Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Wednesday he believes Donald Trump will negotiate his plans on illegal immigration, but he doesn't think he will soften his stance.

"Why not meet with the people and explain what — how he feels and maybe negotiate and see how they feel," the controversial Maricopa County lawman told CNN's Carol Costello. "There is nothing wrong with that."

Arpaio also rejected a suggestion he is getting softer on his own position on immigration, and he still wants Trump to follow through with plans for a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.

"As the top official and sheriff, I think I know where Mexico is, and I know about the border," Arpaio, a staunch Trump supporter, told Costello. "What's wrong with the wall? I like the wall even more now. You know why? Because all the drugs from Mexico are coming into our country, and destroying our young people, and the wall is needed more than ever before. The wall will be built, and I hope it is going to be successful."

The sheriff not only rejected claims Trump plans to soften his stance, based on statements he will follow the "very, very strong laws" already on the books, but said he will continue to support him.

"I supported him from day one about the wall and cracking down on illegal immigration and I still do," Arpaio said. "The laws are complicated. He is going to, I'm sure, study that law and going to follow the law, see where it takes us on enforcing the illegal immigration problem that we have."

Agreeing to support those laws also does not soften his own tough stance, Arpaio said.

"If you come here illegally, you enforce the laws," the sheriff said. "We got 10,000 people in my jail that were turned over to ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and they're here illegally for following different types of crimes. By the way, 39 percent come back to the same jail."

President Barack Obama's administration has reported deporting 2.8 million people since he took office in 2008, but Arpaio cast some doubt on the figures.

"I believe that when [George W.] Bush was president, he didn't take credit for deportation 'when you come across, you kick them back over.' This time around, with this administration, they're taking credit, when they remove, or catch them at the border and send them back, they're taking credit as a deportation."

But still, he told Costello, illegal immigrants should not be entering the country to begin with.

Arpaio refused comment on a federal judge's recommendation last week that prosecutors bring charges against him on claims he violated court orders stemming from a racial profiling case.

"I'm not going to talk about it other than to say that Obama and Eric Holder, 100 days into office, started this investigation," the sheriff said. "Here we are today, with the ACLU and everybody else, still going after this situation. So I think I will say this is just a referral. There is no criminal charges. I look forward to someone else looking at the situation."