US President Donald Trump on Friday pardoned controversial former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted last month of criminal contempt for illegally targeting Hispanic immigrants. In his first act of presidential clemency, Trump pardoned the deeply-divisive 85-year-old who ignored a federal court order that he stop detaining illegal migrants.
"He kept Arizona safe!" Trump tweeted, calling Arpaio a "patriot." The move earned immediate scorn from Democrats, some Republicans and rights groups, who accused the Republican billionaire of seeking to divide the country - which is still reeling from Trump's controversial remarks on racial unrest in Charlottesville.
In a statement, the White House said Arpaio - who made detainees wear pink underwear and housed them in tented desert camps - had "more than fifty years of admirable service to our nation." The former sheriff of Maricopa County, who reveled in his reputation as "America's toughest sheriff," had been due to be sentenced in October.
Arpaio tweeted that he was "incredibly grateful" to Trump, and suggested his conviction was "a political witch hunt by holdovers in the Obama justice department!" He also asked supporters to donate to his legal defense fund. According to the White House, as sheriff Arpaio protected "the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration."
Arpaio is "a worthy candidate for a presidential pardon," it added. Trump had hinted that a pardon was coming during a meandering speech in Arizona earlier this week, when he suggested Arpaio was convicted for "doing his job" and predicted that "he's going to be just fine."