Top 40 Joe Arpaio Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Now everybody is mafia. You got the Russian mafia, the Mexican mafia. Everybody is mafia these days.”

— Joe Arpaio

2. “I really love how Israel operates, and I love the Jewish people.”

— Joe Arpaio

3. “Not that I ever did anything wrong. I was just aggressive. That’s the way I am in my life.”

— Joe Arpaio

4. “I don’t throw people under the bus. When I stick by a guy – I may not agree with him all the time, but I sure don’t throw him under the bus.”

— Joe Arpaio

5. “I was taught to work hard and to be honest, and that’s what I try to do, so that’s it.”

— Joe Arpaio

6. “It takes a lot of work to do this every day, every day, but I feel, as a sheriff, I should get to know my people. I serve them. They don’t serve me. I serve them. They’re my bosses, and the more people I can see and talk to, I love it.”

— Joe Arpaio

7. “The day I leave, you won’t know how to pronounce my name. You could care less about me, and I should be dead and buried because there’s not one media that will come and remember who Joe Arpaio is. That’s the way it is in politics.”

— Joe Arpaio

8. “But believe me, there’s a lot I’d like to say – but I don’t think the time is right now.”

— Joe Arpaio

9. “If a nation’s security is only as strong as its weakest link, then America may be in serious trouble. Hawaii may be our weakest link and could have a serious impact on our nation’s immigration policy.”

— Joe Arpaio

Featured in: Strong Quotes

10. “This is the sheriff you’re talking about, with a gun and badge that enforces the law. Nothing is going to stop me from cracking down on illegal immigration as long as the laws are there.”

— Joe Arpaio

11. “I don’t bow down to the federal government.”

— Joe Arpaio

12. “I roam the streets all the time. You’ll be shocked. I’m shocked, everybody that comes up to me, “Oh, thank you, Sheriff. You’re supporting Trump.” I don’t care who they are. They kind of whisper sometimes.”

— Joe Arpaio

13. “I’m not a computer guy. I have my Smith Corona. I would know nothing about computers.”

— Joe Arpaio

14. “I’m kind of an old-fashioned guy.”

— Joe Arpaio

15. “You make deals in business and in government if you’re smart.”

— Joe Arpaio

16. “Look at Israel. Israel is a great country for examples on how to do security.”

— Joe Arpaio

17. “I am the constitutionally and legitimately elected sheriff, and I absolutely refuse to surrender my responsibility to the federal government.”

— Joe Arpaio

18. “I don’t use e-mail or u-mail or whatever it’s called.”

— Joe Arpaio

19. “I get a lot of calls from families and people who have served time and they say, ‘Thank you, Sheriff. I hate the tents.’ That’s music to my ears.”

— Joe Arpaio

20. “We learn by our problems. We correct our deficiencies if there are any.”

— Joe Arpaio

21. “I think it doesn’t matter what color you are. Everybody is getting the – getting the stick, and I’m sure Trump feels the same way.”

— Joe Arpaio

22. “I just can’t surrender. I can’t start something and then surrender because of political reasons. I just don’t do that, and that goes back to me, why I keep running when I should probably take it easy, even though I have no hobbies, and enjoy the rest of my life.”

— Joe Arpaio

23. “You get so tired of political correctness. I’m noted for speaking out all my career.”

— Joe Arpaio

24. “Maybe today you could have shot anybody and get away with it. So there’s many times, I could have killed people. Legally, I could have killed many people, especially working undercover.”

— Joe Arpaio

25. “I have compassion, I’ve told you people that over and over again. Enforcing the law overrides my compassion.”

— Joe Arpaio

26. “Everything I did in the jails – chain gangs, everything – I haven’t changed the policy. I did it, I stand by it, and I’m not going to change.”

— Joe Arpaio

27. “I’m a very private person, regardless of what the world may think of me.”

— Joe Arpaio

28. “We do have freedom of speech, but if you say the wrong word, it looks like it makes headlines. So everybody has to be very careful.”

— Joe Arpaio

29. “I would hope to get together with the Latino community, if I could ever have them talk to me without screaming and threatening me. So I hope to get together with the community and try to explain what we do, so that’s going to be one of my missions coming up.”

— Joe Arpaio

30. “I don’t rely on the media. I usually average one speech a day for 25 years. People know me because I’m out there.”

— Joe Arpaio

31. “I don’t have all these advisers, political advisers. I don’t even talk to them because I’m not a slave to a campaign manager, and Trump isn’t either.”

— Joe Arpaio

32. “Once I can talk to people, I switch them over on my side.”

— Joe Arpaio

33. “When you see a white guy at three in the morning on your beat in an alley, you kind of – “What’s this guy doing here?””

— Joe Arpaio

34. “I’d feel more comfortable talking to the blacks, or Hispanics, or the poor areas. I feel more at home, believe it or not.”

— Joe Arpaio

35. “I love people that come from another country. I love talking to them.”

— Joe Arpaio

36. “The young people when I go to McDonald’s, the Hispanic clerks will come by, ‘Sheriff, can we have a picture?’ over and over again. At least they want a picture with me.”

— Joe Arpaio

37. “I used to have trust with reporters. Give them scoops. Those were the old days. It’s very strange, when you give a story and it doesn’t come out the right way.”

— Joe Arpaio

Featured in: Quotes About Stories

38. “Many times, when you go to arrest somebody, they pull their gun, and here I am, a federal agent, telling them to drop their gun. But the gun is like that. I give them a split second to drop it, and they drop it. I could have shot them – who is going to complain?”

— Joe Arpaio

39. “I’m an equal-opportunity law-enforcement guy – I lock everybody up.”

— Joe Arpaio

40. “I still think people like to hear from someone’s heart and how they really feel than the old political rhetoric trying to not say the wrong thing because how would it look, would they get votes, lose votes.”

— Joe Arpaio

41. “I just talk, and I say what I feel, and yet, I’m a nice guy.”

— Joe Arpaio

42. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re black, Hispanic, white. They’re all in the same boat.”

— Joe Arpaio

43. “I even used to stop vehicles going through stop signs, even though I was walking.”

— Joe Arpaio

44. “Everything I do in my life is very aggressive.”

— Joe Arpaio

45. “Some people call me a publicity hound.”

— Joe Arpaio