By Zachery Schmidt | The Center Square contributor
(The Center Square) – The Arizona State Senate Military Affairs and Border Security Committee passed on Monday Senate Bill 1294, which seeks to provide a prison to the federal government to house illegal immigrants.
SB 1294 passed with a 4 to 3 vote along party lines. It has one more committee stop before going to the state Senate for deliberation.
At the bill’s hearing, Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Scottsdale, the sponsor of SB 1294, said the federal government is increasing its enforcement of immigration laws “at the border and internally.”
Kavanagh added there will be a need for detention facilities to house people adjudicating their immigration status and people with deportation orders.
SB 1294 says that Arizona will lease the Marana prison to the federal government for $1 a year to house people with immigration violations.
Arizona closed down the Marana prison in 2023. The private prison was built to house 500 male inmates but only averaged 225.
The bill proposal says the lease will be for four years and provides the federal government an option to lease it for an additional two years.
SB 1294 notes that the federal government will maintain the prison for “the full lease in the same or better condition as received at the beginning of the lease.”
The Arizona state government can terminate the lease by giving 12 months’ written notice or if the prison is needed for state inmates.
Kavanagh said this bill would help Arizona financially because the federal government would be responsible for maintaining the prison rather than the state.
“We are just taking an empty prison and offering it to the federal government for a mutually beneficial goal of enforcing our immigration laws,” the state senator explained.
Kavanaugh said this bill would have a positive impact on the economy of Marana, a city of about 60,000 people near Tucson. He added that the city’s economy suffered “a serious decline” after the prison closed. 13 News reported that when this prison shut down, 100 people lost their jobs.
The state senator added that the federal government and not Arizona will do the hiring.
Gaelle Esposito, representing the ACLU of Arizona, urged against voting for this bill because it lacks “meaningful” state oversight of the prison and detainee conditions.
“The most the bill requires is that the federal government or private contractor ‘maintain the Marana prison site over the full term of the lease in the same or better condition as received at the beginning of the lease,’ ” Esposito said.
She added that this does not mean much, given that the prison has been closed for more than a year.
Esposito said the bill does not include a mechanism for the Arizonan government to rescind the deal due to “poor conditions” or “due process violations.”
“Arizona should not be handing over shudder facilities without mechanisms to ensure that basic due process rights are respected,” she added.