Tom Horne, the attorney general of Arizona, demanded on 5th June that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) puts an end to its policy of transporting illegal immigrants into Arizona from Texas and provides an explanation for its behavior.
Horne sent a letter to the DHS in which he said that he will allow federal officials “a reasonable amount of time” to put an end to the practice – in Arizona, at least – but that he will take legal action if they fail to comply.
For the last couple of weeks the Department of Homeland Security has been sending undocumented immigrants caught near the border between Mexico and Texas to a holding facility situated in Nogales in Arizona. This is in response to an increase in the number of such immigrants arriving from Central America.
The Arizona arrangement is supposedly a temporary one before better living facilities open in the south-east; however, the Department of Homeland Security has given away little about the rationale behind the decision. Arizona is now starting to run low on holding facilities but federal authorities continue to transport hundreds of families into the state, many with young children, and many have simply been left at bus stations and ordered to report to officials within a 15-day time period.
The increase in such occurrences has sparked much criticism about the lack of preparation, with Horne expressing his own concern and insisting that something is done soon. Horne also objects to the practice of immigrants being shipped 1,200 miles away to a different state and he has called the DHS’s actions “inadvisable and irresponsible”.