Kris Mayes, the lawyer normal of Arizonahe vowed to combat the newcomers Trump administration on key features of his immigration coverage, together with any effort to arrange deportation camps on Arizona soil or take away hundreds of “Dreamer” migrants who got here to the United States as kids.
In an interview with the Guardian, Mayes mentioned any transfer goes via Donald Trump in his second presidential time period, taking away the rights of Dreamers to remain and work within the United States could be a “vivid purple line for me. I can’t tolerate any try to deport or undermine them.”
Arizona, a essential border state that shall be on the entrance strains within the combat towards Trump’s plans for mass deportations, has greater than 30,000 Dreamers, undocumented migrants who entered the United States illegally as kids however are rights had been granted below the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). The program was launched by Barack Obama in 2012 however has come below relentless assault from Republicans since then.
“I’ll positively combat on behalf of the dreamers,” Mayes mentioned. “These individuals are firefighters, law enforcement officials, academics – they’re a part of the very cloth of our state and we’ll shield them.”
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Trump tried to eradicate Daca protections throughout his first presidency and was solely stopped by a restrictive determination from the United States supreme court. He just lately softened his place, talking out NBC News that he wished to discover a technique to permit dreamers to stay within the nation, though his obvious U-turn left many skeptical of his intentions.
The Daca program has already been challenged by Republican states in a case at the moment earlier than the ultra-conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. It is sort of sure that the case will attain the Supreme Court, which has an absolute majority of six out of three justices.
Despite the obstacles dreamers face, Mayes mentioned he stays optimistic.
“I believe the Supreme Court will in the end weigh the deserves of defending them. We need to give the courts the chance to make the proper determination, and we’ll make very robust arguments on this proposal,” he mentioned.
Arizona’s lawyer normal additionally had harsh phrases concerning any try by Trump to construct detention camps in his state as a part of his plans to mass deport hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants. He mentioned his military of attorneys can be ready to reject any transfer to resume household separation, the coverage below which hundreds of youngsters are taken from their mother and father on the Mexican border as a part of a “zero tolerance” technique ”.
“Should Trump try to have interaction in household separation or construct mass deportation camps, I’ll do all the things I legally can to combat him. This will not be taking place in Arizona, not on our soil,” he mentioned.
Mayes added that household separation, which left the best way 1,000 families nonetheless torn to items six years later – was “principally anathema to who Arizonans are.”
Mayes and his staff have been getting ready for months for the anticipated flurry of exercise when Trump returns to the White House on January 20. They “scoured,” as she put it, the 2025 Project, the right-wing handbook for a second Trump time period compiled by the Heritage Foundation.
He additionally labored intently with others Democratic state attorneys normal, noting that collectively they filed greater than 100 lawsuits throughout Trump’s first presidency, profitable 80 p.c of them.
“One of our strengths is that we’re doing this very a lot collectively, we’re united and arranged,” Mayes mentioned.
The significance of cooperation between states is more likely to be much more essential concerning cross-border points.
Mayes mentioned he was working together with his Democratic counterparts Rob Bonta of California and Raúl Torrez of New Mexico — with solely Texas’ Republican lawyer normal, Ken Paxton, taking a really totally different, anti-immigration strategy.
“Three of the 4 border states have Democratic attorneys normal, and we’ll combat for due course of and particular person rights,” he mentioned.
Complicating issues is Proposition 314, the poll measure authorized in Arizona in November with a powerful 63% of the vote. It permits state police to arrest any undocumented particular person getting into the United States at places aside from lawful ports of entry.
Mayes mentioned the choice won’t cease her from resisting Trump’s unconstitutional strikes.
“Proposition 314 tells us that Arizonans are fed up with a dysfunctional border,” he mentioned.
“We are going through a serious fentanyl disaster in our state and there’s no query that Arizonans need our border addressed. But when Arizonans voted for Donald Trump they didn’t vote to destroy the Constitution of Arizona and the United States – I firmly imagine that.”
What was wanted on the border had been extra federal assets to extend border patrols within the area, improve fentanyl interception and strengthen the prosecution of drug cartels. What wasn’t crucial, Mayes insisted, was Trump’s threatened plan to ship within the National Guard and even the U.S. Army to behave as a rigged deportation pressure.
“There is nothing extra un-American than utilizing the navy towards Americans,” he mentioned. “It is clearly unconstitutional and never one thing Arizonans need to see.”
Since being elected to the place of Arizona’s high legislation enforcement officer in 2022, Mayes has established herself as a rising star within the Democratic Party able to negotiating the typically fraught politics of a border state. His most high-profile act got here in April when he indicted 18 individuals, together with former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and former chief of employees Mark Meadows, for collaborating within the 2020 “pretend voter” conspiracy.
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An identical case towards pretend voters in Georgia was just lately quashed after an appeals court docket disqualified the Atlanta prosecutor answerable for the case, Fani Willis.
Mayes informed the Guardian that regardless of Trump’s victory in November, he had no intention of abandoning the false voter case. “These indictments had been handed down by a state grand jury and justice will not be served by standard vote. Now the case is in court docket, and there it can stay till it’s completed.”
Such an necessary accusation might put her within the sights of Kash Patel, Trump’s alternative as FBI director. If Patel is confirmed for the job by the U.S. Senate, he has made it clear that he’ll pursue vengeful investigations towards these deemed Trump’s enemies.
Mayes didn’t need to talk about Patel’s appointment. But he mentioned: “I’m not afraid of anybody. I’ll do my job, uphold the legislation, and shield Arizonans. I’ll do it, regardless of who’s on the helm of the FBI.”
