Gov. Doug Ducey signed an Executive Order on Friday for the immediate fortification of a gap in the U.S. – Mexico border in Yuma, just hours before a U.S. Consulate issued a “shelter in place” advisory for Americans living and working in Tijuana south of the border from San Diego.
“For the last two years, Arizona has made every attempt to work with Washington to address the crisis on our border,” Ducey said. “Time and time again we’ve stepped in to clean up their mess. Arizonans can’t wait any longer for the federal government to deliver on their delayed promises.”
The executive order was issued by Ducey a mere two weeks after the White House announced it would address the unsecured border in Yuma once various reviews and studies were completed. However, there was no estimate provided as to when that may be.
Ducey’s decision to authorize immediate placement of 60 double-stacked, state-owned shipping containers to fill in a 1,000-foot gap long complained about by law enforcement officials will increase national security by ensuring border security, according to Jonathan Lines, Yuma County Supervisor.
“Border communities like Yuma bear the burden of a broken border while narcotics poison our youth, human smuggling rises and mass amounts of migrants wear on our nonprofits,” said Lines, adding that Ducey was coordinating with state and local resources “to do what the federal government won’t: secure the border.”
The project overseen by state contractor Ashbritt will utilize a 25-person team of heavy equipment operators and support personnel to link together and weld shut the containers, each of which weigh more than four tons. When completed on Monday, the new barrier wall will reach about 22 feet and be topped with concertina wire.
HAPPENING NOW: Construction begins on a physical barrier at the Yuma portion of the border 🔸60 double-stacked shipping containers, welded shut 🔸Topped with 4 feet of razor wire 🔸Height: 22 feet 🔸Weight: 8,800 lbs pic.twitter.com/VQmYIynf8U
The move to close the large gap in Yuma also came just days after President Joe Biden lifted the Remain in Mexico immigration policy which has been providing one of the few immigration controls at the border.
The U.S. Border Patrol’s Yuma Sector under the leadership of Chief Patrol Agent Chris Clum experienced more than 235,000 migrant encounters from Oct. 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022. The governor’s office called it “an ominous acceleration” for the Yuma Sector, which had the highest annual increase in encounters of all USBP sectors for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2021.
Nonprofits and shelters in Yuma County set up to assist migrants have been operating for months at overcapacity. In addition, law enforcement, first responders, and local medical facilities have been overwhelmed by the influx, which includes extremely high quantities of fentanyl coming across the border Arizona lawmakers made a $335 million investment in the Arizona Border Security Fund to construct and maintain a border fence, of which $6 million will be used put the new barrier in place in Yuma.
“Republicans in the Legislature made border security a priority in this year’s budget, and I’m thankful to Governor Ducey for wasting no time in putting those funds to good use,” said Rep. Ben Toma. “Improvements to the border wall will make our communities safer by combating human trafficking and stemming the flow of fentanyl into the state.”
Just hours after Ducey signed Executive Order 2022-04 on Friday, the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, Mexico warned of cartel violence in several Mexican cities along the border with California, including Tijuana, Mexicali, Tecate, Rosarito, and Ensenada.
The Consulate warning called on U.S. citizens already in those areas to seek secure shelter and remain aware of their surroundings. The warning also advised Americans on the Mexico side of the border to monitor local media for updates and “notify friends and family of your safety.”
1/2 The U.S. Consulate General Tijuana is aware of reports of multiple vehicle fires, roadblocks, and heavy police activity in Tijuana, Mexicali, Rosarito, Ensenada, and Tecate. U.S. government employees have been instructed to shelter in place until further notice. pic.twitter.com/oghBX1P7qX
The violence, which is due to internal strife within the Sinaloa Cartel as well as pressure from other cartels, is not limited to border communities near California.
Last Thursday, several killings occurred in Ciudad Juarez, a city of 1.5 million across the border from El Paso. The violence started with a deadly fight at a Mexican prison between factions of the Sinaloa Cartel. Within hours, several fires and frequent gunfire was reported throughout Ciudad Juarez, often targeting non-cartel interests.
A statement by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday confirmed that “innocent civilians were attacked as a kind of retaliation” in connection with the prison fight.
A lawsuit filed this week by several residents, business owners, and property owners within a multi-block “zone” of downtown Phoenix seeks a court order requiring city officials to do something about the unabating homelessness crisis impacting the 19 plaintiffs.
