By Zachery Schmidt
The Arizona State Senate Military Affairs and Border Security Committee advanced Senate Bill 1294, which seeks to provide a prison to the federal government to house illegal immigrants.
SB 1294 passed Monday 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.”
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.
Kavanagh added there will be a need for detention facilities to house people adjudicating their immigration status and people with deportation orders.
I don’t see anything wrong with putting them up in Yuma Territorial.
imprison them for entry alone?
There’s plenty happening on the streets with immigration that deserves Prison – I hope they enact the common sense to ‘imprison’ those that have by their actions deserve prison. Putting the low hanging fruit does not fix the problem that exists. Use the $$’s for the best ‘bang for the buck’ – see prison as an industry is ‘bad math’ – imprison – sure – but get the drug runners, child pornographer, child exploiter, sex trafficker, gang operator, command and control persons ‘first come’ first served… just putting border crossing individuals in jail a waste.
What many do not know is the counties charge local cities a per day jail fee for each misdemeanor prisoner, somewhere between $150-200 day. There are exceptions when cities and counties enter into quid-pro-quo agreements. The former Sheriff in Santa Cruz county build a huge jail in Nogales counting on federal prisoners to soften his budget and pay for the new jail. The feds did not have much a high opinion of the Sheriff and never accepted his offer to house federal prisoners for a fee. My warning to Sen. John Kavanagh is not to count your inmate $$ too soon. Besides this, the innovation and willingness to try new things is wonderful. Hopefully our Marxists Govenor will see this as a step towards bigger government and wrap her cold arms and hands around it and Sen. John Kavanagh, 🙂 XXOOXXOO
Most likely will pass but the legislature must be able to over-ride the idiots veto. Doubt if they can. There are too many liberal idiots in the legislature that hate this country.
Well here’s one the Hobbit will veto