For us normal people, there’s an arduous presidential pardon process that includes “the applicant’s post-conviction conduct, character, and reputation; the seriousness and relative recentness of the offense; the applicant’s acceptance of responsibility, remorse, and atonement.” But as the Daily Beast and others have noted, Arpaio has not only failed to serve even one day for his crimes so far, he still believes he was right to disobey a court order. Arpaio isn’t one bit remorseful following his criminal conviction—in fact, he remains downright defiant.
“There are literally hundreds of no-name people we’ve never heard of, who will never been in the newspaper, who are not cause célèbres, who have had applications waiting and waiting and waiting,” said P.S. Ruckman, political science professor at Northern Illinois University:
“It would give people the sense that only famous people, cause célèbres, and connected people are going to get pardons from Trump,” Ruckman said.
Sam Morison, an attorney who worked in the Justice Department’s pardon office for more than a decade, predicted Trump will pardon Arpaio when he goes to Arizona, though he added that it would send a terrible message.
“He hasn’t even been sentenced yet, he’s just been convicted,” Morison said. “And he’s not contrite, he doesn’t accept responsibility—quite the opposite. So in that sense, it’s very unusual. And the only reason he’s getting any traction at all is that he’s a well-known political figure. So it is special pleading of the worst kind.”
Just as disturbingly, immigrant rights advocates worry Trump will use the Phoenix stop to not just pardon Arpaio for his crimes, but to also further fan the flames of racial hatred for political gain in the midst of his historically-low poll numbers. Advocates have reason to fear: this month marks a year since his notoriously “dark and nativist” speech promising an anti-immigrant crackdown. While many of Trump’s campaign promises have failed, the engine of his mass deportation force has been roaring, resulting in a cruel surge in the arrests of hardworking immigrant moms and dads with no criminal record.
“At a moment when the President should be reaching out to all Americans,” said immigrant rights leader Frank Sharry, “he will undoubtedly speak to whites as if they are the only Americans that count—and as if all others are a threat to their future. For most Americans, the biggest threat to our future is Trump and his embrace of white nationalism. Sadly, that is what is likely to be on display in Phoenix tomorrow night.”