According to the lawsuit, the largest concentration of homeless persons in Arizona has developed on properties owned by or operated by the City of Phoenix in an area between 7th and 15th Avenues and between Van Buren and Grant Streets.
Many of the persons who have constructed semi-permanent tent dwellings on public sidewalks and rights of way are experiencing mental health problems and / or drug and alcohol addiction, but city officials have enacted policies which essentially ignore those issues to the detriment of the community, the plaintiffs allege.
“Not only is the City of Phoenix failing to provide these individuals with housing and needed services, it refuses to enforce in and around the Zone quality-of-life ordinances prohibiting loitering, disturbing the peace, drunken and disorderly conduct, drug use, domestic violence, and obstructing streets, sidewalks, or other public grounds,” the lawsuit contends. “The City’s policies are not rationally designed to address any of the social ills facing the residents of the Zone and are exacerbating rather than alleviating their problems.”
Those policies not only permit illegal conduct on Phoenix-controlled public lands but city officials further encourage problems by directing homeless persons from around the city to the Zone, according to the lawsuit.
“In the Zone and its environs, laws are violated with impunity; residents are subject to violence, property damage, and other criminal and civil violations of laws designed to protect the quality of life of residents; property values have been erased; trash and human waste litter streets and yards; and most tragically, a great humanitarian crisis unfolds as homeless residents of the Zone die on a daily basis,” the lawsuit notes.
The plaintiffs seeking an order from Judge Alison Bachus of the Maricopa County Superior Court that the public encampments in Zone has created a public nuisance for which plaintiffs have a constitutional right to seek abatement of the nuisance
In addition, the lawsuit seeks an order from Bachus prohibiting city officials from taking any further action that will exacerbate the current nuisance and a separate order requiring the city to immediately abate the nuisance.
The lawsuit even points to several options available to city officials, including removal of the encampments to other public lands where they would not constitute a nuisance. Another option permitted by a 2019 federal ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is to create “structured camping grounds” on city property where cleanliness could be maintained along with compliance of laws and ordinances.
A more traditional option would be the availability of enough shelter space so that public camping could be prohibited. However, the lawsuit concedes the Ninth Circuit ruling currently prohibits enforcement of a public camping ban because City of Phoenix officials have failed to provide sufficient resources to address the homelessness issue.
That 2019 ruling requires municipalities to allow homeless individuals to camp on some public lands if there are not enough shelter beds. But nothing in the ruling, Martin v City of Boise, prohibits officials from enforcing quality of life ordinances and criminal laws, the plaintiffs argue.
Those plaintiffs are represented by Michael Bailey, Stephen Tully, and Ilan Wurman. They contend city officials are using the Ninth Circuit ruling “as an excuse to completely wash its hands of this crisis, leaving the homeless individuals and the surrounding neighborhood in an unimaginably horrific situation.”
The lawsuit adds Phoenix officials are entitled to adopt “irrational policies but if its policies create a nuisance and cause damage to the residents, workers, and property owners in the Zone, as they have, then the City is liable for those damages and the court may enjoin the nuisance.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office is seeking a permanent injunction against an Ohio company that sold COVID-19 personal protective equipment such as N95 masks to healthcare workers and first responders across the country as “Made in USA” even though most of the items were manufactured in China.
The complaint filed earlier this month stems from a referral by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) about Adam J. Harmon and two companies he controls -Axis LED Group, LLC and ALG Health LLC.- accused of violating multiple federal laws by improperly labeling and advertising various products.
The FTC’s referral to the U.S Department of Justice is outlined in the 116-page complaint, one of more than a dozen such federal cases initiated under the COVID-19 Consumer Protection Act against what the FTC characterizes as “COVID predators.”
“As Americans struggle to obtain safe, authentic personal protective equipment, the Commission will use every tool we have to root out false claims and phony labels,” said Sam Levine of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. He added that the defendants “slapped the Made in USA label on masks that were made overseas, and now they’re paying the price.”
That price, the FTC says, is a civil penalty of $157,683 due immediately. Another $2.8 million put forth as a redress judgment is currently suspended due to the defendants’ claims of an inability to pay.
“Should the FTC discover that the defendants have misstated the value of any assets or failed to disclose them, the agency will seek to have the suspension lifted and the full judgment due immediately,” according to an FTC press release.
This is not the first time Harmon has run afoul with the FTC. In 2017, the agency closed an investigation into false Made in USA claims involving LED bulbs sold by Harmon’s Axis LED Group to the U.S. Government. The FTC’s Made in USA labeling rules require manufacturers and marketers who promote such claims to prove “all or virtually all” of a product was in fact made in America. The rule also requires Made in USA labeling in mail order catalogues and online to be truthful.
