Phoenix, AZ – This morning the infamous former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced that he would be running for United States Senate in the state of Arizona. Carlos Garcia, Executive Director of Puente Human Rights Movement, the organization that has led campaign against Arpaio for the last 10 years for his violent and unlawful immigration raids, stated:
“Arpaio clearly did not get the memo from voters who voted him out of office in 2016 and will meet the same fate running for U.S. Senate. Arpaio is desperate and grasping to save a failed legacy. This is one place where President Trump cannot save him or pardon him into this seat. Arizona is heading in the opposite direction of his tired bigoted politics.”
Arpaio lost his re-election campaign for Sheriff of Maricopa County in 2016. At the time he was being charged with criminal contempt of court for defying a federal judge’s order to stop racially profiling Latinos and spending millions of taxpayers’ dollars to defend himself from lawsuits. Part of the victory against him was claimed by local immigrant rights organizers under the banner of the BaztaArpaio campaign, a grassroots mobilization of voters community members who had been impacted by his policies.
The BaztaArpaio Campaign was run by People United for Justice, a coalition of local organizations, in partnership with Mijente. Tania Unzueta, the Mijente’s Interim Director and Field Director for the BaztaArpaio Campaign, said, “The defeat of Arpaio in Arizona was a bright spot during the 2016 election for people around the country and a victory which we are ready to defend. As we have done before, our communities will work to make sure that Arpaio’s legacy of cruelty and inhumanity remains in the past.”
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Puente Human Rights Movement is a grassroots migrant justice organization based in Phoenix, Arizona that develops, educates, and empowers migrant communities to protect and defend our families and in order to enhance the quality of life of our community members.
Mijente is a digital and grassroots hub for Latinx and Chicanx movement building and organizing that seeks to increase the profile of policy issues that matter to our communities and increase the participation of Latinx and Chicanx people in the broader movements for racial, economic, climate and gender justice.