Republicans in the Arizona Legislature have voted to block a border security funding package from making its way to Santa Cruz County. Law-enforcement leaders there have criticized a border measure passed by Arizona voters this year that made it a state crime to cross the border illegally.
Santa Cruz County is a bustling cross-border community and trade hub. State Sen. John Kavanagh said it would be cut out of a $250,000 border security package because county Sheriff David Hathaway won’t enforce Proposition 314.
As Hathaway says, portions of the law aren’t in effect, anyway.
“But Sen. Kavanaugh made statements in the state Legislature that since Hathaway won’t enforce this, he’s not getting the money down in Santa Cruz County. Well, no one else is going to enforce it either. It’s not in effect,” he said.
Prop. 314’s provision giving immigration-related arrest authority to local law enforcement is on hold while a similar law in Texas is litigated. Arizona’s SB1070 — which gave the same arrest authority — was ruled illegal by the Supreme Court.
Hathaway has said his county doesn’t have resources or training for those types of arrests. He said his office would have used the new funding on normal operations — like communications and vehicles. He argues Kavanaugh went against the advice of state entities like DPS that said Santa Cruz County should receive the funds.
“And just unilaterally say, ‘this is my option as the chairman, Santa Cruz County is not gonna get this money unless Hathaway recants what he has previously said opposing 314,’ which I’m obviously not going to do," Hathaway said.
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The standoff began Oct. 5, when Border Patrol agents swarmed a protest camp situated in and around a cottonwood tree slated for removal to make way for two steel border walls — the last of a border-hugging grove on the U.S. side that was estimated to be as much as 250 years old. -
As of next week, around 1,500 cattle will cross into Arizona from Mexico each day, even as active cases of New World screwworm top 100 in the Mexican state of Sonora. -
His comments come after the Arizona Sheriff’s Association accused his office of refusing requests for assistance from Border Patrol. -
An inspection at a Mexican military checkpoint in San Luis Río Colorado resulted in the arrest of two people and the seizure of more than a ton of white powder. -
The Arizona Sheriff’s Association issued an open letter calling out the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office over its response to the public safety concerns surrounding the border wall construction in that area.