According to current federal complaint, Harmon admitted to FTC investigators back in 2017 that the U.S.-assembled LED bulbs his company sold contained “significant Chinese components.” The complaint alleges that since then, company employees have on occasion peeled “Made in China” stickers off LED products and replaced them with labels reading Made in the United States before shipping to customers.
Then in early 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic began, Harmon is alleged to have begun selling PPE such as N95 respirators, gloves, and gowns from the ALG Health facility in Defiance, Ohio. Those sales were made consumers throughout the United States.
One of the company’s social media ads even advised customers to purchase American-made PPE “so that our heroic frontline workers do not have their safety put at risk by relying on foreign-made products.” The posting also stated that imported products “are not tested and could be unsafe.”
In reality, according to the FTC, Harmon was aware his company was sending those customers Chinese-made KN95 masks that employees had stripped off the Made in China labels before printing “ALG” and “NIOSH” on the products and then putting into N95 packaging with Made in USA labels.
But this not what Harmon told the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), which is part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
NIOSH is responsible for certifying certain respiratory protective devices, such as N95 masks, per U.S. standards. It does not certify masks manufactured in accordance with international standards, such as KN95 masks.
In January of this year, NIOSH published a notice on the CDC website announcing ALG Health voluntarily rescinded all NIOSH respirator approvals and that the company could no longer manufacture, assemble, sell, or distribute masks under those approval numbers.
“Despite this notice, Defendants continued to market certain of the identified products as MUSA and NIOSH-certified N95s, and sell these products to consumers,” the federal filing alleges. “Defendants have engaged in their unlawful acts and practices willfully and knowingly, and Defendants have continued their unlawful activities despite a previous FTC investigation, and investigations by other federal government agencies.”
The agency’s proposed preliminary injunction order seeks to Harmon and his companies from making further deceptive Made in USA claims as well as enforce the civil penalty for the past deceptive claims.
The Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry is hoping the U.S. House of Representatives takes a hard look at H.R. 5376, which was formerly known as the Build Back Better Act until being recently rechristened as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
“Arizona job creators oppose the vast majority of the provisions in this bill,” Chamber CEO Danny Seiden said Sunday after the U.S. Senate passed the legislation on party lines. “This bill will not reduce inflation and it will not make the U.S. economy more competitive. Renaming a massive tax and spending bill the Inflation Reduction Act does not improve it.”
Seiden says Sen. Kyrsten Sinema met with Arizona business stakeholders to hear their concerns and did help blunt some of the more harmful provisions, especially those which impact manufacturing businesses already doubly hit by inflation and supply chain disruptions
He also acknowledged there are a few beneficial elements of H.R. 5376 such as provisions which encourage continued business investment and provide significant drought resiliency funding to promote a water secure future.
But despite some of “positive aspects,” Seiden insists H.R. 5376 leaves much to be desired. Which is why he and other state business leaders are calling on Arizona’s nine Representatives to take a closer look at the bill in advance of an expected Aug. 12 vote.
“With the bill headed to the House, we would encourage the Arizona delegation to consider the legislation’s negative effect on Arizona jobs,” Seiden said, adding that that renaming the unpopular Build Back Better Act does not improve the fact the legislation is a massive tax and spending bill.
The legislation is estimated to raise $740 billion in additional revenue from new taxes as well as more enforcement of existing tax laws. It also authorizes $430 billion in new spending, although a more thorough analysis by the Congressional Budget Office has not been completed.
One thing the CBO already knows, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders said on the Senate Floor, is that what he labeled the “so-called” Inflation Reduction Act will have “a minimal impact on inflation.”
The CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers also expressed disappointment with H.R. 5376. According to Jay Timmons, the Inflation Reduction Act will stifle manufacturing investment in America, undermining the very businesses which kept America’s economy afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“To be sure, (the bill) was worse before Sen. Sinema worked to protect some areas of manufacturing investment,” Timmons said. “But the final bill is still bad policy and will harm our ability to compete in a global economy.”
Also speaking out against H.R. 5376 is the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, whose members will be directly impacted by Medicare drug price controls included in the legislation.
