This week, the Arizona Sheriff’s Association sent a letter to Governor Katie Hobbs and legislative leaders asking for a doubling of the border security money appropriated this fiscal year to local law enforcement, including the sheriffs’ offices around the state.
Yavapai County Sheriff David Rhodes, chair of the Arizona Sheriff’s Association, made the request in a letter citing the “abject failure” of the Biden administration’s border policies for the need.
The Sheriffs thanked lawmakers for the $12 million in this year’s budget for “local border crime,” but said it is not enough given the wide-open border.
The timing of the letter puts Hobbs in a tough spot, because while she has been generally supportive of open border policies and candidates, she did attempt to exploit the chaos on the border this week, claiming that Arizona’s school choice program known as Empowerment Scholarship Accounts were costing money that should be spent on border security. Now she will have a chance to demonstrate that her new advocacy for border security is genuine.
Last week, as law enforcement is increasingly overwhelmed by the flood of immigrants coming across the U.S. southern border, the American Sheriff Alliance demanded increased border security. The sheriffs citied “the alarming statistics of encounters with individuals found to be on the Terrorist Watch List, also known as the Terrorist Screening Dataset (TSDS).”
The sheriffs argue that the “diversity of the countries of origin for migrant encounters is also concerning, particularly with those who have strained diplomatic relations with the U.S.”
Along the southwest border, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) TSDS encounters between ports of entry of non-U.S. citizens have continually risen over the past six years. The following are the number of TSDS encounters according to CBP: 2017 – 2 encounters, 2018 – 6 encounters, 2019 – 0 encounters, 2020 – 3 encounters, 2021 – 15 encounters, 2022 – 98 encounters, and 2023 YTD – 151 encounters, according to the sheriffs. Since 2021, this represents a 906% increase in TSDS encounters; there are still three months left in 2023.
In addition to these rates of TSDS encounters, other criminal statistics continue to rise.
The number of arrests of individuals with criminal convictions or those wanted by law enforcement by noncitizens has increased exponentially from 6,562 encounters in 2021 to 16,992 in 2022, and year to date in 2023, there have been 18,586 encounters, which marks a 183% increase since 2021 with again three months left this year.
The Arizona Sheriff’s Association letter in its entirety:
Earlier this year, Arizona’s leaders appropriated $12 million taxpayer dollars to help law enforcement handle crime related to illegal border crossers. We are grateful for the assistance, and we recognize the finite resources of the state budget.
As the 2024 legislative session approaches, we write to collectively tell you, more funds are needed. Since the 2023-24 budget was approved in May, the situation at the border has only worsened. And correspondingly, so have the consequences in counties throughout Arizona.
The U.S. Border Patrol remains overwhelmed as migrants and cartels take advantage of weaknesses along the 2,000-mile-long border; our ports of entry are as porous as ever as trade allows human and drug smuggling to flourish; and our neighborhoods bear the brunt of the community releases of migrants who sleep in the streets, under bridges and in parks.
As Arizona politicians routinely note, the federal government’s failure to control the border or adequately assist local agencies deal with the consequences represents a continued shortcoming through decades of presidents from both parties.
Since the federal government refuses to perform its job, the financial and human costs fall to the states – and specifically Arizona.
Local law enforcement and community leaders can sound like a broken record in their requests for more money to mitigate the impacts of border-related crime and humanitarian issues. But as you know through your own visits to the border region, the man-made disaster impacts daily life for people throughout Arizona – and indeed the country.
To that end, Arizona must broaden its support of local law enforcement tackling the crime emanating from the open border.
Since the state approved an FY24 budget, it’s become obvious more is needed. The money has already been put to good use. And additional money translates to greater efforts by your sheriffs and other local law enforcement.
While the $12 million is appreciated, it represents a minimal amount compared to the overall $17.8 billion budget. A doubling of its contribution barely makes a dent in the state budget but means a tremendous amount to the sheriff’s offices that patrol local highways and interstates, interdict drug and human smugglers, and rescue wayward migrants in the scorching desert.
As Governor and the leaders of our Legislature, we understand you must balance spending priorities. And the federal government holds the ultimate responsibility for securing our border and stanching the flow of drugs and illegal crossers. However, can there be any doubt about the federal government’s abject failure in this area? Your eyes haven’t deceived you. Indeed, daily the media attention highlights the disastrous impacts of an open border. The scourge of fentanyl spreads like a cancer in communities large and small. Much of that deadly drug flows through Arizona. Arizona sheriff’s deputies seize millions of fentanyl pills every year. And the smuggling through our state’s highways shows no signs of abating.
To increase our effectiveness, we ask that the state double its contribution to local law enforcement to allow us to deploy more resources to interdict human and drug smugglers. The money allows for more deputies patrolling the roads, more canine handlers and dogs to sniff out drugs, and better technology to match the wealth and equipment used by the cartels.
No amount of state money will allow us to seal the 200-mile-long border to all illegal activity. But by making a small investment, Arizona will at least make a dent while improving the safety of our local communities. As this year demonstrated, our state leaders believe border security through effective law enforcement is worth an investment. We hope you see the wisdom in furthering that financial commitment.