Yavapai County Sheriff David Rhodes, Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb and Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone held a press conference on Wednesday, May 10, ahead of the end of Title 42, which expired at midnight on Thursday, May 11.

“The rule of law” was a phrase invoked frequently during the conference discussing the end of Title 42, which has been in place for the last three years and was intended to enable border police to rapidly turn away asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Title 42 provision was enacted as part of the Public Health Service Act of 1944 and allows federal authorities to limit asylum to prevent the spread of communicable diseases. The policy was implemented under former President Donald Trump in March 2020 in regards to COVID- 19 and expanded by current President Joe Biden in October 2022 to include asylum seekers from Venezuela.

A federal judge ruled in November 2022 that expulsions under Title 42 violated the Administrative Procedure Act and the law ceased to apply when the federal government formally ended the COVID-19 public health emergency on May 11.

Rhodes called on any organization that makes transports of migrants to cooperate with local authorities and added a call to migrants “to follow the laws” and a reminder to traffickers they will be prosecuted.

Rhodes, a Republican, also noted Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobb’s calls to dissolve the Arizona Department of Safety’s Border Strike Force and reallocate that state funding to law enforcement and nonprofits directly on the border during the conference.

“Our strategy has been to work with the governor’s office in the state budget to restore the Border Strike Force funding so that that money could go to the rural counties to form task forces to embolden task forces that can deal with the ongoing organized crime,” Rhodes said. “Which is a very important point because small counties don’t have the resources to just hire more people immediately or bring in more law enforcement officers immediately.”

Rhodes alleged that the U nonimmigrant status visa was an additional source of concern to him. U visas are for victims of crimes who have suffered abuse; the program “was intended to strengthen the ability of law enforcement to investigate and prosecute cases of domestic violence, sexual assault, trafficking of noncitizens, while also protecting victims,” according to the U.S Citizenship and Immigration Service.

“About 10,000 [U visas] a year are approved or issued,” Rhodes said. “But there’s a backlog of about 350,000 of them … criminals in other countries recognize that and they come to America and fabricate crimes that occurred against them … What’s important to know is that if people are arrested for committing a state crime and booked into the county jail [U.S. Immigration

and Customs Enforcement] will be notified. We are requesting that [the federal government] be more aggressive about those deportations of people that are in the country and committed a crime, they need to be deported.”

“There is one particular policy that is beginning to percolate and that is street drop-offs of immigrants who have come across the border [and have] been processed by [federal authorities]. Given their court day, and they have nowhere to go,” Rhodes, who was recently named president of the Arizona Sheriffs Association, said. “Those dropoffs in different communities around this state need to be communicated to the local government and law enforcement in those communities.”

Penzone, a Democrat, complained about 2021 changes to Arizona’s asset forfeiture law, which now requires a criminal conviction prior to forfeiture “of a wrong-doer’s ill-gotten gains” in accordance with the Fifth Amendment. The change has been cited by Yavapai County anti-drug law enforcement Partners Against Narcotics Trafficking task force as contributing to their budget issues as well.

“We must restore legislation that relates to the seizure of ill-gotten goods,” said Penzone, who was recently named the vice president of the Arizona Sheriffs Association. “Assets that

should be forfeited for profits for those organized groups, cartels and others who are making money off of human, sex and drug trafficking because of issues at our border.”

“Our message to the people of Arizona is that the Arizona sheriff will enforce the law, and if you break a state law we will hold you accountable,” said Lamb, a Republican. Lamb also claimed that 50% of illicit drugs that are entering the country are coming via Arizona.