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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His comments come after the Arizona Sheriff’s Association accused his office of refusing requests for assistance from Border Patrol. -
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