💸 Shutdown Showdown: Arizona Democrats Face the Ultimate Sophie's Choice Over Immigration Enforcement
How a three-way political cage match over $17.6 billion is holding essential services hostage while deportation forces keep their funding pipeline flowing
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾
Arizona's government is like a family that can't agree on how to spend their allowance, and now they might have to shut down completely in just eight days. 🗓️ The House wants to spend $17.3 billion 💰, the Senate wants $17.6 billion 💸, and the Governor likes the Senate's plan better.
But here's the weird part: both plans include lots of money for GIITEM, which is like having special police 🚔 whose main job is to catch people who came to Arizona from other countries 🌎 to find work and safety. Some politicians think this is wrong because it takes money away from schools 🎓 and other important things, but if they vote against it, the whole government might shut down 🚫.
It's like being forced to buy something you don't want or else the store closes and nobody gets anything. People in Southern Arizona, especially near the border with Mexico 🇲🇽, are worried because their families and neighbors might be targeted by these special police, even while regular services like schools might be closed. Community groups are working together to help protect each other 🤝 since the politicians seem more interested in fighting than helping people.
🗝️ Takeaways
🎭 Arizona faces unprecedented government shutdown risk as House, Senate, and Governor can't agree on budget by June 30 deadline
💰 Senate passed a $17.6B bipartisan budget while the House wants a leaner $17.3B version—both include controversial GIITEM immigration enforcement funding
🚔 GIITEM receives millions for expanded immigration enforcement operations, including a new "counterterrorism" center targeting borderland communities
⚖️ Democrats face impossible choice: support budget funding deportation forces or risk shutdown, hurting vulnerable populations they represent
🏫 Government shutdown would furlough teachers and close services while immigration enforcement operations continue as "essential"
🔄 House plans "continuation budget" stopgap measure, but Governor Hobbs promises immediate veto
🌵 Crisis reflects broader Trump-era strategy to militarize borderlands through state-federal enforcement partnerships
💪 Community resistance networks must strengthen as electoral politics fail to protect immigrant families
Arizona's Budget Bloodbath: When GIITEM Funding Meets Government Gridlock in the Age of Trump's Immigration Gestapo
Por favor, settle in compadres. This is going to be a bumpy ride through the cesspit of Arizona politics.
As I write this from my home in the borderlands of Southern Arizona on June 23, 2025, our state government is teetering on the precipice of an unprecedented shutdown, just eight days away from July 1st when the fiscal year ends.
What we're witnessing isn't just political theater; it's a three-ring circus where the clowns have real power and the audience gets trampled.
The Budget Battle Royale: A Tale of Three Governments
Qué desmadre is happening at the Capitol?
We have a Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs facing off against not one, but TWO factions of Republicans who can't even agree among themselves, let alone with her. It's like watching a dysfunctional family fight over Thanksgiving dinner while the house burns down around them.
Here's the scorecard for those keeping track at home:
House Republicans: Passed a lean and mean $17.3 billion budget with zero Democratic input, which Hobbs promptly declared "dead on arrival."
Senate Republicans: Negotiated a plumper $17.6 billion bipartisan deal with Governor Hobbs, passing it in the early hours of Friday, June 20, then promptly adjourned for the year like they were heading to a beach vacation.
Governor Hobbs: Stuck between a rock and a hard place, supporting the Senate version while threatening to veto any continuation budget the House tries to slip through.
The kicker?
The House Speaker, Steve Montenegro, announced they're drafting a "continuation budget"—basically a political band-aid—to keep the lights on past June 30. But Hobbs has already promised to veto it faster than you can say "¡Hasta la vista, baby!"
And here's where the irony gets so thick you could cut it with a machete: Montenegro himself is an immigrant from El Salvador who fled violence in his homeland.
¡Qué cara tan dura! This is the same man who now champions deporting immigrants back to the very hell he escaped—a country currently run by Nayib Bukele, whose authoritarian regime has turned El Salvador into a prison state where suspected gang members disappear into overcrowded detention centers without due process.
Montenegro's political trajectory reads like a masterclass in pulling up the ladder after yourself. From supporting Russell Pearce's notorious SB 1070—the "papers please" law that turned every traffic stop into a potential deportation—to now shepherding GIITEM funding fifteen years later, this vendido has perfected the art of "I got mine, screw you" politics. It's the ultimate immigrant success story: flee violence, find safety, then systematically destroy the same pathways that saved your life.
¿En serio, Montenegro?
You escaped the shark-infested waters of Central American violence, climbed aboard the safety boat that is the United States, and now you're actively throwing other desperate swimmers back to the predators? It's not just hypocrisy—it's a special kind of moral bankruptcy that would make Dickens weep.
GIITEM: The Immigration Enforcement Cash Cow
Buried in this budget bonanza is funding for the Gang and Immigration Intelligence Team Enforcement Mission (GIITEM)—Arizona's not-so-secret weapon in the war on immigrants.
¿Y qué es esto? Let me break it down for you.
