Key Points:

• State wants a reimbursement for funds spent on border security since 2021

• Arizona spent $100 million on shipping containers for a border wall under former Gov. Doug Ducey

• Arizona governors have sought federal reimbursement for border security costs for two decades

Gov. Katie Hobbs wants the federal government to reimburse Arizona for nearly $760 million it has spent since 2021 on border security, including about $100 million former Gov. Doug Ducey spent in his last months in office to stack hundreds of shipping containers along the border for an ersatz border wall.

In a letter sent July 31, the Democratic governor formally asked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for the money. She is asking Noem to use part of a $12 billion appropriation the secretary has said is dedicated to reimbursing states for their border costs contained in President Trump’s big tax and spending law dubbed the “Big Beautiful Bill.” 

There’s an additional $3.5 billion available from the U.S. Department of Justice for grants to states for similar reimbursements, according to the bill. 

Those two-high shipping containers put up at Ducey’s direction in late 2022 were quickly taken down after the Biden Administration sued, at an additional cost of about $70 million. All-in-all, the former Republican governor’s showy effort to boost border security cost state taxpayers about $200 million. 

Hobbs now wants that money back, along with another $559 million the state has spent on other border security since Biden took office.

In her letter to Noem, Hobbs said the state is committed to securing the border with Mexico and combating drug and human trafficking. And she touted actions she has taken since taking office in January 2023, to boost border security. 

 “As Governor, I’ve been proud to partner with local, state, and federal law enforcement officials on Task Force SAFE, which is stopping millions of fentanyl pills and thousands of pounds of drugs from flowing into our country,” Hobbs said in the letter. “Additionally, your partnership on Operation Desert Guardian has been essential in our efforts to combat cartel operations in the State of Arizona.”

Hobbs created Desert Guardian through an executive order she signed this past January. In the order, she directed the state emergency and military affairs, public safety, and homeland security departments to create a joint task force to expand border security operations in the four counties along the border with Mexico. The costs were covered by using some of the $28 million available in the state Border Security Fund for the 2025 fiscal year.

The goal was to combat border crimes committed by Mexican cartels by working to dismantle their networks.

She created the SAFE task force as a joint operation between the state National Guard and U.S. Customs and Border protection in November. Soldiers were assigned to work to interdict drugs at ports of entry along the border. 

The detailed bill the governor sent covers state spending in the 2021 through 2025 fiscal years and so far this budget year. The yearly totals have swung wildly over the years, hitting a low point last year at $22 million as the state faced a cash crunch. The Legislature and Ducey agreed to spend the most on border security in his last year in office when the fiscal 2023 budget appropriated $589 million to spend on border security.

Part of that money Ducey tapped to put up his shipping container wall.

The new federal money was put into the “Big Beautiful Bill’ mainly at the request of Republican members of Congress from Texas, which has spent about $11 billion on border security efforts in the past several years.  

Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, has blamed former President Joe Biden for the need for state border security spending and pushed to include the reimbursement in the tax and spending bill.

Arizona governors have been asking the federal government to reimburse their taxpayers for border security spending for two decades, starting with Democratic former Gov. Janet Napolitano in the mid-2000s. 

In late 2023, Hobbs billed the Biden administration for $512.5 million to cover what she said what the state had spent on border security “including migrant transportation, drug interdiction, and law enforcement. 

The state never got any of that money, but now that there is specific federal cash set aside to reimburse states for their border spending, Hobbs is hopeful.