WASHINGTON, D.C. – Arizona's controversial Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has raised nearly $4.5 million to finance a planned 2016 election campaign – but it's not for the governorship, as some have speculated.

In an exclusive interview with WND, Arpaio explained being re-elected as sheriff is just too important, especially with the illegal immigration crisis and certain, "sensitive investigations" still in play.

"I would have had to resign the day I announced I was going to run for governor," he said. "But I'm not about to abandon my troops. We have a number of highly sensitive investigations ongoing and we have a brand new headquarters building. I still have the Justice Department after me. So, I'm not giving this job up to someone else. I'm sticking around."

Arpaio also told Rusty Humphries of the Washington Times recently one of those "sensitive" projects was his continued investigation into Barack Obama's allegedly forged birth certificate.

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"If I was the governor, which I turned down a couple of weeks ago because I would have to resign, I'm not going to leave this office to somebody coming in when I have sensitive investigations going, including the president's birth certificate," Arpaio said. "I haven't finished that yet.

"I don't care where [Obama] was born. That has nothing to do with it," he continued. "I'm concerned about a forged, fraudulent government document. From Day 1 I've been investigating that, now we have to find out who's behind that. I'm getting close."

Arpaio also talked to WND about the increased problem of illegal immigration, laying blame for the recent flood of unaccompanied minors crossing the border squarely on the doorstep of the Obama administration.

"The White House does some stupid things, but I don't think they're so stupid as to not realize when they flood this area with children there's going to be controversy," Arpaio told WND.

"But I think President Obama wanted the controversy in order to justify a presidential executive order or to force Congress to do something about passing immigration reform legislation," he continued. "President Obama establishes DREAM Act provisions by executive order and puts out word to the media that DHS is getting lax about law enforcement on the border. So all these people from Central America want to send their kids across the border to surrender to Border Patrol because they know they will get a pass."

But Arpaio told WND he thinks the ploy of the Obama administration to open the border with Mexico to a flood of unaccompanied minors has backfired now because the media is finally picking up on this, especially with the federal government starting to ship these children and teenagers to destinations around the country.

He explained his concerns about communicable diseases and criminal gang members.

"The Central American countries from which these unaccompanied minors are coming do not have good record-keeping on the unaccompanied minors coming across the border," Arpaio said. "So how would the federal government know if these children or teenagers have histories of medical problems or if the teenagers are members of criminal gangs? But instead of catching drug cartel dope dealers, the Department of Homeland Security has Border Patrol changing diapers."

Arpaio explained that research conducted by his office has documented that some 35 percent of the illegal immigrants under Maricopa County Sheriff's Office detention are recidivists.

"What's the federal government doing with the illegal immigrants we apprehend who are criminals?" he asked. "If the federal government is supposed to be deporting illegal immigrants with criminal records, how come they keep coming back over and over again to end up in my jails? Why would DHS just release these criminals when the federal government's own criteria is that illegal immigrants with criminal records must be deported?"

Arpaio expressed concern that DHS has placed hundreds of these illegal immigrant unaccompanied minors in a warehouse in Nogales, Arizona.

"The federal government constantly investigates me and my jails for civil rights abuses," Arpaio said. "My jails are country clubs compared to the warehouse where DHS is keeping these kids in Nogales. But where is the ACLU? Where's Amnesty International?"

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