President Donald Trump's decision to pardon former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was an "insult" to the legal and Latino communities and put the controversial lawmaker "back on his pedestal," the state's largest newspaper said Saturday.

"The pardon was a slap to those who worked through the judicial system to make Arpaio accountable, too," the editorial board of The Arizona Republic argued.

"It robbed the people hurt by his policies of justice – even before a judge could mete out a sentence," the piece continued.

Trump on Friday spared Arpaio, 85, a possible six-month jail sentence by pardoning his conviction for contempt of court charges, in a move that caused outcry from critics who saw the sentence as just punishment for the tactics he used while serving as the top law enforcer in metropolitan Phoenix.

In a White House statement, Arpaio was praised for continuing his "life's work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration."

But it was that "life's work" that brought the lawmaker, who became nationally known for his tough stance on the Latino community, under scrutiny.

"The vast majority of Latinos in Arizona are not undocumented, yet they all fell under heightened scrutiny as Arpaio honed his image," the Republic's editorial said.

A federal court found Arpaio in criminal contempt for ignoring a judge's order in a long-running case over racial profiling of Latino motorists.

First, Arpaio was found guilty of racially profiling Latino motorists, and last month, a federal court convicted him of criminal contempt after he disobeyed a court order to stop the practice.

"It was a dose of hard-won justice for a too-flamboyant sheriff who showed little respect for the Constitution as he made national news as an immigration hardliner – and let real crimes go uninvestigated," the editorial board wrote.

With his pardon, Trump "made it clear that institutional racism is not just OK with him," wrote the editors. "It is a goal."

That, they said, "should trouble every American who believes that our duty as a nation is to continue working on behalf of equal justice."