Opinion: Trump told Time magazine that his plan for the largest deportation operation ever in the United States includes using the National Guard, the military and local police.

The folks in Fountain Hills who are horrified at the possibility of former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio being elected mayor in November may have nothing to worry about.

The next Donald Trump administration — should there be one — could have a high-profile job for the 91-year-old ex-lawman who was convicted of criminal contempt of court then pardoned by Trump in 2017.

Time Magazine published an interview with Trump this week in which he said that as part of his plan to resurrect the grotesque Eisenhower-era “Operation Wetback,” the largest mass deportation of undocumented workers in United States history, he would use local police to help round up and deport those suspected of being in the country illegally.

Trump told Time that he’d use the National Guard and the military, and added, “We’re going to be using local police, because local police know them by name, by first name, second name and third name. I mean, they know them very well.”

Arpaio’s immigration sweeps cost Arizona

Arizona has already tried that. We have the scars to prove it, by way of the state’s infamous Senate Bill 1070 “show me your papers” law.

After that atrocity of a bill pass the Legislature and was signed by then-Gov. Jan Brewer, Arpaio used deputies to run immigration sweeps and traffic stops that eventually led to lawsuits that have, so far, cost Maricopa County taxpayers $250 million.

Courts found the policies and practices of Arpaio’s office to violate the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, as well as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Kari Lake is: Arizona’s new Joe Arpaio

Not that it stopped Arpaio from continuing the raids in violation of a court order. Which led to his criminal contempt conviction. Which led to the Trump pardon.

And which could lead — Hey, why not? — to a BIG role in the next Trump administration.

Trump would ‘convince’ local police to go along

Deportation Czar, or something like that, a job that would require someone like Arpaio, someone familiar with public policy based on ignoring the law.

Trump is a guy like that. In the Time interview, for example, Trump brushed off the fact that it is illegal to use military force on civilians.

“Well, these aren’t civilians,” Trump said. “They are people that aren’t legally in our country.”

And when he was reminded that a president has no authority over local law enforcement, Trump hinted that he’d encourage cooperation by way of the pocketbook.

“There’s a possibility that some won’t want to participate,” Trump said, “and they won’t partake in the riches.”

Put all that together and it occurs to me that Arpaio’s future position, should he be offered one, could not have the word “czar” in its title.

Trump will already have taken that.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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