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Vamos, Jose! Sheriff Joe Sells Spanish Version of Famous Pink Underwear

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MARICOPA COUNTY: Controversial Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who began forcing jail inmates to wear pink “Go, Joe” undergarb 17 years ago, offers a Spanish-language version that says, “Vamos, Jose!”

The Arizona Republic reports that the self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in America sells the new undergarb at a Phoenix Mexican restaurant.

“It will raise more money to help at-risk youth, and it is a poke in the eye to the critics who for years have called me racist because of my tough stance on illegal immigration,” Arpaio, sheriff of Maricopa County, says in a news release. “I’m not a racist and have never been. I simply believe people who come to this country should do so legally.”

The news release says Arpaio is trying to boost sales and have a little fun. The boxers, he says, will “raise eyebrows as well as sales.”

Latina activist Lydia Guzman of Somos America and Respect Repeto calls it “just another publicity stunt.”

The new shorts and the Mexican restaurant location do not prove the sheriff isn’t racist, Guzman says, according to the newspaper. “Who is he trying to convince?” she asks. “He is trying too hard to convince us.”

Last week, Arpaio said he planned to bring a chain-gang of undocumented immigrants to pick up trash before the All-Star baseball game at Chase field in Phoenix on Tuesday.

“Everything I do, there’s a method, whether on punishment or deterrent,” Arpaio says, the newspaper reports.