One Arizona town recently pledged cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
On Tuesday, the town of Fountain Hills passed a resolution (6-1) pledging cooperation with ICE’s mass deportation efforts under the Trump administration.
The resolution cited the existence of over 647,000 illegal immigrants with pending charges or convictions for violent crimes within the U.S. as justification for the town’s support.
“[T]he Town remains steadfast in its commitment to protecting the safety and well-being of its residents, particularly those most vulnerable to criminal activities such as human trafficking and drug distribution,” stated the resolution. “[T]he Town will continue to comply with all applicable federal and state laws, recognizing that there can be conflicts between federal and state laws.”
The resolution also committed the town to not becoming a sanctuary town as others in the state have done, and pledged to seek assistance from the U.S. Attorney General’s office to indemnify the town and employees for any assistance or cooperation provided to federal immigration authorities.
According to a press release also issued on Tuesday, Fountain Hills Town Council member Allen Skillicorn drafted and introduced the resolution. Skillicorn cited his past experience as an Illinois state lawmaker as the impetus for presenting the policy.
“Not long ago I was a state legislator. I had to solve problems, both present and in the future,” Skillicorn said. “My commitment is to our town and keeping our town safe from crime.”
Fountain Hills, passed a resolution of cooperation with ICE to enforce Federal immigration law. “My commitment is to our town and to keep our town safe!”
— Skillicorn for Arizona🌵 🇺🇸 (@allenskillicorn) March 5, 2025
The resolution didn’t pass unanimously.
Councilwoman Peggy McMahon questioned whether Skillicorn was accusing town council members, staff, and community members of impeding law enforcement. McMahon further alleged the resolution would encourage racial profiling.
“Are you saying they’re not doing their job in enforcing the laws? Are you implying the town and the sheriffs are not committed to cooperating with enforcing laws to protect the health, the welfare, and the safety of our community?” asked McMahon. “Accordingly, the resolution to me is moot and legally unenforceable. So I don’t even know why we’re talking about it.”
McMahon also argued that illegal immigrants were responsible for just a small fraction of crimes committed in their town and the state as a whole.
Councilman Brenda Kalivianakis, who voted for the resolution, asked why the resolution was necessary. Kalivianakis criticized the resolution as another “time-sink” designed to further other council members’ political careers and not the town’s priorities.
“This seems like a solution looking for a problem. This isn’t a problem we have in this community. It seems like a case of just virtue signaling. Here I am, I’m going to lead the way on DEI and all these nationally divisive issues and then I’m going to appear in some small newspaper tomorrow and be called a hero,” said Kalivianakis. “Why are we talking about things that don’t matter?”
During the same meeting on Tuesday, the town council passed a resolution (5-2) banning Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and the usage of gender identity-based pronouns.
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Legal experts are concerned over Attorney General Pam Bondi’s pick for Interim Attorney for the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona.
The Justice Department (DOJ) announced the swearing in of Timothy Courchaine on Monday, effectively opting for an internal promotion to the assistant U.S. attorney of nearly five years rather than bringing in new leadership. Bondi appointed Courchaine last week.
The appointment came shortly after the termination of the former U.S. Attorney Gary Restaino, appointed to the position by President Joe Biden in November 2021. Restaino’s term earned a general reputation for not accomplishing as much as possible.
An insider at the Arizona legislature expressed concern to AZ Free News that this selection would continue the status quo within the legal world, not prompt greater activity or usher in the desired overhaul of an office scrutinized for its caseload in recent years.
“The U.S. attorney’s office here in Arizona has earned a reputation for being ineffective and deliberately so. You cannot clean it up from the inside. You must have someone come in and see just what a mess it is,” said the source. “Anyone who has been on the inside and who has not publicly come forward to talk about what a disaster it is does not deserve to lead the place.”
Cleaning house within the DOJ was one of the clear mandates set forth by President Donald Trump.
“Over the past four years, the Department of Justice has been politicized like never before,” posted Trump on TruthSocial. “Therefore, I have instructed the termination of ALL remaining ‘Biden Era’ U.S. Attorneys. We must ‘clean house’ immediately, and restore confidence. America’s Golden Age must have a fair Justice System — THAT BEGINS TODAY!”
