Arizona citizens vote to make unofficial border crossings into the US a federal crime | Arizona

Arizona voters will have the opportunity to decide this November whether to approve a measure that would make it a federal crime for migrants to cross the border into Mexico by any means other than an official U.S. entry point, the state's Supreme Court has ruled.

If the controversial new law, currently known as Proposition 314, wins approval from voters in the presidential election, local law enforcement in Arizona could arrest and prosecute suspected violators, and state judges could issue de facto deportation orders.

Entering the United States outside of an official port of entry is already a federal crime. However, several Republican-led states have tried to make it a state crime as well. This would give them more power to crack down on immigration, but would put them on a collision course with the federal government.

Earlier this week, the Arizona Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit brought by immigrant rights groups seeking to remove Proposition 314 from the ballot on constitutional grounds. In the majority opinion, the state's Chief Justice Ann Scott Timmer concluded that the proposition's measures were “responses to harms associated with an unsecured border.”

Some advocacy groups and Democrats in Arizona say Proposal 314 demonizes immigrants and creates the risk of ethnic profiling.

“The intent of this measure is to divide our communities and spread fear so that one party, namely the Republicans, can gain an advantage in the next election,” Oscar De Los Santos, an Arizona state representative, said in a statement to the Guardian.

He added: “This decision shows that they view politics as a zero-sum game, making it harder to unite communities, build on our shared interests and move our state forward.”

In early June, Republicans, who hold the majority in the Arizona House of Representatives, introduced a similar law by passing the Secure Border Act. They argued that the state's changes to the law were necessary to counteract the record number of migrant arrests at the US-Mexico border in recent years, while falsely accusing the government of maintaining an “open” border.

“Arizona residents need to ask Democrats like President Joe Biden and Governor Katie Hobbs why they are fighting to keep America's border wide open. It is unsafe, it is unprotected, it is un-American and it is indefensible,” said Ben Toma, speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives and original sponsor of the ballot bill.

Earlier this year, the state's Democratic governor, Hobbs, vetoed a similar bill that would have implemented the measures of Proposition 314. However, her veto power would have been overridden in the November referendum.

While migrant crossings at the southern border rose to record highs in 2021, 2022 and 2023, they have fallen dramatically this year, falling in July to their lowest level since September 2020. Officials have cast Biden's move to sharply restrict access to asylum as his most restrictive immigration policy yet, which has worried migrant advocates.

Cesar Fierros of the Arizona group Living United for Change, which has opposed Proposition 314, said it mirrors a notorious 2010 law in Arizona that allowed police officers to check the immigration status of people they suspected of living like U.S. citizens, but without the required authorization.

Meanwhile, Viri Hernandez, executive director of Poder In Action, another group involved in the lawsuit, said the ballot bill sends the message that “continued racial profiling is acceptable in Arizona.”

In a statement, she added: “Since the passage of SB1070, two of Arizona's largest law enforcement agencies have proven they are incapable of policing our neighborhoods without using racist violence and discriminating against people of color.”

The measure is similar to a law in Texas, known as SB4, that would have empowered state police to arrest any person suspected of illegally entering Texas across the Rio Grande along the Mexican border. Following Texas' lead, other Republican-led states, including Iowa and Oklahoma, have attempted to pass nearly identical laws. All have faced legal challenges from the U.S. Department of Justice.

SB4 was put on hold by a federal appeals court, with the justices stating that “for nearly 150 years, the Supreme Court has held that the power to control immigration – the entry, admission and deportation of noncitizens – exclusively a federal power”.

Fierros added that Proposition 314 would allow Arizona law enforcement to “conduct mass deportations that are closely tied to Trump's agenda.”

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has repeatedly announced that he will carry out mass deportations if he wins the election in November. “On day one, we will begin the largest deportation operation in American history,” Trump said recently at a campaign rally in Freeland, Michigan.

De Los Santos argued that the proposal would disproportionately affect 314 minority groups.

“Turning local police into immigration agents would actually make our communities less safe as communities of color, particularly Latinos, would become increasingly hesitant and fearful to report crimes or cooperate with police as witnesses,” he said.

More than a quarter of a million U.S. citizens live in Arizona with at least one undocumented family member, according to recent statistics from the American Immigration Council.

The Grand Canyon Institute, a nonpartisan think tank that researches policies that affect the economy, estimates that if passed, Proposition 314 could increase border security and state-level detention costs by $325 million a year.