Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, known for his aggressive immigration enforcement, says a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling clears him of past racial profiling charges. The 93-year-old retired lawman points to the court's shadow docket decision in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo as legalizing tactics similar to those that led to his 2017 pardon by Donald Trump. Arpaio views the 6-3 ruling as a direct endorsement of his methods.
Joe Arpaio served as sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona—from 1993 to 2016, overseeing what critics called a reign of racialized terror against immigrants in the state's most populous county, including Phoenix. He used the federal 287(g) program to conduct raids, parading arrestees before cameras and targeting Latinos through traffic stops, workplace invasions, and church surveillance. In court, Arpaio once stated, “My program, my philosophy is a pure program. You go after illegals. I’m not afraid to say that. And you go after them and you lock them up.” He admitted, “I was using race as the reason to determine whether somebody was here legally or illegally.”
The Department of Justice investigated his practices in 2008 for rampant racial profiling, which Arpaio boasted about on television, even calling it “an honor” to be compared to the Ku Klux Klan. In 2011, the Department of Homeland Security revoked his 287(g) authority, and in 2012, the DOJ sued. Despite this, Arpaio established a hotline and used confidential informants to pursue deportable individuals. His office was later found guilty of racial profiling, requiring a court monitor and benchmarks that cost taxpayers over $100 million, though compliance remains incomplete per a recent report.
Arpaio faced criminal contempt for defying a judge's order and received a pardon from President Trump in 2017. “When he pardoned me, he let every cop know that he’s going to have their back,” Arpaio said. Now, he claims vindication from the Supreme Court's summer 2025 shadow docket ruling in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo, a 6-3 decision without a majority opinion. The case involved complaints of immigration agents' racial profiling in Los Angeles, where “Individuals with brown skin are approached or pulled aside by unidentified federal agents, suddenly and with a show of force,” including U.S. citizens. Justice Brett Kavanaugh's concurrence argued that apparent ethnicity can be a “relevant factor” for reasonable suspicion in immigration stops, alongside other criteria, distinguishing it from racial profiling alone.
Arpaio told a reporter, “I was just cleared by the Supreme Court... Obama and Biden went after me for racial profiling... The Supreme Court ruled in my favor last month.” He added, “I was vindicated by the Supreme Court of all this shit.” The Trump administration has revived 287(g) task forces, now exceeding 1,000 agreements nationwide—the program's historical high—allowing local police to perform ICE duties. Customs and Border Patrol's Greg Bovino said agents detain based on “how they look,” echoing Arpaio's approach.