WASHINGTON President Donald Trump on Friday pardoned a notorious former Arizona sheriff who willfully violated a federal judges order by unlawfully detaining individuals his officers claimed might be in the country illegally.

Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who had previously proclaimed himself Americas toughest sheriff, was convicted of criminal contempt last month for violating a 2011 order that barred Arpaio and his office from detaining individuals solely based on suspicions about their legal status. Arpaio, 85, was scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 5.

Throughout his time as Sheriff, Arpaio continued his lifes work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration, the White House said in a statement late Friday. Sheriff Joe Arpaio is now eighty-five years old, and after more than fifty years of admirable service to our Nation, he is a worthy candidate for a Presidential pardon.

Trumps pardon of Arpaio, the first of his presidency, amounts to a tacit endorsement of Arpaios discriminatory tactics and reads as a favor to a political ally. The media-savvy former sheriff, known for parading inmates around in pink underwear, supported the former reality TV stars presidential campaign and spoke at the Republican National Convention last summer. Both men were prominent promoters of the racist conspiracy theory that former President Barack Obama wasnt born in the United States.

Arpaio, who served as sheriff from 1993 through 2016, had long been accused of discriminatory practices against Latinos. A 2011 report by the U.S. Department of Justices Civil Rights Division concluded there was reasonable cause to believe that Arpaio and his office engaged in a pattern or practice of unlawful policing and racial profiling. Arpaios officers called Latinos wetbacks, Mexican bitches, fucking Mexicans and stupid Mexicans, the Justice Department found, and Latino drivers were four to nine times as likely to be stopped by his officers as non-Latino drivers were. A lawsuit filed by the Justice Department was settled in 2015 .

With his pardon of Arpaio, Trump has chosen lawlessness over justice, division over unity, hurt over healing, Cecillia Wang, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement Friday. Once again, the president has acted in support of illegal, failed immigration enforcement practices that target people of color and have been struck down by the courts. His pardon of Arpaio is a presidential endorsement of racism.

Arpaio took a break from dinner with his wife on Friday night to call into Sean Hannity s program on Fox News . Hannity said Arpaio was convicted ... only of criminal contempt and said he was very relieved for Arpaio.

Arpaio said that it was great to hear about the pardon and that he loves the president.

Hannity, who apparently thought that a former sheriff charged with a federal crime would have somehow landed in his former county jail, joked with Arpaio about the conditions in Arpaios former facility, referencing pink underwear and the bologna sandwiches served there.

But Arpaio said incarceration wouldnt have been that big of a deal.

Sean, its federal, I could play bocce. ... It wouldve been alright, he said.

At a Tuesday evening rally in Phoenix, Trump had signaled that the pardon was coming . The president claimed Arpaio had been convicted for doing his job. But Trump said, Ill make a prediction: I think hes going to be just fine, OK?