Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos will be back on the ballot this November after winning his Democratic primary with more than 60% of the vote.
Nanos beat Democratic challenger Sandy Rosenthal, a former deputy with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.
He and Nanos came together for various debates and candidate forums over the last few months. As reported by the Arizona Mirror, both said they opposed the ballot initiative Prop. 314, the GOP-crafted border measure that would have local law enforcement carrying out immigration-related arrests. They differed on how to approach other border issues, like the federal program Operation Stonegarden.
The grant is offered to border counties’ law enforcement and funds extra staff or salaries to collaborate with the Border Patrol on certain operations.
Pima County turned down the nearly $2 million fund in 2020 after using it for more than a decade, and has done so ever since. Activists and some local officials argued it was too limited to meet the full needs at the border — the fund applies only to border enforcement efforts, rather than other operations going on in the county, like asylum seeker care.
Rosenthal argued restarting the partnership could help bulk up county resources. But Nanos argued it isn’t that simple.
“Here’s the thing with Stonegarden, first of all, federal grants, you can’t adjust, those are federal policies that have given their guidelines on grants,” he said during a candidate forum in Vail in June.
Nanos said the benefits Stonegarden offered — like overtime pay for deputies — were too narrow for the realities on the ground in the county, and that getting funding in other ways would provide more flexibility. He said he wouldn’t support renewing the fund if elected again.
