The ‘Secure Border Act’ will cost AZ millions to enforce. And that might make it unconstitutional.
May 28, 2024 | 6:53 pm ET
By Gloria Rebecca Gomez
Photo via Getty Images
Arizona Republicans want to give local police officers permission to arrest migrants, but there’s no plan to cover the costs that law enforcement officials and even the GOP backers of the proposal say it will incur — and failing to account for that price tag might make the entire proposal unconstitutional.
Packaged into a ballot referral to evade Gov. Katie Hobbs’ veto, the “Secure the Border Act” would ask voters in November to decide whether Arizona should be allowed to enforce immigration law, in blatant disregard of decades of court rulings which determined that power is constitutionally reserved for the federal government. The referral would make it a state crime for migrants to cross the border anywhere except a port of entry, and it would allow Arizona police officers to arrest them and Arizona judges to write orders of deportation.
But Republicans have refused to allocate any funding to make the proposal’s requirements a reality, despite repeated warnings from law enforcement and state officials about the inevitable costs.
And that could be a major problem: Arizona’s Constitution mandates that any ballot measure that increases state spending must not only provide money to pay for those costs, but that money can’t come out of the state’s general operating account.
https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/secure-border-act-will-cost-az-millions-enforce-and-might-make-it-unconstitutional