POTUS just ordered the firing of all remaining Biden US attorneys. That is exactly what needed to be done, and it has been done by past administrations. These are presidential appointees, and in Biden's case, he chose the most radical, political US attorneys in my lifetime.… pic.twitter.com/YafmHz4Pbm
Prior to joining the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, Courchaine clerked for Arizona Supreme Court Justice William Montgomery. Courchaine began his career with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office back in 2015 as a special projects manager prior to joining the Marine Corps as a judge advocate and attaining the rank of captain. Courchaine was also a Blackstone Legal Fellow for the Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence before clerking for Biola University’s Office of General Counsel.
As the interim Arizona district attorney, Courchaine supervises prosecution of all federal crimes and litigation of all civil matters in which the U.S. has an interest. The DOJ reported that Courchaine leads a staff of about 350 prosecutors, civil litigators, and support personnel across the state. The office also handles one of the larger Indian Country dockets in the nation, serving as the felony prosecutor for nearly all the 22 federally recognized tribes within the state.
The DOJ also credited Courchaine with the handling of cases concerning border crimes and Mexican-based cartels.
Per reporting from the Arizona Daily Independent, potential appointees to the permanent slot include Tim La Sota, Dennis Wilinchek, Jennifer Wright, Anthony Martin, James Rogers, and potentially former Arizona Supreme Court Justice Andrew Gould.
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Major cities nationwide resounded with this chant in the weeks following President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Pro-illegal immigration activists took over the streets with protests bordering on riots and engaged in coordination efforts to thwart deportations.
Younger grassroots activists, like those with the local Party For Socialism and Liberation or the MECHA chapters, bolstered their numbers with members of the most well-funded leftist activist operations in the state.
Anti-ICE protesters shut down traffic in Phoenix, AZ while waving foreign flags and signs saying we’re on stolen land.
These activist operations are nonprofits financed, in large part, by the wealthiest leftist donors in the nation—especially those dealing in dark money by the millions. But it doesn’t stop there. They’re also financed by reputable U.S. corporations and their leaders—and even federal grants. These nonprofits have similar goals: opening the border, abolishing immigration enforcement, and granting citizenship to illegal immigrants.
These leftist activist nonprofits are consistent in their messaging, outlined succinctly in collaborative efforts such as the United Nations Human Rights Council Immigration Working Group of 2020 report. That report advocated for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the establishment of “Welcoming Centers” to process any who wish to come across the border in Yuma, Nogales, and in other states along the southern border.
The following are the powerhouse groups leading coordinated efforts in Arizona to undermine the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement.
Aliento Education Fund (Aliento) — Phoenix. Reported revenue for 2023: over $1.7 million.
Aliento’s founder and current leader is Reyna Montoya, a DACA recipient. Montoya’s partner and the nonprofit’s vice president of education and external affairs, José Patiño, is a 2024-25 Obama Foundation USA Leader.
Aliento provides illegal aliens with a defense and preparation plan to counter immigration enforcement efforts as well as resources on evading ICE.
Should the Supreme Court take on and overrule the active Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA) case, recipients like their founder, Montoya, would be at risk for deportation. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled DACA to be unlawful for new applicants but allowed renewals to continue.
The pressure of these pending changes to immigration law spurred Aliento to mobilize its forces.
Earlier this month, the Aliento chapter at Arizona State University led a protest against the advocacy of another campus group, College Republicans United, to aid deportation efforts.
Hundreds of student protestors at ASU stood up to fascists gathered to promote ethnic cleansing and report undocumented students. They protected their undocumented classmates by creating an impromptu march that overwhelmed the MAGA racists. #3E#USprotests#Arizona#ICEpic.twitter.com/gVQeGpvOwh
In a subsequent interview with Arizona PBS, Montoya defended illegal immigration as permissible so long as the illegal immigrants don’t get a criminal record while in the country. Montoya also claimed the media and the Trump administration were exaggerating the negative consequences of illegal immigration.
“I think that people are really afraid that people who have been paying taxes, folks who haven’t really gotten in any trouble with the law, they are now targeted to be deported,” said Montoya.
In response to those supportive of deportations, Montoya declared illegal aliens shouldn’t be held responsible for committing the crime of illegal immigration.
“What would you do if you were in our shoes?” said Montoya. “That you only made one mistake in your life that pushed you from different circumstances, what would you have done?”
Among Aliento’s top donors over the past decade are the Tides Foundation ($675k), Pharos Foundation ($450k), Arizona Community Foundation ($355k), Satterberg Foundation ($350k), Bob and Renee Parsons Foundation ($300k), and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors ($222k).
Last year, Aliento also received a $75,000 grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield to improve the mental health of illegal immigrants.
In 2022, Aliento received $250,000 from the GoDaddy founder’s charitable organization, the Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation.
