In border visit, Hobbs to continue AZ Guard deployment, has plans for local, federal collaboration

Gov. Katie Hobbs says she wants to continue a program, launched this summer, that saw Arizona National Guardsmen deployed to help deal with border-related issues.

At the border Monday morning, Hobbs told reporters that 40 National Guardsmen have been deployed to the Mariposa Port of Entry and other ports, as part of her office’s Task Force SAFE.

It’s part of a state-wide program called Operation Secure, which includes 170 guardsmen and works to intercept fentanyl and other drugs.

“Task Force Safe has supported the seizure of more than 6 million fentanyl pills and over 1,400 pounds of meth, cocaine, fentanyl powder and heroin,” she said.

The program sending the Guard to the border is costing roughly $3 million in state funds — part of roughly $84 million worth of state funding going toward drug interdiction efforts by local and state law enforcement. Hobbs said that as part of the program, her office had set up a border coordination office in the Arizona Department of Homeland Security to ramp up collaboration between state, tribal and federal law enforcement, signed legislation to crack down on fentanyl trafficking and bolstered Narcan and other life-saving supplies to first responders.

She said she hoped to keep working on border security efforts with local and federal law enforcement partners. She would not comment on how she would respond to the Trump administration’s mass deportation plans or the lawsuits expected against them. But said she would not support efforts to break apart Arizona communities.

“I’m not going to jump into lawsuits that don’t exist yet, against actions that haven’t been taken yet, that’s how I’ll continue to focus on the job in front of me,” she said. “I will work to work with the administration when it benefits Arizonans, and if I need to stand up to them when their actions harm Arizonans, I will do that.”

This month, voters passed Proposition 314 by a roughly 60-30 margin, giving local law enforcement immigration-related arrest authority and increasing the legal punishment for fentanyl distribution that ends in death.

Provisions of the measure are on hold until litigation against a similar law in Texas comes to an end. Local law enforcement has also said they don’t have the resources or training to carry out those types of arrests.

Hobbs was joined by Nogales Mayor Jorge Maldonado and Customs and Border Protection Acting Commissioner Troy Miller, along with leaders from the Arizona Department of Homeland Security, Department of Public Safety and the National Guard.