GIITEM is a multi-agency task force that has been in existence since 2006, when Arizona lawmakers decided they needed their own immigration enforcement force. Initially focused on gangs, it expanded to include immigration enforcement under the guise of fighting "transnational crime." Because apparently, crossing an imaginary line for a better life is equivalent to running drugs across the border.
According to Arizona Department of Public Safety, GIITEM's mission is to "suppress criminal gangs and transnational crime" through a "multi-agency task force." But here's where it gets interesting—despite recent clarifications that AZDPS doesn't engage in direct immigration enforcement, GIITEM continues to receive significant funding for immigration-related activities.
The current budget includes substantial GIITEM funding, nearly $25 million, which has drawn sharp criticism from Senate Democrats. Senator Catherine Miranda (D-Phoenix) specifically called out what she sees as "too much funding for immigration enforcement, including money for the Gang and Immigration Intelligence Team Enforcement Mission."
But it's Senator Sally Ann Gonzales—member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and Co-Chair of the Indigenous Peoples Caucus—who's dropping the truth bombs that need to be heard. Gonzales, who has served Arizona for over 18 years, didn't mince words about the $24.7 million GIITEM allocation, calling it "not just bad policy; it is a moral betrayal."
¡Órale!
Finally, someone with the moral clarity to call out the pendejadas for what they are. Gonzales torched her fellow Democrats with laser precision:
"Any Democrat who votes 'yes' on this budget is complicit in the criminalization of our communities. You cannot call yourself a defender of working families, immigrants, or civil rights and simultaneously fund a program rooted in racial discrimination and anti-immigrant hysteria."
¿Sabes qué?
That's the kind of backbone we need more of in the Legislature. While other Democrats wring their hands about "difficult choices," Gonzales is pointing out that some choices reveal your true character. You either stand with communities under attack, or you fund the machine attacking them.
There's no middle ground when children learn to memorize their parents' legal status, living in fear like Anne Frank of masked men acting like Gestapo, separating their families, before they learn the alphabet.
GIITEM's Expanding Empire
Recent legislation (HB2278) has expanded GIITEM's reach even further, appropriating $2 million in both FY 2025 and 2026 to establish a "Southern Arizona Counterterrorism Information Center."
Apparently, what our borderlands really need is more surveillance and "intelligence gathering" targeting our communities?
The expanded GIITEM Fund can now be used for:
Employer sanctions enforcement
Human and drug smuggling law enforcement
Gang and "strict immigration enforcement"
County jail reimbursement costs related to illegal immigration
Prosecuting human smuggling and immigration enforcement
¿En serio?
They're literally funding a parallel immigration enforcement system while Trump's federal deportation machine revs up for round two.
The Human Cost of Political Gamesmanship
While politicians play budget poker with people's lives, real Arizonans are caught in the crossfire. A government shutdown would impact:
Public education: Teachers and school staff could face furloughs just as families prepare for the new school year
Social services: Programs serving our most vulnerable populations, including undocumented immigrants already living in fear
Environmental protection: State parks and environmental programs would shut down in a state already facing a climate crisis
Healthcare services: Critical health programs could be suspended
Tribal consultation: Government-to-government relationships with sovereign nations would be disrupted
But here's the bitter irony: GIITEM operations would likely continue even during a shutdown, classified as "essential" public safety. So while teachers get sent home without pay, immigration enforcement keeps its funding pipeline flowing.
Trump's Shadow Over the Borderlands
This budget battle isn't happening in a vacuum.
Trump's return to the White House has emboldened anti-immigrant politicians across the country, and Arizona is no exception. The man who promised to conduct the "largest deportation operation in American history" has state-level allies eager to prove their loyalty.
GIITEM represents Arizona's contribution to Trump's deportation apparatus—a state-funded supplement to federal ICE operations that can operate with fewer constraints and more local knowledge. When Miranda, Gonzales, and other Democrats criticize GIITEM funding, they're not just questioning line items; they're pushing back against Arizona's participation in what can only be described as a modern-day redada system.
¿Pero qué podemos hacer? The Democrats face an impossible choice: vote for a budget that funds immigration enforcement or risk a government shutdown that would hurt the very communities they claim to represent.
The Numbers Don't Lie
Let's break down what we're really talking about:
The $300 million difference between the House and Senate budgets isn't just numbers on a spreadsheet—it represents real investments in education, healthcare, and social services.
But it also represents different visions for Arizona's role in Trump's immigration crackdown.
The Democratic Dilemma: Capitulate or Catastrophe?
This brings us to the central question: Will Democrats cave on GIITEM funding to prevent a government shutdown?
History suggests they might (don’t they always?).
Democrats have consistently found themselves in a position of Sophie’s Choice—forced to choose between their principles and practical governance. It's the same dynamic we observe at the federal level, where Democrats routinely vote for defense budgets they oppose in order to keep the government running.
