In November, Arizona voters will decide whether to approve a broad measure that includes changes to how state law enforcement responds to everything from fentanyl sales to unauthorized border crossings. That's after a state court ruled Friday that the measure could be on the ballot.
The measure would make crossing the border between ports of entry a state crime enforceable by state and local police. Rights groups have said that portion hearkens back to SB1070 — the infamous state law that had local law enforcement carrying out immigration-related arrests.
Jaime Chamberlain, a Nogales-based businessman and a board member of the Arizona-Mexico Commission, says SB1070 also impacted cross-border business. He doesn’t want that again.
“This bill may give people a reason to not come here. To not be tourists here, to not have any investment here in our state, or to not do any business here,” he said.
SB1070 was passed in 2010 and later ruled illegal by the Supreme Court, but Chamberlain says state leaders and business owners spend years repairing the damage it caused.
“Buying homes here, buying real estate here…Mexican nationals had always felt very comfortable in the state of Arizona. And we’d always been extremely welcoming. And then with SB1070, you suddenly get this whole other, negative connotation,” he said.
He says he does support other parts of the measure, like the stricter consequences it imposes for those charged with fentanyl distribution, but not the measure as a whole.
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The Trump administration has restarted the use of immigration detention for children and families after a more than three year freeze on the practice. Two Texas facilities previously used for that purpose are slated are reopening and immigrant rights experts say some families have already been detained. -
Last November, a Biden administration rule went into effect that allowed DACA recipients to access the health care marketplace for the first time since it was created in 2010. -
The case was filed by refugees, sponsors and resettlement agencies in response to a January executive order and memo that blocked all refugee resettlement and funding. In a ruling late February, a federal judge ordered the government to restart both resettlement efforts and funding. -
This month, the Trump administration announced the resurrection of immigration detention centers that will hold families — a practice that had ended under former President Joe Biden. -
The administration is renaming the app CBP Home. The new function is part of an effort to encourage people living in the United States illegally to leave voluntarily.