“They say they’re fighting inflation, but the Biden administration’s own data show that prescription medicines are not fueling inflation,” said PhRMA CEO Stephen Ubl. “And they say the bill won’t harm innovation, but various experts, biotech investors and patient advocates agree that this bill will lead to fewer new cures and treatments for patients battling cancer, Alzheimer’s and other diseases.”
Maricopa County has reported that more than 855,000 of its nearly 2.5 million voters cast ballots in the Aug. 2, 2022 Primary Election. Roughly 14,000 of those ballots were still in the pre-tabulation process as of Saturday, including 7,500 which were awaiting curing by voters no later than 5 p.m. on Aug. 9.
On Saturday, representatives of the political parties in Maricopa County completed a state-mandated hand count audit of four contests (including governor and U.S. senator) on 5,000 early ballots as well as ballots cast at five randomly selected voting centers.
The hand count audit for the 2022 Primary Election is complete. The hand count boards confirmed the results match the tabulation equipment! https://t.co/JX4KWmiGyu
— Maricopa County Elections Department (@MaricopaVote) August 7, 2022
With the hand count finished, there should be no problem completing the canvass of Maricopa County’s election results by the Aug. 12 statutory deadline. Canvassing is the act of officially certifying the election results, and is expected to be uneventful for the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.
The same cannot be said for Pinal County, which fired its Elections Director within hours of the polls closing. There is a possibility that legal action stemming from multiple problems could keep Pinal County’s board of supervisors from being able to do its canvass by the deadline.
As AZ Free News previously reported, Pinal County administers municipal elections for its 11 incorporated cities and towns. Due to “human error,” roughly 63,000 of the county’s 275,000 registered voters received incorrect early voting ballots last month.
Elections Director David Frisk accepted responsibility for the fact thousands of voters in Apache Junction, Casa Grande, Eloy, Mammoth, Maricopa, Queen Creek, and Superior received ballots without local races listed. Several thousand other voters who lived in unincorporated communities were incorrectly sent ballots which listing municipal races they were not eligible to vote in.
(Parts of Apache Junction and Queen Creek are in Maricopa County which reported no problems getting the correct ballots to its voters.)
Frisk and Pinal County officials assured the public the mistake could be resolved by not counting votes in mayor and council races if cast by non-municipal residents. The county then sent out supplemental ballots to affected municipal residents to use in additional to their original ballot which included federal, state, and legislative contests.
Yet just when county officials thought they had the early ballot snafu handled, reports began circulating the morning of Election Day that two of Pinal County’s 90+ polling stations did not open at 6 a.m. as required.
Those two locations were finally opened by 10 a.m., but by then Frisk and his staff were overwhelmed with reports that more than two dozen polling stations ran out of preprinted ballots. The ballot supply was also a responsibility which fell on Frisk, who was hired by the board of supervisors earlier this year with no experience in Arizona election laws or procedures
As Frisk was being fired, Pinal County Recorder Virginia Ross quit her elected position on Thursday and accepted an appointment as Elections Director, a responsibility she previously had as Recorder from 2013 to 2017 before a new Elections Director position was created going into the 2018 election cycle.
Pinal County can announce that David Frisk is no longer in the position of Elections Director and is no longer employed by Pinal County.
Virginia Ross is the County's new Elections Director, having resigned her role as County Recorder this morning. 1/2
— Pinal County – Government 🌵 (@PinalCounty) August 4, 2022
Ross’s shuffling of jobs created a vacancy in the elected office of County Recorder, which the county board of supervisors filled Friday by appointing Deputy County Recorder Dana Lewis to serve out Ross’ term through the end of 2024. Lewis previously worked in the Elections Department before Frisk was hired.
County officials then regrouped with their new leadership and announced plans to update elections results every night around 7:30 p.m. “including over the weekend” until all valid ballots were tabulated. And in a major announcement, the county publicly confirmed rumors of an ongoing problem in trying to process about 10,000 early ballots.
The problem also prevented a large number of voters from being able to track their ballot’s status online. But just hours after taking over their new roles, Ross and Lewis were able to fix the problem with assistance from the Pinal County IT team so those affected ballots could get tabulated.
— Pinal County – Government 🌵 (@PinalCounty) August 6, 2022
The only other reported Election Day problem came out of Cochise County, where a few dozen people claimed that when they signed in to vote they were listed as previously signing in.
The problem appears to stem from the fact the poll workers and election observers signed in during a recent training session to understand how the system worked. The voting database was not purged by the Elections Department staff before official in-person voting began.
Some voters reportedly were given provisional ballots to cast while others were allowed to vote once the error was realized.
