Joe Arpaio Quotes

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

I've had four presidential candidates visit me in the tents, and they all lost. I tried to get Hillary down here, but she's too smart. She won't come to the tents.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

The Mexicans bowed down when we talked about removing their foreign aid, and then they began cooperating with our country.

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

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

I don't bow down to the federal government.

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

I have fought on the front lines to prevent illegal immigration. I know Donald Trump will stand with me and countless Americans to secure our border.

This is a great country. You're trying to tell me we can't keep people from coming into our country if we really had the desire to do it? I don't buy it.

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.

Everything I do in my life is very aggressive.

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

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

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

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

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

I'm kind of an old-fashioned guy.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

I'm the elected sheriff, and I'm going to keep doing what the Constitution says I can do.

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.

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

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 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.

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?

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 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.

I was stationed in Turkey, Mexico City, South America, Texas, Arizona, so I do know where the Mexican-U.S. border is.

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

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.

Some people call me a publicity hound.

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.

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.

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.

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.