The Democrats don’t like Arizona’s popular Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his strong enforcement of the laws against illegal immigration. He’s one of their poster children for Republican white men who don’t care about people, especially immigrants. Even better, he’s what The New York Times called an “immigration proxy” for Donald Trump: an attack on Arpaio is also an attack on Trump, and they don’t even have to say Trump’s name.

Hillary Clinton said at a rally with numerous Latino supporters that Arpaio had treated his “fellow human beings with disrespect and contempt,” referring to his tough stance on illegal immigration. She went on, “It just makes my heart sink. We are better than that.”

At a rally in Flagstaff, Sanders warned, “It is easy for bullies like Sheriff Arpaio to pick on people who have no power. If I’m elected president, the president of the United States does have power. Watch out, Joe.”

Sanders’ wife went to tour Arpaio’s outside jail in the desert last month, known as “Tent City,” where she got into it with him. She asked him about the charges of racial profiling he’s facing now in federal court for  arresting illegal immigrants, and complained about how hot it was in the tents. He ignored her question, and said that the conditions are similar to those endured by members of the U.S. military “fighting for our country” overseas, who are also living in tents in desert regions.

Not surprisingly, Arpaio supports Donald Trump for president (even though, as I’ve written previously, Ted Cruz has a stronger record on border security). “None of the candidates were talking about immigration as an issue until he brought it up,” Arpaio said at a rally for Trump in his home town of Fountain Hills last month. “He has opened the door to get people talking. Maybe something will get done about it.” He agrees with Trump that Mexico will pay for a wall on the border with the US.

The two became friends when they worked together in 2012 to retrieve President Obama’s birth certificate to determine whether he really was a natural born citizen and eligible to be president. “I’m not trying to say he copies me,” Arpaio said about the relationship recently. “It just so happens we see eye to eye. He’s somewhat like me. Or I’m like him. I don’t know which way it goes.”

Who’s the Bully?

Sanders called Arpaio a bully. Arpaio’s supporters would ask who’s the bully when people force their way over a border and overload limited federal safety net resources in a country drowning in public debt, and who commit crimes at a far higher percentage than the population at large? It is true that most illegal immigrants aren’t dangerous and are just looking for a better life, but it is also true that there is no more money left to provide additional benefits to millions of unskilled immigrants, and many dangerous illegal immigrants aren’t being prosecuted or deported.

Conservative observers in Arizona believe the legal proceedings against Arpaio for racially profiling are really an attempt to stop him from arresting, prosecuting and deporting illegal immigrants. The fact that he is 83 years old and continues getting elected is evidence the people of Arizona — and the people around the country they represent — support his efforts to secure the border.

Clinton may describe them the way she does, but these people have common-sense concerns about the number of people sneaking into this country and the problems that come from illegal immigration. When the Democratic candidates use Sheriff Joe Arpaio as a punching bag, they’re punching a lot of voters at the same time.