Arizonans Approve Police Arrests of Illegal Entrants, Right to Abortion

Both ballot initiatives passed with the broad support of voters.

Illegal immigrants line up at a remote U.S. Border Patrol processing center after crossing the U.S.–Mexico border, in Lukeville, Ariz., on Dec. 7, 2023. John Moore/Getty Images

Two controversial ballot initiatives concerning illegal immigration and abortion easily passed at the ballot box on Nov. 5 with broad support from voters.

Proposition 314, a statutory amendment referred by the Arizona Legislature, prohibits illegal immigrants from entering the state directly from a foreign country at any location other than a lawful port of entry.

The law effectively empowers Arizona law enforcement officers to arrest illegal immigrants. It also bars illegal immigrants from knowingly submitting false documents to apply for public benefits or a job and makes it a class 2 felony for an adult to knowingly sell fentanyl that later causes the death of another person.

The proposition needed only a simple majority to pass and coasted to victory with 63 percent of the vote. Its success comes as Arizona has effectively become ground zero for the nation’s border crisis.

In fiscal year 2024, the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector in Arizona reported more than 463,000 encounters with illegal immigrants—the highest total among all nine sectors.

In August, U.S. Customs and Border Protection made its largest-ever singular seizure of fentanyl when it intercepted 4 million pills at the sector’s Lukeville port of entry.

A Noble Predictive Insights poll released in September had indicated widespread support for Proposition 314, with 63 percent of registered voters signaling their approval. It was also supported by majorities of Republicans (77 percent), independents (57 percent), and Democrats (52 percent) alike.

But Living United for Change in Arizona, an opponent of the measure, has expressed concerns that it might lead to “rampant racial profiling” and civil rights violations.

Abortion Amendment Passes

Arizona was also one of 10 states that voted on the issue of abortion this election.

In a 62–38 vote, the state approved a citizen-led initiative to establish a constitutional right to abortion through fetal viability, and when a “health care professional” deems it necessary to protect the mother’s life or health.

Proposition 139 also bars the state from penalizing anyone who assists a woman in obtaining an abortion.

At present, abortion is legal in Arizona through 15 weeks of pregnancy, though the issue has been a matter of contention in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision, which overturned the federal right to abortion.

The ruling gave way to a court battle in the state over the enforcement of a near-total abortion ban dating back to 1864. After the Arizona Supreme Court ruled in April that the law could be enforced, state lawmakers voted to repeal it.

Arizonans for Abortion Access, the group that put forward the new amendment, applauded voters’ decision to adopt it.

“We did it!” the group wrote in an X post. “Arizona has overwhelmingly voted to protect abortion access! We proved, yet again, that Arizona is a state that values freedom and individual rights.”

Opponents of the measure argued that the inclusion of an exception for the mother’s general “health” could be interpreted to authorize late-term abortions for virtually any reason. They also held that it would prohibit health and safety regulations to protect women and minors while removing licensed physicians from the equation.

By the morning of Nov. 6, a petition was already circulating online asking Arizona state senators to either repeal the amendment or enact new legislation to “help decrease the actual number of abortions performed in our state.”