George Soros Goes All Out to Beat Anti-Immigrant Arizona Sheriff
George Soros, the leftwing billionaire and Democratic Party mega-donor, has not been shy about getting involved in local politics this year, bankrolling attempts to remove elected law enforcement officials who oppose police reform. Politico reported on Friday that he’s making a $2 million contribution to the campaign against Joe Arpaio, the Arizona sheriff who has gained national attention for his anti-immigrant policies.
“We made a major investment in the effort to defeat Joe Arpaio for two reasons,” Soros spokesman Michael Vachon told Politico. “First, Joe Arpaio has been a stain on the justice system in Arizona for more than two decades, violating civil rights and abusing his office. Second, his influence on the national conversation about immigration has been poisonous.”
Arpaio, who runs law enforcement in Maricopa County, which includes the Pheonix metro area, has been a liberal bête-noire for almost a decade. Arpaio has been one of the leading advocates of harsh detention for undocumented immigrants, locking them up in a “tent city” where the temperature climbs to over 100 degrees in the summer. He also pushed a controversial law in Arizona known as SB 1070, which requires police to check drivers’ immigration status during routine traffic stops and has been criticized on racial profiling grounds.
He has also entertained a longstanding alliance with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Back in 2011, the two both emerged as prominent “birthers,” insinuating that President Barack Obama was not a natural-born citizen — a charge that many viewed as racist. Arpaio endorsed Trump during the primary season, cheering his call to build a wall on the Mexican border and deport undocumented immigrants.
Polls have shown Arpaio, who has been sheriff for more than two decades, in a tight content with Democratic challenger Paul Penzone, who is depending on Hispanic votes to power him to a win. He has the assistance of the Soros-backed Super PAC Maricopa Strong, which has received several contributions in the hundreds of thousands of dollars from other liberal mega-donors.
Meanwhile, Arpaio’s campaign has described Soros, the target of many anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, as “a far-left globalist” who “advocates for unrestricted immigration and refugee relocations both here and abroad” and “is trying to buy a Sheriff’s Office here in Maricopa County.”
Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!