Arizona Voters Will Weigh Ballot Initiative To Make Illegal Border Crossing a State Crime

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.  The crosses represents migrants who have dies attempting to cross the U.S./Mexico border.

In 2020, Joe Biden won Arizona with a razor thin margin and became President.  As we have blogged, there is lots going on in the battleground state of Arizona as Election 2024 nears.  And expect more.

Fiona Harrigan for Reason offers details about how Arizona voters in November — when Americans will elect the next President — will consider a ballot measure that would make it a state crime to unlawfully cross the Arizona-Mexico border. If the measure is passed, law enforcement officers would be authorized to arrest people suspected of unlawfully crossing the border, and state courts would be authorized to order deportations.

Passed by the Arizona House 31–29 along party-lines, House Concurrent Resolution 2060  states that Arizona “is being ‘actually invaded’ as defined in article I, section 10” of the U.S. Constitution. Besides authorizing law enforcement in the state to arrest undocumented immigrants who cross into Arizona illegally, HCR 2060 creates penalties for people who “present false documents to obtain public benefits or to evade workplace eligibility detection” through the federal E-Verify program. It also strengthens penalties for people who sell fentanyl resulting in death.

Those unlawfully crossing the border for the first time would face a misdemeanor charge, punishable by up to six months in jail. Repeat offenders would face felony charges and could face several years in prison. 

In 2012, the Supreme Court invalidated several provisions of an Arizona immigration enforcement law.  It did not, however, strike down a provision allowing state and local officers to arrest suspected undocumented immigrants.  

KJ