Arpaio: Will Act against “Obama/Biden Admin”

by Sharon Rondeau

(Aug. 31, 2025) — In an X post on Thursday afternoon, former Maricopa County, AZ Sheriff Joseph Arpaio, 93, promised to “take action against the organized efforts by the Obama/Biden admin to take me down.”

“Obama and his Democrat allies are still after me for my investigation into Obama, my fight against illegal immigration, and my unwavering support of Pres. Trump!” Arpaio wrote. “I am taking action against the organized efforts by the Obama/Biden admin to take me down (coming soon).”

Under the text is video from a news program broadcast after the passage of “1070” a reference to SB 1070 passed by the Arizona legislature in April 2010 and signed by then-Gov. Jan Brewer.

The “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act” was intended to strengthen the state’s enforcement of federal immigration law by authorizing law-enforcement entities to ask for proof of immigration status from individuals suspected of being in the county, state and country illegally and strengthened employers’ requirement to use E-Verify, a federal database designed to confirm whether an individual is legally able to work in the United States.

The broadcast included White House video depicting Obama saying, “We challenged the Arizona law that was supported by the sheriff because we thought that there was a great danger that naturalized citizens, individuals with Latino surnames potentially could be vulnerable to questioning…”

Filmed while sitting at his desk, Arpaio responded with, “He didn’t like the 1070 law; of course he connects me with the 1070 law, and my answer is, ‘I’m just doing my job,’ and IRS, everybody violates the law, and I’m not going to stop…”

The law more specifically “requires officials and agencies of the state and political subdivisions to fully comply with and assist in the enforcement of federal immigration laws and gives county attorneys subpoena power in certain investigations of employers.  Establishes crimes involving trespassing by illegal aliens, stopping to hire or soliciting work under specified circumstances, and transporting, harboring or concealing unlawful aliens, and their respective penalties.”

The Lawsuits

On July 6, 2010 Obama’s Justice Department sued Arizona over the legislation, claiming it “unconstitutionally interferes with the federal government’s authority to set and enforce immigration policy…A patchwork of state and local policies would seriously disrupt federal immigration enforcement.  Having enacted its own immigration policy that conflicts with federal immigration law, Arizona ‘crossed a constitutional line.’” 

In June 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that three of four provisions of the law conflicted with superior federal immigration law and could not stand. Left in place was law enforcement’s authority to ask suspected illegal aliens to show proof of their status in the country.

During his six terms as sheriff, Arpaio came to be known as “America’s Toughest Sheriff” for his jail discipline, requiring the inmates to wear “pink underwear,” the outdoor “Tent City,” and opposition to illegal aliens in the county.

In 2007, a group of plaintiffs filed Melendres, et al v. Arpaio, et al claiming Arpaio, several deputies and Maricopa County were responsible for allegedly employing “racial profiling” during traffic stops.

Obama took office in January 2009. Two months later, the Justice Department opened a probe into the MCSO “pursuant to Section 14141 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI).”

On September 2, 2010, Justice filed a lawsuit against the MCSO, Maricopa County and Arpaio “in his official capacity as Sheriff of Maricopa County” alleging the sheriff’s office “refused to cooperate with our investigation.”

By June 2011, the press release states, the MCSO provided the requested documentation, “settling this suit.” Further, Justice wrote, “We found that MCSO engaged in a pattern of misconduct that violated the Constitution and federal law. Specifically, we found that MCSO engaged in a policy of stopping, detaining, and investigating persons of Hispanic ancestry based on their race, in traffic and during worksite raids; failed to provide language access assistance to Hispanic jail inmates with Limited English Proficiency (LEP); and unlawfully retaliated against individuals who complained about or criticized MCSO’s practices.”

