Taxpayer costs for profiling verdict over Joe Arpaio’s immigration crackdowns to reach $314M

By JACQUES BILLEAUD
Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) — The taxpayer costs for the racial profiling verdict arising from then-Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s immigration crackdowns are expected to reach $314 million by mid-summer 2025. Officials on Monday approved $41 million in compliance funding for the case — the most expensive for Maricopa County taxpayers since the lawsuit was filed in 2007. Arpaio was ousted seven years ago as sheriff of Arizona’s most populous county. Nearly 11 years ago, a federal judge concluded sheriff’s deputies had racially profiled Hispanics in Arpaio’s traffic patrols that targeted immigrants and ordered costly overhauls of the agency’s traffic patrol operations and, later, its internal affairs unit. The costs of compliance have been getting heavier ever since.