Katie Hobbs agrees to fund 50 state troopers to carry out Trump’s mass deportation agenda

Gov. Katie Hobbs struck a budget deal with Arizona Republicans that will help aid President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda by hiring at least 50 new state troopers who will be dedicated to “immigration enforcement and border security.” 

The $18.3 billion budget deal has been months in the making as lawmakers worked to avoid the June 30 deadline that would lead to a government shutdown in Arizona. The plan, which was made public Tuesday afternoon, includes $1.45 billion in tax cuts that will codify federal changes made by President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.” 

It also includes $14.2 million for the hiring of 100 Arizona Department of Public Safety troopers — half of which are “to be used for immigration enforcement and border security” assisting the department’s Gang and Immigration Intelligence Team Enforcement Mission, known as GIITEM. 

The budget says the 50 troopers will help GIITEM with four key areas:

• Enforcing all federal laws relating to “illegal aliens and arresting illegal aliens” 
• Responding to or assisting any county sheriff or attorney investigating “complaints of employment of illegal aliens” 
• Enforcing Arizona’s SB1070 law and investigating identity theft “in the context of hiring illegal aliens and the unlawful entry into this country” 
• “Taking strict enforcement action” of federal immigration laws 

The provisions and funding were included in the budget that Republican lawmakers passed earlier this year, but was vetoed by Hobbs. That spending plan largely serves as the basis for the budget deal that the governor reached with GOP legislators.

GIITEM is set to receive more than $26 million in total, with $14.2 million of that for the new troopers. The budget also allocates $1.2 million from that fund to be placed in a separate subaccount that GIITEM can use to dole out funds to select sheriffs for border security related expenses. 

Immigrant advocacy group Living United for Change in Arizona panned the spending, but said it’s important to note both that the overall funding for GIITEM — which it generally opposes — did not increase over last year and that the budget trims $5 million from the Local Border Support Fund.

“That reduction matters, and it’s a step in the right direction, but our position remains clear: Arizona should not be spending state dollars on immigration enforcement, helping an authoritarian federal government expand its vicious campaign of ICE enforcement, deportation and family separation,” LUCHA spokesman César Fierros told the Arizona Mirror. “Every dollar that goes toward programs like GITEM is a dollar not going toward housing, healthcare, food assistance, heat relief or the services families urgently need.”

And that isn’t the only border security fund getting extra money from the state budget this year. 

The budget allocates $13.2 million for “local border support,” which “shall be used to fund local law enforcement officer positions for border drug interdiction to deter and apprehend any individuals who are charged with drug trafficking, human smuggling, illegal immigration and other border-related crimes.” 

That money can also be used for “grants to cities, towns and counties for costs associated with prosecuting and detaining individuals who are charged with drug trafficking, human smuggling, illegal immigration and other border-related crimes.” 

The budget also says that the department “may fund all capital-related equipment.” 

Border security related funds have been used by local police departments to purchase high-tech surveillance equipment, such as the Tucson Police Department’s purchase of a social media surveillance tool that has also been used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

Hobbs, who has been critical of federal immigration enforcement in the past, did not respond to the Arizona Mirror’s request for comment asking her about the appropriation.