Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is demanding that the federal government pay more than a half-billion dollars in “reimbursement” to deal with the financial crisis created by President Joe Biden’s failure to secure the southern border.
In the letter released on Dec. 8 by Ms. Hobbs, the Democrat governor is seeking more than $512 million in federal funds to reimburse state spending on illegal immigrant-related expenses, including transportation, drug interdiction, law enforcement, and other costs “due to the federal government’s failure to secure our border.”
Ms. Hobbs cited the Dec. 4 closure of one of the state’s busiest port-of-entries in Lukeville, Arizona—where agents were transferred from the crossing to help arrest and process a surge of migrants walking across the border to claim asylum—as an example of how the Biden administration’s open border policies have led to massive disruptions for Arizonians.
“For far too long, Arizona has continued to bear the burden of federal inaction in managing our southern border,” Ms. Hobbs wrote in the letter, which she released publicly on social media. “The recent decision to close the Lukeville Port of Entry has led to an unmitigated humanitarian crisis in the area and has put Arizona’s safety and commerce at risk.”
“Our ports of entry are essential to our state and our country’s economy, and it is vital that they be properly staffed and resourced to continue to fuel economic growth in the state,” she added.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB) didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.
The CBP claimed in a statement that the agency was forced to redeploy staff from the port of entry due to changing circumstances at the border.
“In response to increased levels of migrant encounters at the Southwest Border, fueled by smugglers peddling disinformation to prey on vulnerable individuals, CBP is surging all available resources to expeditiously and safely process migrants,” the statement read. “CBP will continue to prioritize our border security mission as necessary in response to this evolving situation.”
The strongly worded statement from Ms. Hobbs, a liberal governor in a swing state criticizing the current Democrat administration, comes at a perilous time for President Biden, who many believe is vulnerable on issues related to the southern border.
While Ms. Hobbs’s public criticism of the head of her party is for the most part political theater, it further highlights the political vulnerabilities of President Biden, Sam Nunberg, a former political consultant and adviser to former President Donald Trump, told The Epoch Times.
“It is a sign of weakness. If Joe Biden was polling at 60 percent of the state, I’m sure she would not be doing it,” Mr. Nunberg said. “It’s a swing state, and she is trying to protect her flank, as well as help the Democratic nominee in the Senate race, which is coming.”
“However, at the end of the day, people need to know this is strictly for public consumption, and it telegraphs just how weak of a position President Biden finds himself in.”
President Biden is polling at 44 percent, according to the most recent RealClearPolitics average.Analysts expect that Arizona will play a pivotal role in deciding who will be the next president. In 2020, President Biden won the state by 0.3 percent of the nearly 3.4 million ballots cast, becoming the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state since President Bill Clinton in 1996.
In 2016, Mr. Trump won the state by 3.5 percentage points.
In recent years, the nation has seen a large surge in illegal border crossings.
In October, for example, CBP reported the highest number of illegal immigrant encounters for any October on record, with 240,988 encounters at the southern border. The agency also reported that 13 of the arrests it made during the month were of people on the FBI terror watchlist (12 from the southern border and one from the northern border). It’s expected that the fiscal year total for 2023 will exceed 2.4 million, surpassing 2022’s record of 2.3 million, once the figures are finalized.
In Arizona, a record high of 17,500 illegal immigrants were arrested for unlawfully entering the southeast region of the state from Mexico between Nov. 24 and Nov. 30—up from about 15,650 the previous week.
Immigration and border security are expected to continue to be hot-button political issues, especially in border states. As the calendar moves closer to the November election, people should expect to see increasing numbers of Democrats distancing themselves from an unpopular president, according to Mr. Nunberg.
“It is only the beginning. You’ll be seeing more and more Democrats in purple and red states openly criticizing Joe Biden,” Mr. Nunberg said. “This isn’t about party loyalty—it is about political survival.”