The Arizona Center for Empowerment (ACE) — Phoenix. Reported revenue for 2023: nearly $7 million.
ACE is a Phoenix-based illegal alien advocacy nonprofit and a sister organization to Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA). ACE has regularly reimbursed LUCHA a little over a million in expenses for the past several years. ACE emerged as a response to SB1070 over a decade ago.
ACE’s founders are Alejandra Gomez and Abril Gallardo Cervera.
Gomez, the executive director, formerly served as deputy organizing director of United We Dream, an illegal immigration advocacy organization, and co-executive director of LUCHA.
Cervera is the chief of staff for LUCHA, which she also founded, and sits on the board of United We Dream Action. Cervera played a significant role in unseating former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio as well as passing the Health Working Families Initiative to raise Arizona’s minimum wage.
Other key players in ACE’s short history include Democratic lawmaker Raquel Terán, who sat on ACE’s board and formerly served as its director. Now, Terán is the director of the newly-formed Proyecto Progreso — another entity resisting immigration enforcement.
In response to the Trump administration’s deportation efforts, ACE has issued advisories to illegal aliens on avoiding immigration enforcement detainment: instructing them to remain silent, obtain legal counsel, and refuse law enforcement entry into the home without a warrant. ACE is also providing free assistance to illegal aliens, such as the completion of DACA renewal paperwork.
ACE and LUCHA senior policy advisor, Lena Avalos, led recent efforts to oppose a new Republican-led bill in the Arizona legislature (SB1111) offering a $2,500 bounty for each illegal immigrant via an Arizona Deportations Fund.
“This bill is nothing more than Donald Trump’s 2025 agenda, and you are wasting taxpayer resources on hateful, racist legislation,” said Avalos during the Senate Government hearing on SB1111.
Among ACE’s top donors over the past decade were the Center for Popular Democracy ($1.7 million), the Voter Registration Project (for voter registration, over $3.5 million), and the Telescope Fund ($900,000).
Chicanos Por La Causa Action Fund, also known as “Si Se Vota” (CPLCAF) is the advocacy arm of the similarly named nonprofit, Chicanos Por La Causa (CPLC). Reported revenue for 2023: $4.4 million.
CPLCAF is resisting the Trump administration by tapping top elected officials and grabbing the ears of the state’s movers and shakers.
The week of Trump’s inauguration last month, CPLCAF’s executive director, Joseph Garcia, met with leaders at Arizona State University’s Hispanic Research Center to advocate against the Trump administration’s plans for mass deportation.
CPLCAF receives its funding from CPLC: over $10.4 million directly from CPLC the last two years. CPLC had a reported $200 million in revenue in 2023.
A significant portion of CPLC’s millions has come from federal government grants: the nonprofit was awarded nearly $72 million out of the approximately $500 million in obligations (about $297 million of these obligations incurred from 2020 onward, nearly 60 percent of total obligations incurred since the earliest available dataset provided in 2008). The majority of these grants came under the Biden administration:
In 2020, CPLC received a $101 million grant and a $68 million grant to carry out migrant head start programming, which doesn’t require proof of citizenship. $66 million and $53 million were outlayed, respectively; the performance period for the former doesn’t end until this August, and the latter grant ended last August.
In 2021, CPLC received a $4 million grant, again for head start programming. The total grant was awarded by the performance period’s end last year.
In 2022, CPLC received an $18 million grant to provide residential shelter and/or transitional foster care services for unaccompanied illegal immigrant children. Nearly $13 million has been outlayed; the performance period ends in June.
In 2023, CPLC received a $16 million grant to conduct home study and post-release services for unaccompanied illegal immigrant children. About $2 million of that grant has been outlayed; the performance period ends in September 2026.
In 2023, CPLC received a $12 million grant, again for head start programming. About $6 million of that grant has been outlayed; the performance period ends in December 2028.
In 2024, CPLC received a $21 million grant, again for migrant head start programming. About $7 million of that grant has been outlayed; the performance period ends in August 2029.
The Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project (Florence Project) — Tucson. Reported revenue for 2023: $17.8 million.
The Florence Project provides free legal and social services to detained illegal immigrants of all ages in Arizona. The founders were immigration attorneys Christopher Brelje and Charlene D’Cruz. It is the largest organization of its kind in the state. The nonprofit is engaged in two of 22 lawsuits filed so far against the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
The Trump administration’s Interior Department recently gave the Florence Project a stop work order on the Unaccompanied Children’s Program. The program issues government funding to non-governmental organizations to provide legal services to illegal alien minors. Days later following outcry and pushback, the administration rescinded that order.
