PHOENIX — Gov. Katie Hobbs and her Republican opponent in the Arizona governor’s race, U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, agree securing the border is a top priority. But they disagree on how to approach it.
Hobbs dismantled her predecessor's Border Strike Force soon after taking office. Former Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, created the group within the Department of Public Safety to fight drug cartels and human trafficking.
“I want to be really clear that those dollars are still being used for border security,” Hobbs told ABC15 on Sunday.
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Republican state lawmakers sharply criticized Hobbs for disbanding the Border Strike Force in 2023, and Biggs has said revitalizing it would be his first move.
“The first thing that I think we need to do is to make sure that the Border Security Strike Force is fully funded, fully equipped, and we have interagency cooperation,” he said at an Arizona Police Association public-safety forum last week.
Most of the drug seizures attributed to the strike force were actually made by other state troopers, according to public records obtained by the Arizona Republic. And most of the group’s work did not take place in Arizona’s four border counties.
Hobbs told ABC15 sheriffs and local police told her the money could be “more purposeful.”
“What I heard from a lot of local law enforcement is that there was a lack of coordination in state efforts on border security and what they were faced with in their communities, and I worked to change that,” she said.
Hobbs instead directed the money to local law enforcement for technology, communications, vehicles and even additional staffing.
"I've allocated more than $200 million for local border security, and we have real results,” she said.
According to the governor, Arizona’s statewide drug interdiction efforts have seized more than 18 million fentanyl pills and thousands of pounds in other illegal drugs.
Biggs criticized Hobbs’ record on border security after last week’s public-safety forum.
“She supported Biden's open border,” he said. “She took down Gov. Ducey's container barriers, and then she actually defunded the border security strike force.”
Ducey placed thousands of shipping containers along the border in 2022 and sued the federal government when it asked him to take the makeshift border wall down. The U.S. Department of Justice later sued Ducey, and he agreed before leaving office to remove the wall.
“To make the border security strike force work, you actually have to have a leader who's involved," Biggs said. “I will appoint a border czar who can help coordinate work on the border with sheriffs, local law enforcement, working with federal law enforcement, working with state troopers.”
Hobbs, who has criticized former President Joe Biden for his policies on the border, has also said she will continue to work with both President Donald Trump and the state’s sheriffs on border issues.
“I'm going to continue to work with local law enforcement to how we can use those dollars best to keep Arizonans safe,” she said.
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