But Senator Gonzales isn't buying the "lesser evil" bullshit anymore. She's calling out the moral cowardice disguised as pragmatism: "Standing with our communities requires courage, not complicity. Our constituents sent us here to lead, not to capitulate to extremist priorities."
Exactamente. The GIITEM funding debate reveals a deeper truth about Democratic complicity in the deportation machine.
Gonzales has effectively cornered her colleagues: if you vote for this budget, you're funding racial profiling. Period. No procedural fig leaves, no committee double-speak, no hiding behind "difficult choices."
The psychological toll on our communities is immeasurable when the state funds programs specifically designed to target brown and Indigenous families. As Gonzales notes, GIITEM "has refused to produce performance data in over four years, operates without transparency, and actively targets immigrant, Latino, and Indigenous communities."
¿En serio?
Four years without performance data, but they still get $24.7 million? In any other job, that would get you fired. But in Arizona's surveillance state, it gets you a budget increase.
It's a classic case of what I call "hostage budgeting"—where Republicans hold essential services hostage to force funding for their enforcement priorities. Democrats can either pay the ransom or watch innocent people suffer the consequences.
However, Gonzales argues that paying the ransom makes one complicit in the crime.
The Bigger Picture: Resistance in the Borderlands
But let's zoom out from the Capitol circus and look at what this means for those of us living in the borderlands. GIITEM isn't just a budget line item—it's a threat to our communities, our families, and our way of life.
Every dollar spent on immigration enforcement is a dollar not spent on education, healthcare, housing, or environmental protection. Every GIITEM operation that tears apart families weakens the social fabric of our communities. Every collaboration between state and federal immigration authorities normalizes the militarization of our daily lives.
Y esto no es acceptable.
Our communities have resisted these attacks before, and we'll resist them again. During the first Trump administration, we saw sanctuary cities, rapid response networks, and know-your-rights campaigns. We saw campaigns. We saw teachers protecting their students, healthcare workers treating patients regardless of status, and community organizations stepping up when the government failed.
The budget crisis reveals the bankruptcy—both moral and financial—of our current political system.
Republicans would rather shut down the government than negotiate in good faith. Democrats would rather fund deportation forces than risk political backlash.
And meanwhile, our communities pay the price.
The Path Forward: Beyond Electoral Politics
¿Entonces qué hacemos? We can't wait for politicians to save us—we have to save ourselves. Here's what resistance looks like in the age of Trump 2.0:
Community Defense: Strengthen rapid response networks, know-your-rights training, and mutual aid organizations. When GIITEM comes for our neighbors, we need to be ready.
Economic Pressure: Support businesses that protect their workers and boycott those that collaborate with enforcement. Money talks, and we need to make sure it speaks our language.
Educational Resistance: Push for Ethnic Studies, Critical Thinking, and Media Literacy in Our Schools. The next generation needs to understand how these systems work and how to change them.
Environmental Justice: Connect immigration enforcement to environmental racism. The same forces militarizing our border are poisoning our air and water.
Electoral Engagement: Yes, elections matter, but they're not enough. We need candidates who will not only critique GIITEM but also defund it. We need leaders who will choose principle over political convenience.
A Note of Hope and Action
Miren, I won't lie to you—the situation is grim.
Trump is back, deportation forces are mobilizing, and our own state government is funding the machine designed to terrorize our communities. The budget crisis is just one symptom of a deeper disease.
But we've lived in these borderlands long enough to know that our communities are stronger than their systems of oppression. We've survived SB 1070, family separations, workplace raids, and countless other attacks. We'll survive this, too—but only if we organize, resist, and support each other.
The budget deadline of June 30th will come and go. Politicians will make their deals, sign their papers, and pat themselves on the back for "governing." But our work continues every single day. Every time we help a neighbor understand their rights, support a family facing deportation, or demand accountability from our representatives, we're building the world we want to see.
So here's what you can do:
Contact your legislators and demand they vote against any budget that funds immigration enforcement. Their offices: Arizona People's Lobby can help you find contact information.
Support local organizations doing rapid response and community defense work. Organizations such as Coalición de Derechos Humanos, LUCHA, and others rely on our financial and volunteer support.
Stay informed about budget negotiations and their impact on our communities. Subscribe to Three Sonorans Substack to get the analysis you won't find in mainstream media—because somebody needs to tell the truth about what's happening in our borderlands.
Build mutual aid networks in your neighborhood. When the government fails us, we must take care of one another.
Document and report GIITEM activities in your community. Transparency is a weapon against oppression.
The politicians in Phoenix may control the budget, but we control our response. We can choose between fear and resistance, isolation and solidarity, despair and hope.
Choose wisely, mis amigos. Our communities are counting on us.
Three Sonorans lives and writes from the borderlands of Southern Arizona, documenting the intersection of immigration, environment, and social justice. Support independent borderlands journalism by subscribing to our Substack and sharing our work.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and let's discuss:
How can communities in the borderlands best organize against state-funded immigration enforcement like GIITEM?
What role should Democrats play when faced with the choice between a government shutdown and funding deportation forces?
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