A second lawsuit against the MCSO followed in 2012, claiming, “The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) and Sheriff Joseph M. Arpaio (Arpaio) have engaged and continue to engage in a pattern or practice of unlawful discriminatory police conduct directed at Latinos in Maricopa County and
jail practices that unlawfully discriminate against Latino prisoners with limited English language skills. For example, Latinos in Maricopa County are frequently stopped, detained, and arrested on the basis of race, color, or national origin, and Latino prisoners with limited English language skills are denied important constitutional protections. In addition, Defendants MCSO and Arpaio pursue a
pattern or practice of illegal retaliation against their perceived critics by subjecting
them to baseless criminal actions, unfounded civil lawsuits, or meritless administrative actions.”

The Justice Department filed a Complaint in Intervention in Melendres and was present in court hearings wherein U.S. District Court Judge G. Murray Snow presided.

In May 2013, Snow made permanent his December 2011 temporary injunction against conducting traffic stops, finding Arpaio to have been in civil contempt of the order, requiring restitution to the plaintiffs and imposing a monitor on the sheriff’s office to ensure compliance.

In attempting a settlement, Arpaio offered to pay $100,000 to a civil-rights organization out of his own funds and for the county to donate $350,000 “to compensate people who were racially profiled by Arpaio’s deputies.” Snow rejected the offer and brought the case to trial in 2015.

In 2016 Arpaio sought re-election to a seventh term. In August that year, Snow referred Arpaio to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona on an allegation of misdemeanor criminal contempt.

The U.S. Attorney declined to prosecute, claiming a conflict of interest. “The case was then referred to the U.S. Justice Department, which announced in October that it would pursue the charge just days before early voting began in the state of Arizona as Arpaio sought re-election to a seventh term,” The Post & Email reported.

On July 31, 2017, Bolton convicted Arpaio of the charge without a jury, after which Arpaio’s attorneys filed a motion for a new trial or alternatively asked that the verdict be vacated on their claim that an improper statute was invoked to charge Arpaio. Arpaio’s attorneys also claimed Arpaio was not notified of the date and time of the ruling so he could be present in the courtroom.

On November 8, 2016, Arpaio was defeated by Democrat Paul Penzone, whose campaign had received an infusion of $2 million from a George Soros-funded political action committee late in the campaign cycle. Ironically, after dismantling Tent City and pledging to “restore that respect, that transparency and that confidence to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office,” Penzone resigned a year before his second term was to end, having been cited by Snow for civil contempt for failing to resolve a backlog of internal investigations originating during Arpaio’s governance.

As Arpaio prepared to face sentencing, President Trump issued a “full and unconditional pardon” on August 25, his wife’s birthday. Ava Arpaio passed away in 2021.

The “Investigation into Obama”

Arpaio’s “investigation into Obama” undoubtedly refers to the probe he authorized in August 2011 at the request of 242 constituents concerned that if the “long-form” birth-certificate image posted by the White House in April was, as some experts claimed, a forgery, their votes in the 2012 presidential election would be disenfranchised.

Contrary to Arpaio’s initial belief that the birth-certificate PDF on whitehouse.gov would prove genuine, his investigative team, a volunteer group known as the “Cold Case Posse,” on March 1, 2012 reported just the opposite: that its members were unable to clear the document as authentic and further probing was needed.

The image is a “computer-generated forgery,” lead investigator Mike Zullo declared during the March 1 press conference, and the purported Selective Service registration form bearing Obama’s name released to several FOIA requesters is a “hard-copy forgery.”

In his 2020 memoir, Arpaio suggested Obama is a “naturalized citizen” rather than the constitutionally-required “natural born Citizen” reserved solely for the president and commander-in-chief.

He also praised Zullo for what he said was the “incredible job of exposing the truth” Zullo did on the Obama birth-certificate question.

According to Arpaio, the fraudulent birth certificate “may be the largest hoax and cover-up scandal in American history.” On August 1, he wrote on X that “Obama’s presidency” was “illegitimate.”

“I will continue to expose the deep state behind Obama’s illegitimate presidency and their long history of scandals against the American people!” Arpaio concluded his comment.