At the end of July, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs sent the federal government a bill.
Now, when you say the words “government” and “bill” in the same sentence, it can be a little confusing, so let me be clear: I’m not talking about a legislative bill. I’m referring to the kind of bill that you and I (the little people) deal with on a monthly basis. An invoice that comes with the expectation of payment.
What’s less confusing is why Hobbs sent a big ol’ honkin’ bill to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for more than three-quarters of a billion dollars: It was for expenses related to keeping our big ol’ honkin’ border secure.
Hobbs sent a request for nearly $760 million looking to get a piece of a $12 billion fund that was created to reimburse states for border security spending that happened under the Biden administration.
The fund was created by House Resolution 1, aka the One Big Ol’ Honkin’ Beautiful Bill, which President Donald Trump signed on July 4. In her letter to Noem, Hobbs said, “By working together to deliver on our shared goals, we are making substantial progress in securing the border,” and mentioned local, state and federal law enforcement partnerships created to keep illegal drugs out of the country and combat cartel operations in Arizona.
The bill from Hobbs included an itemized list of border security expenses that she says Arizona incurred between 2021 and 2024. It requests almost $590 million for 2023 alone – the year when the most people in U.S. history (2.475 million) illegally crossed the border, and the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector (covering three-quarters of Arizona’s border) saw the biggest numbers of any sector in the country.
So, yeah, she has a right to bill the Feds. After all, it was the over-welcoming policies of the Biden administration that led to those overwhelming border numbers – or, simply, a lack of policy that some Democrats in Washington seem to espouse, straining resources and leaving small border communities on their own to deal with the flood of humanity that was dropped on Arizona’s doorstep by the cartels.
The D.C. elite feel good about themselves because they’re out of earshot of the worst stories – like how Pima County’s Medical Examiner has to rent refrigerated semi-trailers so they can store the overflow of bodies that the borderland’s dangerous desert offers up as a sacrifice to the God of Misery.
Democrats from elsewhere can engage in a fantasy of an America without a border, but it’s not something Democratic Arizona governors can afford, electorally or fiscally, to buy into.
I’m old enough to remember when Arizona Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano sent $350 million in border security invoices to DHS. However, when Napolitano became President Barack Obama’s DHS secretary, she ignored those same bills.
I don’t know what it is about Washington that causes some lawmakers to lose their minds, but just to be safe, let’s keep Katie Hobbs on this side of the Mississippi. And, while we’re at it, let’s ask our two Democratic senators to spend plenty more time in Arizona, lest they lose their moderate views and go border bonkers.
