Republicans Monday blasted Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs’ vetoes of bills designed to protect communities from criminal illegal immigrants.
The vetoes were two of 23 that Hobbs announced late Friday.
While Republicans hold majorities in both houses of the Legislature, they don’t have enough seats to override the Democratic governor’s vetoes.
One vetoed piece of legislation was Senate Bill 1610. It would have required county jails to, on the request of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, provide identifying information and access to illegal immigrants arrested for burglary, theft, larceny, shoplifting, aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer or any other offense that results in death or serious injury to another person.
“I expect state and local governments to uphold the law and work with the federal government to secure the border,” Hobbs wrote in her veto letter Friday to Senate President Warren Petersen. “However, this places extreme burdens on local law enforcement.”
Republicans are countering that Hobbs needs to prioritize public safety.
“Hobbs continues to give her veto stamp more attention than the citizens she’s required to protect,” said state Sen. John Kavanagh, the Republican who sponsored SB 1610. When he isn’t on the Senate floor, Kavanagh is a criminal justice professor at Scottsdale Community College, which is in his district. He also teaches at Arizona State University.
“People are FED UP with the massive tsunami of dangerous criminals who have entered this country illegally,” Kavanagh said in a news release Monday. “With this bill, we were supporting the federal government’s deportation efforts by requiring detention facilities to supply inmate information to ICE. I am dismayed by the governor’s veto actions, which demonstrate she’s choosing chaos over sanity.”
In addition to rejecting SB 1610, Hobbs on Friday vetoed House Bill 2099, which would have required the governor, the attorney general, and every county, city, and town to enforce and cooperate with immigration orders, actions and programs from the federal government.
In her veto letter to House Speaker Steve Montenegro, Hobbs said she was rejecting the legislation because state officials shouldn’t be forced to “take marching orders from Washington, D.C.”
“Arizonans, not Washington, D.C. politicians, must decide what’s best for Arizona,” Hobbs said, repeating her comment from April when she vetoed another bill designed to promote collaboration among local and state law enforcement and U.S. immigration authorities, the AZ Ice Act.
The two vetoes of immigration legislation on Friday led to sharp criticism Monday from the Republican Governors Association.
“Hobbs is just another Open-Borders politician, standing in the way of immigration enforcement measures that would make Arizona communities safer and secure our nation’s border,” said Kollin Crompton, the association’s rapid response director.
“Vetoing these commonsense immigration bills is a slap in the face to Arizonans who have been on the front lines of the illegal immigration crisis plaguing our country,” Crompton told The Center Square and other media in an email.
Arizonans deserve a governor who will work with President Donald Trump on border issues, Crompton added.
But in her veto letters on both bills, Hobbs insisted she has supported border security.
“I have worked productively with the federal government to secure our border, stopping fentanyl at our ports of entry through Task Force SAFE, disrupting cartel operations with Operation Desert Guardian, and working across all levels of government to keep communities safe with the Border Coordination Office,” the governor wrote.
Task Force SAFE stands for Task Force for Stopping Arizona’s Fentanyl Epidemic.
“I will continue to work with the federal government on true border security,” Hobbs said.
