. And, believe it or not, such a liberal utopia does indeed exist. ... It’s called prison.

I believe Donald Trump is the best guy for president; and I'm not going to shy away and I take the risk. I could just stay home and don't talk about any candidate.

I'm not a computer guy. I have my Smith Corona. I would know nothing about computers.

I even used to stop vehicles going through stop signs, even though I was walking.

You go to London, you see a TV set in every cell and the sign up that all the officers must treat prisoners with dignity. What about your dedicated soldiers that have helped fight in Afghanistan and Iraq? They're living in tents and our soldiers are living in tents. So it's OK for soldiers to live in tents, in hot tents, but it's wrong for inmates?

I don't use e-mail or u-mail or whatever it's called.

I'm an equal-opportunity law-enforcement guy - I lock everybody up.

It doesn't matter whether you're black, Hispanic, white. They're all in the same boat.

This is the sheriff you're talking about, with a gun and badge that enforces the law. Nothing is going to stop me from cracking down on illegal immigration as long as the laws are there.

We learn by our problems. We correct our deficiencies if there are any.

I get a lot of calls from families and people who have served time and they say, 'Thank you, Sheriff. I hate the tents.' That's music to my ears.

Not that I ever did anything wrong. I was just aggressive. That's the way I am in my life.

I am the constitutionally and legitimately elected sheriff, and I absolutely refuse to surrender my responsibility to the federal government.

I can get along great with the Hispanics. In fact, I sure would like to meet them, even the politicians, maybe in the back room or whatever, have a couple of beers and try to explain. But they need to understand that I enforce the laws. I want to listen to them and hear their problems. I want them to tell me what their problems are.

I don't bow down to the federal government.

I'm not interested in Vice President. I'm hanging around Arizona. I'm running again for Sheriff.

Everything I did in the jails - chain gangs, everything - I haven't changed the policy. I did it, I stand by it, and I'm not going to change.

Some people call me a publicity hound.

I would hope to get together with the Latino community, if I could ever have them talk to me without screaming and threatening me. So I hope to get together with the community and try to explain what we do, so that's going to be one of my missions coming up.

If you mention what he said about rapists from Mexico, there are some that come over - I can prove that with how many I have in the jail system - but I don't think Donald Trump meant that everybody coming over are rapists. Come on, he knows that and I know that.

If a nation's security is only as strong as its weakest link, then America may be in serious trouble. Hawaii may be our weakest link and could have a serious impact on our nation's immigration policy.

I have compassion, I've told you people that over and over again. Enforcing the law overrides my compassion.

I used to have trust with reporters. Give them scoops. Those were the old days. It's very strange, when you give a story and it doesn't come out the right way.

I'm kind of an old-fashioned guy.

There's a lot of other [than Donald Trump] people that say things you may call insulting, but no one seems to care about that.

I don't think Donald Trump is afraid of journalists. If he was, he wouldn't be on the TV every hour on the hour.

I was taught to work hard and to be honest, and that's what I try to do, so that's it.

I just can't surrender. I can't start something and then surrender because of political reasons. I just don't do that, and that goes back to me, why I keep running when I should probably take it easy, even though I have no hobbies, and enjoy the rest of my life.

Once I can talk to people, I switch them over on my side.

You make deals in business and in government if you're smart.

All the studies say that immigrants are less likely to be criminals in the United States. That's what they say. The sources are there.

If they [mexicans] cross the border, I think, and they are violating the law, then that word criminal does connect with that violation, so if they're violating the law, I guess you can call them criminals. We call everybody else criminals that violate the law.

I'd rather report to four million people as the elected Sheriff than some governor or president, so I like reporting to the people.

Let [Ted] Cruz - let the people go to the courts and see if he's here legitimately. I don't know. I'm not going to get into that.

You know why you have to give [Donald] Trump credit, whether you don't like him or not? He opened the door.Now there's a lot of talk about immigration. That's good. Nobody wanted to talk about it.

