Valley & State

It was the day after the Justice Department's big press conference and I wondered if Sheriff Joe Arpaio had calmed down.

The answer was yes.

And no.

Last Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas E. Perez outlined a Justice Department report that included a blistering condemnation of the inner workings of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office under Arpaio.

The sheriff lashed back, calling the Justice Department's action a "sad day for America" and labeling the whole investigation a political witch hunt. At the same time, Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano rescinded Arpaio's authority to conduct immigration screening in the jails.

A day after all this, how was Arpaio feeling?

"It's hard to get the story out with the media frenzy," he said. "I'm a little concerned with Janet Napolitano, who I have worked with for years, taking away my federal authority in the jails. That's bad. ...

"That's one thing we've been doing that the feds have loved us for doing. We've had audits every year. We had the U.S. marshal come into our jails. We had Homeland Security officials. So it looks like one hand of the government doesn't know what the other is doing."

What about that 22-page letter outlining the government's investigation, including incidents of racial profiling and discrimination?

"So, we had a couple of bumps," Arpaio said. "We had some isolated incidents, and they make it look like it's systemic. ... We thought we almost had this thing resolved. We gave them more files. Then we wake up in the morning and they do a press conference."

Arpaio believes that the timing of that press conference was aimed at diverting attention from problems the administration has been having with the Fast and Furious gun-running operation and other issues.

At the same time, he said that he remains willing to work with the U.S. Attorney's Office.

The feds say that Arpaio has to decide to cooperate with them by Jan. 4, after which they'll have 60 days to fix things or the U.S. Attorney's Office will sue.

"If this is not resolved we'll see them in court," he said. "But I'm ready to talk with them -- again. I'm an ex-federal guy for 30 years. ... I'd tell them this isn't systemic. This is a few examples that happened and we corrected them. ...

"We're going to work with them. We have for three years. But one thing I'm not going to agree to is to be controlled by some federal monitor or something. I'm the elected sheriff here, and I report to the 4 million voters in the county."

In the meantime, he said he'll do his job as he sees fit.

"I'm still going to enforce the illegal-immigration laws. We still have two state laws to enforce," he said.

"I've sworn in over 100 ICE agents, deputized them so they can work with us. What do I do with that? They took away all my officer credentials. Do I take away theirs, too? I won't because that's not good for enforcement. But why isn't Napolitano worried about the ICE agents wearing my badges if we're so bad?"

Arpaio even sees some good news in what happened.

"I should thank the president," he said. "He brought immigration back. Everybody in the debates is talking about immigration. The issue was going away. They want to hide it. And here comes the president and now everybody is talking about it. That's what should happen. They should talk about and get it resolved, the Congress and White House and get it over with."

He joked about how it would have been nice if President Obama had invited him to the White House for a glass of wine and a nice chat to discuss the problem.

What about Arpaio's future? Democratic lawmakers, immigrations activists and others have been clamoring for the sheriff to resign.

And he comes up for re-election (for what would be his sixth term) in November. He supposedly has as much as $6 million socked away for what could be the most bruising campaign of a long career.

So, will he run?

If you've lived here and followed the sheriff for even a little bit, the question seems silly. You know the answer.

"I'm not going to back down," Arpaio said. "When they ask if I'm going to resign I say, 'Are you kidding?' I'll decide in January what office I'm running for. I'm still interested in the (U.S.) Senate race. If I don't run for Senate I am definitely running for sheriff. Let the people decide."

Reach Montini at 602-444-8978.