Arizona didn't end up at the heart of the border crisis by accident, according to Representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ). The geography practically guarantees it, he says, and the cartels figured that out a long time ago.
"The main highway through Mexico comes on a branch just south of Arizona. Arizona is the focal point, and the cartels know," Biggs said. He pointed to unfinished stretches of border wall on tribal lands, where overlapping jurisdictions among federal, state and tribal authorities have created what he described as wide-open gaps in enforcement.
Biggs also said he was informed roughly two months ago that more than 1,000 cartel-connected safe houses remain active in the Phoenix area alone.
It's that kind of ground-level intelligence, Biggs has argued, that makes a strong state response essential, and the recent Arizona budget deal takes at least some steps in that direction.
Recent Budget Plan
The $18.3 billion spending plan, reached between Governor Katie Hobbs (D-AZ) and Republican lawmakers ahead of the state's June 30 deadline, allocates $14.2 million to hire 100 new troopers for the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
50 of those positions are specifically designated to assist the Gang and Immigration Intelligence Team Enforcement Mission (GIITEM), an Arizona Department of Public Safety program that has been funded in the state budget every year since 2016.
The AZ Mirror reported that in total the GIITEM is set to receive more than $26 million under the new budget, with an additional $1.2 million set aside in a separate subaccount that can be distributed to select county sheriffs for border security expenses.
The budget fight plays out against a charged political backdrop because Biggs is running for governor in the upcoming election, putting him on a direct collision course with Hobbs, who is seeking reelection.
Border security and immigration enforcement have become defining issues of that race, and the two have staked out sharply different positions on how far Arizona should go in policing its own borders.
Hobbs' office pushed back on any suggestion that the new trooper positions align with federal deportation efforts.
For Biggs, though, the budget represents only a partial answer to what he sees as a much larger problem.
With more than 1,000 suspected safe houses still operating across the Phoenix area and stretches of the border he describes as wide open, the congressman says Arizona cannot afford to treat this as anything less than a crisis demanding urgent action.