I just came back from - with Trump when I endorsed him in Iowa, in Marshalltown, a little town - 27,000 - have a lot of Hispanics working there from Mexico in a private business, so they're still here. I'm not saying they're here illegally but they still come and they work, make money for their families, send the money back to Mexico or whatever, so it's a big problem.

If you come across illegal aliens committing crimes, other crimes, you deport them.

In the old days when I was enforcing illegal immigration laws, when I had the authority from the 287G, everybody accused me that 100,000 people from foreign countries left town. They either went back to where they came from or whatever. So if this little old sheriff can cause, if you want to believe it, many, many people leaving and going back to their country, why can't you do that nationwide?

I don't look at me taking risks or if that's going to affect me politically.

I take risks, if you want to call it a risk. All the people running for president, last time, you know, they all came to visit me or meet me. They all wanted my endorsement and I endorsed [Rick] Perry at that time. He wasn't that well-liked either, but you have to do what you have to do.

If I'm hated, okay. I don't believe that.

I just talk, and I say what I feel, and yet, I'm a nice guy.

I think [ immigration] is still is a problem, whether it's 11 million or 2 million. Why is it - why have the situation decreased? Are we going to say because of the crackdown or are we going to say that the jobs are not here?

I'm a very private person, regardless of what the world may think of me.

The young people when I go to McDonald's, the Hispanic clerks will come by, 'Sheriff, can we have a picture?' over and over again. At least they want a picture with me.

I think it doesn't matter what color you are. Everybody is getting the - getting the stick, and I'm sure Trump feels the same way.

You get so tired of political correctness. I'm noted for speaking out all my career.

I really love how Israel operates, and I love the Jewish people.

Look at Israel. Israel is a great country for examples on how to do security.

I still think people like to hear from someone's heart and how they really feel than the old political rhetoric trying to not say the wrong thing because how would it look, would they get votes, lose votes.

We do have freedom of speech, but if you say the wrong word, it looks like it makes headlines. So everybody has to be very careful.

Now everybody is mafia. You got the Russian mafia, the Mexican mafia. Everybody is mafia these days.

I don't rely on the media. I usually average one speech a day for 25 years. People know me because I'm out there.

It takes a lot of work to do this every day, every day, but I feel, as a sheriff, I should get to know my people. I serve them. They don't serve me. I serve them. They're my bosses, and the more people I can see and talk to, I love it.

I'd feel more comfortable talking to the blacks, or Hispanics, or the poor areas. I feel more at home, believe it or not.

Everything I do in my life is very aggressive.

Maybe today you could have shot anybody and get away with it. So there's many times, I could have killed people. Legally, I could have killed many people, especially working undercover.

Many times, when you go to arrest somebody, they pull their gun, and here I am, a federal agent, telling them to drop their gun. But the gun is like that. I give them a split second to drop it, and they drop it. I could have shot them - who is going to complain?

I love people that come from another country. I love talking to them.

But believe me, there's a lot I'd like to say - but I don't think the time is right now.

I roam the streets all the time. You'll be shocked. I'm shocked, everybody that comes up to me, "Oh, thank you, Sheriff. You're supporting Trump." I don't care who they are. They kind of whisper sometimes.

I don't throw people under the bus. When I stick by a guy - I may not agree with him all the time, but I sure don't throw him under the bus.

I don't care where [Ted] Cruz comes from. I don't care where the President comes from. Day one, I opened an investigation on a fraudulent government Hawaii document, period, on a birth certificate, so if you can say Cruz has fake documents, okay.

When you see a white guy at three in the morning on your beat in an alley, you kind of - "What's this guy doing here?"

The day I leave, you won't know how to pronounce my name. You could care less about me, and I should be dead and buried because there's not one media that will come and remember who Joe Arpaio is. That's the way it is in politics.

I don't have all these advisers, political advisers. I don't even talk to them because I'm not a slave to a campaign manager, and Trump isn't either.