Immigrant rights groups threaten to oust Az Dem for voting to increase border funding

Progressive groups that helped a
moderate Democrat win a state House seat in a Republican district
castigated the freshman lawmaker as “racist” for backing a bill to give
money to local police to enforce immigration law and said they may work
to defeat him in 2026 if he continues to support the measure.

Rep. Kevin Volk, D-Tucson, is a
former teacher who narrowly captured a seat in the Arizona House of
Representatives last year after mounting a campaign that opposed the “extreme” and “divisive” policies of the GOP-majority legislature. 

Since the legislative session began
last month, he has sought to establish himself as a moderate, and on
Feb. 24, he broke party ranks by joining Republicans to approve a
proposal that critics say would transform police officers into border
patrol agents.

What’s in the bill? 

House Bill 2606
earmarks $50 million to fund law enforcement officers who work in drug
interdiction, against human trafficking or who “deter and apprehend”
people accused of crossing the state’s southern border illegally. The
money would also be used to reimburse cities, counties and towns for the
costs of prosecuting and detaining people accused of drug trafficking,
human smuggling or immigrating without authorization. 

The costs of providing public defense
against those charges for people who can’t afford a lawyer, however,
could not be paid from the pool of cash, even though doing so is legally
required. 

GOP lawmakers say the bill provides
the financial backing that law enforcement officials warned them would
be necessary to enforce the mandates in Proposition 314. Titled the
“Secure the Border Act,” the referral made it a state crime for migrants
to cross the Arizona-Mexico border anywhere but at an official port of
entry. After 63% of Arizonans in November voted to approve the referral,
lawmakers returned to the legislature in January intent on providing
the funding they had failed to secure initially — despite the fact that
using taxpayer money from the state’s general fund to pay for a proposal
that increases state spending violates the Arizona Constitution and will likely lead to a lawsuit that could nullify Prop. 314.  

Critics fear AZ police will ‘turn into ICE agents’

Opponents of the proposal urged
lawmakers on the House Appropriations Committee on Feb. 24 to reject it,
arguing that awarding law enforcement agencies money to take on
immigration enforcement duties primes them for carrying out President
Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda. 

Although it has been sold by
Republicans as limited to actions taken under the directives of Prop.
314, critics say it’s so broadly written as to greenlight any move to
enforce federal immigration laws.

Crystal Padilla, a member of Unite
Here Local 11, a pro-immigrant group that regularly mobilizes on behalf
of Democratic candidates, said she fears paying police officers to get
involved in immigration enforcement will result in the rampant racial
profiling that occurred while SB1070, the state’s notorious “show me
your papers” was still in effect. Padilla shared that, as a child living
near Sierra Vista, a town just 15 miles north of Mexico, she witnessed
her family members suffer repeated discrimination because of SB1070. 

“Some of my earliest memories were
being pulled over by Border Patrol over and over again,” she said. “My
uncle is a citizen, and he was harassed by Border Patrol and local law
enforcement just based on the color of his skin. He was even wrongfully
imprisoned twice.” 

Padilla warned that funding Arizona
law enforcement agencies to arrest people suspected of entering the
country illegally would jeopardize the due process rights of thousands,
no matter their citizenship status. 

“HB2606 would spend 50 million
taxpayer dollars to turn local police into ICE agents and result in the
over-policing of communities of color and immigrants,” she said.

Volk joins GOP to fulfill voter mandates

In the end, 11 Republicans and Volk
cast their votes in favor of the bill, saying it’s necessary to ensure
that law enforcement officials have sufficient funding to meet the
demands placed on them by the state and to keep Arizonans safe from
crimes committed at the southern border. The remaining six Democrats on
the panel voted against the bill. 

Volk said his constituents were
overwhelmingly in favor of Prop. 314, and that his vote acknowledged
their mandate to strengthen border security. But he noted that he also
believes in the need for comprehensive immigration reform, and called on
the federal government to take action to preserve legal immigration. 

“People want our border to be well
managed, and they want a hardline for bad actors — especially dangerous
criminals,” he said. “And the majority of us want an efficient, orderly
process for legal immigration for those who are seeking a better life.”

The Tucson Democrat pointed out that
the requirements in Prop. 314 for state police officers and Arizona
judges to arrest and deport people convicted of unlawfully crossing the
border have been enshrined in state law by voter