Last month, the nonprofit sued the Trump administration over a day-one executive order, “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” which dropped the court hearing requiring to expedite deportations, barred federal funding for sanctuary jurisdictions, limited parole authority to a case-by-case basis, limited Temporary Protected Status awards, paused pending the review and audit of all funds to non-governmental organizations involved with illegal aliens, prohibited public benefits to illegal aliens, and hired more immigration enforcement.
Earlier this month, the nonprofit sued the Trump administration over the proclamation shutting down asylum at the border.
In 2022, the Florence Project received $10 million from MacKenzie Scott — ex-wife to Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos. Scott’s donation was the single-largest gift from a donor in the nonprofit’s 35-year history, enabling the organization to expand in an unprecedented way by providing a “representation-for-all legal services model.”
A close second in funding is the Lakeshore Foundation, which gave the nonprofit about $7.6 million within the last decade.
Another top donor is the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services and Education, which gave about $600,000 over the past decade. This nonprofit was founded for the purpose of serving Arizonans.
Among other top donors over the past decade were Together Rising ($487k), the Norman E. Alexander Family Foundation ($308k), and the Immigrant Justice Corps ($309k).
The Florence Project also received over $500,000 in independent contract payments from the Acacia Center for Justice in 2022 for legal services.
PODER in Action (Poder) and PODER Arizona (AZ Poder) — Phoenix. Reported revenues for 2023: $2.1 million and $1.1 million, respectively.
Poder was founded in 2013 as “Center for Neighborhood Leadership” by Ken Chapman and Joseph Larios. It was run by individuals from illegal immigrant families.
Chapman has spawned a number of activist efforts in his name. Alongside LUCHA’s Cervera, Chapman played a significant role in unseating former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Prior to Poder, Chapman was the executive director of the Maricopa County Democratic Party. Last year, Chapman sued the city of Phoenix for not producing records of elected officials’ communications with the Phoenix Police Department union.
Poder is the 501(c)(3) sister organization to its 501(c)(4), AZ Poder. Per the latest tax returns, the two organizations share identical leadership: executive director Viridiana (Viri) Hernandez and board members Nichole Cassidy (Chispa Arizona’s director of development; formerly: senior director of development for Women’s March, deputy director for Equality Arizona, director of development for Mijente, director of philanthropy for ACLU), Maher Osman (board member of CAIR Arizona, development coordinator for Instituto), Stephanie Cordel, and Zarinah Tavares.
Last November following Trump’s election, Hernandez, who came into the U.S. illegally, pushed the Phoenix City Council to refuse to assist deportations carried out by the Trump administration. Hernandez said the council needed to deprioritize immigration calls the way it has deprioritized abortion calls.
Since President Trump took office, AZ Poder organized protests at the Capitol against immigration enforcement efforts. They have also held workshops coaching illegal immigrants on ways to avoid immigration enforcement authorities.
Their top donors include the Alliance for Youth Organizing ($780k), Borealis Philanthropy ($700k), Marguerite Casey Foundation ($780k), and the Satterberg Foundation ($470k).
Puente Human Rights Movement, or Puente Arizona (Puente) – Phoenix. Reported revenue for 2023: nearly $900,000
Jovana Renteria (currently a director of the Maricopa County Bar Association’s division board) and Carlos Garcia (formerly the vice mayor of the city of Phoenix and co-founder of One Arizona) founded the nonprofit in 2007. Both left the organization in 2021.
Puente is helping illegal aliens evade immigration enforcement and other law enforcement officials assisting in deportation efforts.
Days into Trump taking office, Puente launched a hotline to warn illegal aliens of immigrant agent whereabouts and activity. The nonprofit sends out messages to illegal aliens so they may evade capture. Puente also arranged a network of scouts, “Migra Watch,” and the organization announced its plan to hold training sessions for those who sign up.
The nonprofit also scrubbed their website in preparation for their efforts to resist immigration enforcement. Their homepage currently reads, “We Are Cooking Something New.”
Puente’s executive director, Natally Cruz (Ireta), came to the U.S. illegally. In February, Cruz told NPR that she and the rest of Puente’s team are hands-on with the immigration authority hotline. Cruz has been leading workshops advising illegal immigrants on avoiding immigration authorities and taking advantage of constitutional rights.
“Instead of texting your comadre, or spreading the word, or putting a picture on social media, text it to us and we’ll make sure we’ll go out there and verify that information,” said Cruz.
