In Arizona, a crucial battleground state, voters will decide immigration and abortion ballot proposals. Republicans are hoping to harness fears about illegal border crossings to balance the anticipated surge in turnout from those who are adamant about restoring and protecting abortion rights.
Despite the fact that the abortion initiative is being supported by a well-funded citizen-led campaign, the Republican lawmakers who included a provision to allow Arizona law enforcement to crack down on illegal immigrants claim that the measure already has enough support and that they will not be spending much time or money trying to sell it.
Many people are quite angry about abortion because this year a statute from 1864 that had banned the procedure was restored and then swiftly abolished. However, in this swing western state, where anti-immigrant laws have long stoked national discussions over illegal border crossings with Mexico, immigration remains a major issue.
“Voters will approve this more to send a message that something, anything needs to be done,” said Barrett Marson, a Republican strategist serving out of Phoenix. “People know it will pass and that it will have little impact on curbing illegal immigration into Arizona,” the author said, explaining why the measure is unsupported financially.
Speaker of the Arizona House Ben Toma joined his Republican colleagues in June to send the initiative to the ballot. A minor component of “what actually needs to happen to secure the border,” he said, and basic sense all the same.
Efforts made this year by the Biden-Harris administration to halt the extraordinary influx of new entrants have not alleviated the underlying frustration with illegal immigration. Former President Trump, according to Democrats, made it a major campaign issue by convincing congressional allies to veto bipartisan legislation that would have strengthened the federal response.
This year, Republicans in Congress have pushed for stricter immigration policy nationwide. For example, legislative majorities in Oklahoma, Texas, and Iowa passed measures to establish state-level immigration enforcement. Their attempts to enforce the legislation were, however, rejected by federal courts in each of those states.
According to DJ Quinlan, a Democratic strategist, many stakeholders and voters are against this specific legislation that would criminalize noncitizens for entering Arizona illegally from Mexico outside of designated ports of entry, even if everyone is worried about the border. Previously reserved for the federal government, the crime would give state judges the authority to impose deportations and local police the authority to arrest offenders.
This vote is not the solution, according to Quinlan’s conversations with many in the business community, law enforcement, and those who deal with these kind of situations every day.
To further ensure that no noncitizens who are not eligible for benefits receive them, the bill would mandate that state entities responsible for administering federal, state, or local benefit programs utilize a federal database. Another benefit is that it would prevent Latinos and other minorities from suing the government over alleged racial profiling.
It makes distributing fentanyl that causes someone’s death a crime punishable by up to ten years in jail, among other clauses that have nothing to do with illegal immigration. Latino organizations have claimed this goes beyond the state’s constitutional mandate that bills be limited to a single topic. A dissenting opinion from the Arizona Supreme Court allowed the matter to go to the ballot box.
A 68-year-old retiree named Kent Jenson planned to vote against the abortion initiative and in favor of the immigration measure because he is against illegal immigration and hates drug use. Jenson lamented the devastating impact of fentanyl on families.
The “show me your papers” law that Arizona lawmakers passed in 2010 and the U.S. Supreme Court partially struck down two years later is supposedly worse for the state’s economy and reputation than this immigration bill.
A number of county executives, mayors, and police chiefs are concerned about the expense and the potential impact on their day-to-day operations and vital public services if funds were to be reallocated to border security.
Neither proponents nor opponents of Proposition 314 received any funds that the Associated Press could identify in an examination of state campaign finance records.
According to Toma, Republicans are focusing their efforts on 13 separate statewide ballot initiatives and contested contests. State legislatures and the United States Senate and White House are also up for grabs. The Republicans hold a slim one-seat advantage in both houses of Congress, while the Democrats are hoping to seize the reins for the first time in decades.
“When people realize what needs fixing, they will focus—and rightfully so—on those issues,” Toma stated.
Millions of dollars in contributions and over half a million signatures have brought citizen-led Proposition 139, which would codify abortion access in the state’s constitution, to the ballot. Out of ten states, Arizona is one that will have a vote on whether or not to legalize abortion.
A 34-year-old voter named Erin Dean says, “It is a basic human right that all women need to have autonomy over her own body.” Dean claimed this while supporting Democrats rather than Republicans.
According to campaign finance reports, Arizona for Abortion Access was able to raise about $23 million by the end of July. It Goes Too Far, a political action committee that campaigns against the bill, has amassed nearly $900,000.
Both Democratic and Republican strategists agree that the abortion proposal has the potential to entice people who would not normally vote.
Republican strategist Marson thinks it will increase participation from young people and those voting for the first time. In contrast, he thinks the immigration measure will pass regardless.
It doesn’t matter if a large portion of the population backs the proposition; “Not many teenagers are itching to vote on an illegal immigration issue,” Marson stated.
Measures concerning immigration have previously garnered significant support in Arizona.
Voters in Arizona made it mandatory to provide evidence of citizenship in order to register to vote in 2004. Arizonans chose to make students, regardless of immigration status, eligible for state financial aid in 2022, overturning significant portions of a 2006 bill that banned noncitizens from paying in-state tuition. _
Statehouse News Initiative corps member Gabriel Sandoval works for AP/Report for America. Nonprofit organization Report for America sends journalists to local newsrooms around the country to cover stories that would otherwise go unreported.
