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“Reduced levels of immigration would reduce state and local tax collections.”
In more than two hours of speeches explaining how they were voting, state representatives made their cases before the body.
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Democrats called the resolution unconstitutional, a waste of resources, and discriminatory. Republicans countered, saying the measure is needed to enforce existing laws in lieu of federal enforcement.
Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma, a Republican, said “the people of Arizona will get the final say on this issue” as he cast the final vote.
The Arizona vote came the same day that President Joe Biden was expected to sign an executive order shutting down asylum requests at the southern border once the average number of daily encounters between ports of entry exceeds 2,500 people.
The border would remain shut until that daily average stayed below 1,500 for at least a week.
President Biden’s likely Republican opponent in the presidential race, former President Donald Trump, in a message published on his Truth Social account on June 4, said the action was “all for show” because the Biden administration feels pressure to act on immigration ahead of the scheduled presidential debate on June 27.
Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary for the Trump campaign, called the executive order “amnesty, not border security.”
“If Joe Biden truly wanted to shut down the border, he could do so with a swipe of the same pen, but he never will because he is controlled by radical left Democrats who seek to destroy America,” Ms. Leavitt said in a June 4 release.
The state’s Senate approved the resolution in May on a 16–13 party-line vote, sending it back to the House for a final reading.
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Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, vetoed a similar bill in February, which led the state legislature’s Republicans to take the issue to the state’s voters.
In February, Ms. Hobbs’s office called the resolution a “desperate, partisan attempt to circumvent the legislative process.”
“Instead of securing our border, these bills will simply raise costs, hurt our farmers, put Arizona entrepreneurs out of business, and destroy jobs for countless working-class Arizonans,” Ms. Hobbs said in a Feb. 26 statement.
“The answer to securing the border is more resources for border patrol and law enforcement in these communities, not job-killing, anti-immigrant legislation meant to score cheap political points.”
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In its message, the state’s Senate Republican caucus said there is an “ urgent need for a border security measure like HCR2060 to protect our citizens and our state.”
“The governor’s reckless disregard for the safety and well-being of our citizens has left us no other option than to send the Secure the Border Act to the ballot to empower Arizonans to take matters into their own hands,” Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen said in a May 22 release.
On May 8, the Arizona Latino Legislative Caucus denounced the bill. It called the measure “revenge on Arizona after losing on abortion rights.”
“HCR2060’s new language is SB1070 ’show me your papers’ on steroids,” the Caucus’ statement said. “It is an unconstitutional, legally unnecessary, intensely divisive, xenophobic measure designed by Republicans as an election-year dog whistle.”
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It is unclear how the ballot measure will affect electoral politics in Arizona in November.
Arizona, formerly a reliably Republican state, voted for President Biden in 2020 and for Ms. Hobbs in 2022. It also reelected Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) in 2022.
In 2024, Arizona is considered a battleground state.
In the presidential race, both President Biden and President Trump will likely jostle for its 11 votes in the Electoral College.
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The state will also play host to a race for a Senate seat that will be vacated by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), which will be crucial to the balance of power in Washington.
Ms. Sinema, formerly a Democrat, still caucuses with the Democratic Party.
While the state will not hold its primary election until June 30, Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) is likely to win the Democratic contest.
Kari Lake, who ran against Ms. Hobbs in 2022, is considered the favorite in the Republican race.
The Epoch Times previously reported that ballot measures are seen as a reliable get-out-the-vote tactic for both parties in the 2024 race.
Immigration is likely to be a hot-button issue for politicians and voters in 2024.
In April, pollsters at Gallup Inc. found that Americans consider immigration the “most important U.S. problem” ahead of governance in general, the economy, and inflation.☼
1 thought on “Arizona Legislature Sends Immigration Measure to November Ballot – The Epoch Times”
30-40 years ago, two Communist professors, Cloward and Piven came up with a plan for government to allow or help flood the welfare system with “new” people. This would overwhelm the national federal budget. Today, we see over 10,000 illegal aliens let into the country by the Biden-Obama controlled administration that is overwhelming cities and states and denying citizens of housing, security and even public schooling.
We can see how our government school system will be overwhelmed along with all the costs of supporting a low skilled new class of people.
Only a large vote to remove Democrats from power and elect a responsible group that supports America and promises to remove and return these illegals to their birth homeland will preserve the America we have known and love. Make America Great Again!
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