Among Puente’s top donors over the past decade were Neo Philanthropy (over $1 million), the Arizona Community Foundation ($400k), Borealis Philanthropy ($300,000), and the Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program ($300k).
Puente is the local hub of the national social justice organization also based in Phoenix: Mijente. Puente acts as a fiscal sponsor for the Mijene Support Committee, a digital and grassroots hub founded in 2015. Mijente has given at least $265,000 to Puente in reported pass-through grants in recent years.
Mijente is currently organizing groups for “deportation defense” to “organize against ICE raids” through its Community Defense Brigada, part of its Equipo Hormiguero program.
At the helm of Mijente are Marisa Franco, its co-founder, executive director, and president; Rafael Navar, its co-founder and treasurer; and Priscilla Gonzalez, secretary and campaign director.
Navar also founded Division Del Norte, a California activist group, and formerly served as the California state director for Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, and several directorships for the major labor unions AFL-CIO and SEIU.
Last December, Mijente and 61 other organizations launched an unsuccessful attempt to persuade the Biden administration to scale back ICE’s Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP), the immigration agency’s supervision program, to hinder the Trump administration’s deportation efforts.
Back in December 2024, we joined @JustFuturesLaw and 60+ organizations to call on Secretary Mayorkas to immediately scale back ISAP before Trump could weaponize it for mass arrests & deportations. And now there’s indications of those concerns becoming reality.
One of Mijente’s top donors is the Open Society Foundations (OSF or “Open Society Institute”), the nonprofit launched by leftist billionaire and dark money financier George Soros. OSF gave Mijente over $2.5 million from 2019 to 2022, along with $25,000 to Puente.
The Protests Will Go On
Mass protests against the Trump administration’s immigration policies and deportation efforts may not die down but could take different shapes in the coming months. Activists shifted their focus recently to protesting the Arizona legislature’s bills complementing federal immigration policies like SB1164: the Arizona Immigration, Cooperation, and Enforcement Act (Arizona ICE Act). This bill proposes restrictions on local governmental resistance to federal immigration authorities by adopting or passing anything prohibiting or restricting cooperation. It also requires law enforcement agencies to comply with federal immigrant detainers.
The Senate’s committee hearing on SB1164 drew a similar crowd of protesters as those who appeared in preceding weeks protesting the Trump administration. LUCHA organized that protest; an organizer, Gina Mendez, said LUCHA plans to protest every Monday at the state capitol against immigration enforcement efforts.
“NO PEACE, NO JUSTICE,” chanted the activists at one of the latest protests. “THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE.”
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Activist groups are addressing illegal immigrants’ fears of mass deportations through trauma therapy.
The Coalición de Derechos Humanos (Human Rights Coalition, HRC) out of Tucson formed a committee dedicated to mental health services for illegal immigrants.
HRC’s first emotional support forum took place over the weekend. The forum focused on how illegal immigrants have begun generating adaptive behaviors due to their worry over possible deportation, as well as stress, anxiety, and depression over their low tolerance for uncertainty. HRC recommended identifying emotions, self care, and taking action to counter worry over deportation: taking care of one’s environment, not comparing oneself to others, taking one day at a time, making plans, remembering one’s skills and achievements, and making an “emotional first aid kit.”
The forum was led by a trauma therapist, Sandra Martinez.
In addition to HRC, those hosting the forum were the Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Parish, Immigration Law & Justice Network, Mamas Con Poder, Paisanos Unidos, and Cultural Resource Center for Women and Their Families.
HRC followed the example of other advocacy organizations such as the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), which began offering free, virtual mental health services to illegal immigrants, as well as legal guidance and trainings. HRC leadership partnered with the Consulate of Mexico last month in launching UNAM’s digital platform for illegal immigrants, Acción Migrante. UNAM has headquarters in Tucson as well as San Antonio, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; Boston, Massachusetts; and the Northwest Station of the Institute of Legal Research in Tijuana, Mexico.
HRC also intervenes in visits by immigration enforcement to illegal immigrants’ homes. HRC’s “Rapid Response” network acts as a middle man when ICE arrives at illegal immigrants’ homes. The activist group also provides lawyers to these families. HRC coordinates using a tip line that community members call.
In one case reported by Tucson Spotlight last week, an HRC affiliate — Luis Campo, director of Alliance of Idaho — stopped ICE agents from entering an illegal immigrant family’s home and refused to allow entry without a signed judicial warrant. The ICE agents reported they were there to check on the welfare of the four unaccompanied children residing in the home owned by a Venezuelan couple.
