Arizona Governor Vetos Law Allowing Police to Arrest Migrants
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs on Monday vetoed a bill that would have authorized state police to arrest undocumented immigrants.
It was the first veto of the year by Ms. Hobbs, a Democrat who shot down a record number of bills passed by Arizona’s Republican-controlled Legislature in 2023 covering abortion, elections, LGBTQ rights and other current issues .
Her veto highlights election-year tensions over border security, as border states and major cities grapple with record numbers of migrants crossing the southern border. Ms. Hobbs has expressed frustration with the Biden administration’s handling of the border crisis, but said the Republican-backed measure anti-immigrant and most likely unconstitutional.
The bill is called the Arizona Border Invasion Act, would have made crossing the border without permission a state crime, and a criminal offense for migrants crossing the border after being deported or ordered to leave. It also would have allowed state law enforcement officials to detain migrants and Arizona judges to order deportations.
Ms. Hobbs said the measure “does not secure our border, will harm communities and businesses across our state, and will burden law enforcement.” She also said it potentially violated the U.S. Constitution by claiming what has long been the federal government’s exclusive power to arrest and deport immigrants.
The bill mirrored a new Texas law — now blocked in court — that has set off a legal showdown between the Biden administration and Texas officials over whether the state can enforce immigration policies. On Monday, the Supreme Court announced it would intervene in the battle between Texas and the Biden administration.
The Arizona measure, which passed without Democratic support, is one of several border bills likely to clash with Ms. Hobbs’ veto in the coming weeks. Another bill going through the House of Representatives could expand Arizona’s self-defense laws to allow farmers and ranchers to legally shoot immigrants who trespass on their property.
Although crossing the border without authorization is already a federal crime, Republicans in Arizona argued that their bill was an emergency measure needed to curb what they called “Joe Biden’s border invasion.”
They said the record influx of migrants from around the world slipping through the border wall or crossing the desert to turn themselves in to Border Patrol had strained law enforcement and border cities and brought violent crime and fentanyl into the state.
Some federal officials and Democrats have tried to refute these claims, saying that most of the fentanyl stopped entering the United States is smuggled through American citizens through legal ports of entry. She also refer to federal crime statistics who say Texas border towns are safer than many non-border towns.
Arizona Republicans on Monday condemned the governor’s veto. Sen. Janae Shamp, a sponsor of the bill, called the veto an example of the “chaos Hobbs is unleashing in our state as he perpetuates this open border crisis as Biden’s accomplice.”
A Latino advocacy group, Living United for Change in Arizona, called the measure one of the most “extreme and racist anti-immigrant bills” in years. The group said it mirrored Arizona’s “Show me your papers” law, a 2010 measure that required state law enforcement officials to investigate the immigration status of people they suspected were undocumented.
Alejandra Gomez, the group’s executive director, praised Ms. Hobbs for killing the bill, saying it represented a rejection of “racism, hate and just plain bad policy.”