Arizona county sheriffs say they will not enforce immigration measure if passed

Sheriffs in four Arizona counties that sit along the border with Mexico have warned that if voters in November pass a measure to make it a state crime for migrants to cross into the US unofficially, they will have face problems enforcing the new law.

Criticisms range from the law being unenforceable because of budget to it being “racist”, with negative comments coming from both Democrats and Republicans.

Not long after the Arizona supreme court ruled that the controversial law known as Proposition 314 would be allowed on to the ballot, local sheriffs came into the spotlight, as well as other law enforcement bodies in the state.

To implement the controversial measure that would empower law enforcement to arrest and prosecute suspected violators, the state would essentially depend on the resources of counties on the Arizona-Mexico border, which stretches more than 370 miles.

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The federal government has jurisdiction over enforcing US immigration laws, not individual states.

Santa Cruz county, on the border immediately south of Tucson, is the smallest in the state yet is the location for its largest port of entry. David Hathaway, the Santa Cruz sheriff, told the Guardian he doesn’t support Proposition 314 because “it’s a racist enforcement mechanism”.

Nearly 40,000 people who identified as Hispanic or Latino live under Hathaway’s watch, out of a county population of almost 49,000. More than 78% of county residents speak Spanish at home, according to the US census .

“It would be ridiculous for me to go up to practically every single person in my county and say, ‘Let me see your papers, I need to check your immigration status’,” said Hathaway, a Democrat, who worked as head of the Drug Enforcement Administration office in Nogales before being elected as the sheriff.

Meanwhile, in Pima county, where more than 370,000 people who identified as Hispanic or Latino reside, Chris Nanos, the sheriff, said Proposition 314 “would lead down a path of racial profiling”.

But that’s not the only reason why he would not enforce it if voters approve it, Nanos said. The measure would increase costs associated with arrest, prosecution and incarceration for local enforcement agencies, he added.

“If I book a migrant in my county jail, I’m paying for those costs without any funding from the state,” said Nanos, who is running again as the Democratic candidate for Pima county sheriff in November.

“Who wants to do this silly law with no funding from the federal government? But here’s another caveat that I’ve seen for a couple of decades: the federal government on the border doesn’t have enough courts, therefore they don’t have enough judges, they don’t have enough attorneys.”

He continued: “I’m not going to allow my deputies to be on that border, to arrest people, to book them in our jail when we have a federal government that has that responsibility. They should have solved it years ago. And now they have an opportunity to do real legislation in Washington DC that says, ‘hey, we need to redo our immigration policies’ … the problem today is that Washington will never resolve it.”

The County Supervisors Association of Arizona is responsible for implementing state law at the local level, including the costs of law enforcement and criminal processing.

“The legislature did not provide additional funding for Proposition 314,” said Craig Sullivan, executive director of the association. “So if it passes, any implementation costs would be borne by local tax dollars.”

Proposition 314 could result in additional costs for judicial proceedings, including an increase in demand for interpreter services.

The measure is similar to a Texas law known as SB4 that would allow local police and judges throughout the Lone Star state to arrest and deport anyone they suspect of entering the country illegally. Immigrants’ rights groups and the Biden administration sued Texas to stop the law, which has been put on hold by a federal appeal court.

In June, advocates in Arizona filed a lawsuit challenging the passage of Proposition 314, alleging that it violates the civil and human rights of immigrants across the state.

Arizona law enforcement has a long history of discriminatory policing, advocates involved in the lawsuit said .

Joe Arpaio, elected sheriff of Maricopa county in 1992, was once known as “America’s toughest sheriff” because of his immigration enforcement tactics. Arpaio helped to turn tens of thousands of immigrants over to federal authorities for deportation. In 2017 he was convicted of criminal contempt of court for defying a federal judicial order to stop his infamous immigration patrols, then pardoned by then president Donald Trump.

Proposition 314 requires the Arizona department of corrections to accept those arrested or convicted of illegal entry if local enforcement agencies lack capacity. The department estimates that the prison system could see an annual influx of more than 1,500 people into their custody as a result of Proposition 314.

“It will see notable strains to day-to-day prison operations across an already taxed system,” said the department of corrections in a preliminary review on the potential fiscal impacts of Proposition 314.

Proposition 314 also makes it a state crime to submit false documents to an employer to evade detection of employment eligibility under the government’s e-verify program and it establishes a felony charge for the sale of fentanyl if the fentanyl causes the death of another person.

Taking into account the estimated increase in work for the local authorities associated with Proposition 314, the Arizona prison system would reach full capacity in approximately June 2027, with a projected population reaching 43,000 inmates, the preliminary review said, adding the Arizona prison system doesn’t have the staffing resources to support the growth. By 2029, the preliminary extra costs expected to accrue to the Arizona prison system will total nearly $252m.

Ben Toma, the Arizona house speaker and original sponsor of the bill did not respond to requests for an interview, nor requests for comment on how he and other lawmakers in support of the new law anticipate funding local entities.

Katie Hobbs, the state governor, vetoed a previous, similar bill, but the ballot initiative in November would bypass her veto powers.

The governor’s office didn’t respond to requests for comments on whether Hobbs would support more funding for border counties if voters pass the measure.

Crossing into the US outside of an official port of entry is already a federal crime , but Arizona lawmakers have sought to also make it a state offense, giving them greater power to crack down on migration.

Most of the migrants that enter the country outside of an official port of entry are most at risk of being quickly deported if apprehended by US border officials. In Arizona, migrants often travel through the remote areas in an attempt to evade arrest. Thousands of them have died in the desert .

According to US Customs and Border Protection, federal immigration officers have arrested 490,942 individuals without lawful documentation on the Arizona-Mexico border in the 2024 fiscal year.

The Biden administration in June issued a new directive to curb high levels of migration into the US, which led to a dramatic decrease in unofficial border crossings in the following months.

The Cochise county sheriff, Mark Dannels, said: “I understand the spirit and the intent behind Proposition 314. And I think it will pass because the majority of the citizens in this state want a change.”

However, Dannels, a Republican, added: “Will I enforce the law? That’s like saying I’m not going to enforce DUI [driving under the influence] laws because I just don’t believe in that. No, you have to enforce the will of the people. I and other sheriffs are just trying to prepare ourselves before it passes because we don’t have infrastructure. We don’t have the funding, we don’t have the personnel.”

Meanwhile, in Yuma county, on the western end of the Arizona-Mexico border, the sheriff, Leon Wilmot, declined to speak with the Guardian. But at an earlier stage of the law’s passage through the legislature, Wilmot, a Republican, told a local ABC News affiliate that: “It will break the budget. And our county doesn’t have the revenue to be able to handle that.”