A bill, sponsored by Arizona State Senator Janae Shamp, intended to “protect Arizona citizens and communities from the crime and security threats associated with the current border invasion caused by the Biden Administration’s refusal to enforce immigration laws,” has been transmitted to Governor Katie Hobbs for her signature.
SB 1231, known as the Arizona Border Invasion Act, establishes in Arizona law three border-related crimes with subsequent punishments. Local, county, or state law enforcement officers would be granted authority to arrest any non-US citizens who enter Arizona from anywhere but a lawful entrance point, as well as those who have already been removed from the U.S. or denied entry, and those who have previously been ordered to leave but are refusing to comply.
Arizona State Representative Steve Montenegro, whose family immigrated to the U.S. legally when he was just a small infant, spoke passionately in defense of Shamp’s bill.
“The federal government has turned its back on Arizona,” said Montenegro. “When the federal government refuses to do its job and protect its citizens from foreign invasion, from lawlessness at our border, then we reserve the rights as states to step in and protect our people, protect Arizonans, protect American citizens, protect their families, their children, their livelihoods, their property. This is Arizona and if the federal government refuses to do its job, we step in.”
“Arizonans want and deserve safe communities, but the invasion at the border has led to countless fentanyl overdoses, rapes, murders, human smuggling, child sex trafficking, high-speed chases, subsequent deadly car crashes, and other heinous crimes that are forever transforming our state and the lives of our citizens right before our eyes,” said Shamp.
“Governor Katie Hobbs has declared on numerous occasions her disapproval for the lawlessness caused by the federal government’s open border policies and her desire to take action to protect our citizens. This legislation is exactly what our local law enforcement needs and has asked for to rein in the dangerous criminal activity that’s being thrust upon law-abiding Arizonans by the Biden Administration. The Legislature has done its job. Now is her chance to protect the citizens of Arizona by signing this bill into law, so that we can take the handcuffs off of our law enforcement and allow them to do their job,” concluded Shamp.