(The Center Square) – Border security became a crucial point of discussion at the Arizona Legislature’s Joint Committee on Appropriations hearing on Tuesday morning, as the Hobbs administration presented their budget proposals for the upcoming fiscal year.
Hobbs is seeking an ongoing $1 million in funding for Operation SECURE, which has to do with border security, and $15 million mix of ongoing and one-time funding for the SAFE Initiative, which is intended to aid in fighting the fentanyl epidemic.
“They need additional resources for this topic, so this budget prioritizes sending these resources,” Marge Zylla, who presented the budget on behalf of the governor’s office, said when questioned by lawmakers.
Part of the proposed funding for Operation SECURE centers around wanting to develop a Border Coordination Office. When asked, Zylla said that the recommendations for funding stemmed from talking with “local law enforcement in border communities.”
As much of the fentanyl in the United States interior comes across the southern border first, Republican lawmakers were asking questions during the hearing about what the efforts proposed by the Hobbs administration would do to stop the flow. The proposals for the SAFE Initiative include more “treatment and harm reduction services,” assisting law enforcement and more education on fentanyl.
“It’s pretty easy to stop a fentanyl epidemic if we really wanted to stop it,” Sen. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale, said. “It’s actually a national security issue, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people in this nation.”
Rep. Marcelino Quiñonez, D-Phoenix, said in the hearing that border matters like fentanyl are “a serious topic that deserves serious conversation” and said that Republicans were using the meeting as a “political stunt” rather than looking for real solutions.
Arizona continues to face a surge in migrants coming across the border, which resulted in the roughly month-long closure of the Lukeville Port of Entry in December. Hobbs ended up deploying troops to the border as she took a critical tone on the Biden administration’s response, and the port ended up reopening in early January.
“In the governor’s State of the State, when she said she wanted to work on the border, it made a lot of us happy. But also we were very upset without any details,” Rep. David Livingston, chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, told reporters after the hearing.
“I’ve been meeting with the border Sheriffs and [Department of Emergency and Military Affairs] and the National Guard specifically trying to find out what the needs are, and how much the needs cost, and how many bodies on the National Guard they’re going to send down there. The governor does not have a plan that I have seen, and I’ve been trying to get this for six weeks,” Livingston added.