Like other pro-illegal immigrant activist organizations, HRC hosts “Know Your Rights” workshops educating illegal immigrants and businesses on ways to avoid ICE interactions. Certain businesses relying heavily on illegal immigrants, like restaurants, tell the media that they rely on HRC coaching to bar ICE from entering their establishments.
HRC’s nonprofit name, “Arizona Border Rights Foundation,” reported just over $160,000 in revenue in 2023.
Reported leadership for the organization in 2023 all had University of Arizona ties: Isabel Garcia, former legal defender of Pima County and advisory board member of the College of Social & Behavioral Studies Mexican American Studies; Violeta Dominguez, University of Arizona research scientist and involved advocate for transgenderism; Ildefonso “Poncho” Chavez, University of Arizona director of economic development with Eller College of Management; and Raquel Rubio Goldsmith, co-director of the University of Arizona’s Binational Migration Institute at the Department of Mexican American Studies.
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The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and Recorder are at an apparent impasse in resolving the ongoing conflict over the recorder’s election powers.
Historically, Maricopa County officials interpreted state law governing election functions at the county level to authorize the recorder with full responsibility over elections through a Shared Services Agreement (SSA). Changes made in recent years, especially those made last year, are the source of serious conflict between Recorder Justin Heap and the board of supervisors.
For over 30 years, county supervisors and the recorder abided by an SSA which granted the recorder all election responsibilities. In 2019, the board and former recorder (now secretary of state) Adrian Fontes lessened the recorder’s responsibilities by having the recorder’s office handle early voting while the board managed in-person voting and tabulation.
Then, last October, the outgoing recorder Stephen Richer and board supervisors entered a new SSA. In a press release on Monday, Heap claimed that the new SSA further reduced the election-related responsibilities of the recorder’s office to signature verification only and reassigned a significant portion of the recorder’s budgeting and staffing to the board.
Heap announced that he submitted a letter to the supervisors claiming the new SSA was “not binding or enforceable,” referencing a consultation with the county attorney’s office.
Heap characterized the ongoing negotiations over the SSA as a “battle” beset by “rising public outrage” and “misinformation” in his press release.
“Stephen Richer’s parting gift to the voters of Maricopa County, after suffering an embarrassing primary election defeat, was a punitive backroom agreement with the lame-duck Board majority designed to hamstring the office of the Recorder,” said Heap. “For weeks, since before being sworn into office, I’ve sought reasonable, common-sense solutions with my fellow Republicans on the Board, only to be ignored. Maricopa County elections need a practical, workable SSA to ensure efficient, accurate elections; however, the Supervisors’ refusal to engage in honest dialogue risks a crisis in our upcoming elections.”
Heap requested the board revert election-related authorities under provisions similar to those outlined in the 2021 SSA, and restore his authority over early voting. Heap threatened legal action if his demands weren’t met.
In response to Heap’s press release, the county posted a slightly different breakdown of election responsibilities between Heap’s office and the supervisors that evening.
In the board of supervisor’s version of the SSA breakdown, recorder responsibilities consist of maintaining the voter registration database, preparing ballots and envelopes for voters, mailing early ballots to voters, receiving early ballots sent by USPS, managing in-bound envelope scanning, overseeing signature verification and curing of questionable signatures, sending and receiving UOCAVA ballots, administering Special Election Boards, and researching and curing all provisional ballots.
Supervisor election-related duties consist of managing candidate services and ballot-building; coordinating in-person voting for early, emergency, and Election Day voting; picking up ballots from early voting sites and drop boxes and providing to the recorder for in-bound envelope scanning; hiring and training election workers at the tabulation center and poll workers to support in-person voting; approving and managing operations of vote centers for early, emergency, and Election Day voting; processing ballots (removal of ballots from affidavit envelopes); tabulating all ballots (provisional, early, Election Day); canvassing of election results; and conducting recounts as ordered by statute.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Thomas Galvin also issued a statement describing Heap’s account of recorder responsibilities and ongoing negotiations with the board as factually inaccurate.
“Conversations between the Board and its staff, and the Recorder and his staff, have been happening for weeks. Despite the factual errors in Recorder Heap’s statement, I don’t view this as a ‘battle,’” said Galvin. “Shared service agreements in Maricopa County are frequently renegotiated, each time in consultation with our attorneys to ensure compliance with state law.
My colleagues and I happily look forward to further and continued dialogue to ensure a new SSA aligns with Arizona law and best practices in election administration.”
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