Kris Mayes, Arizona’s attorney general, has vowed to fight the incoming Trump administration on key aspects of its immigration policies, including any attempt to set up deportation camps on Arizonan soil or remove thousands of migrant “dreamers” headed to the US came as children.
In an interview with the Guardian, Mayes said that any move by Donald Trump in his second presidential term to protect dreamers’ rights to stay and work in the US would be a “bright red line” for me. I do not support any attempt to deport or undermine them.”
Arizona, a crucial border state that will be on the front lines of the battle over Trump’s plans for mass deportations, is home to more than 30,000 Dreamers, undocumented migrants who entered the U.S. unlawfully as children but have been granted rights under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca). The program was introduced by Barack Obama in 2012, but has since been relentlessly attacked by Republicans.
“I will definitely fight on behalf of the dreamers,” Mayes said. “These people are firefighters, police officers, teachers – they are part of the fabric of our state and we will protect them.”
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Trump attempted to strike down Daca protections during his first presidency and was only stopped by a narrow ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court. He recently softened his stance, telling NBC News that he wanted to find a way to let Dreamers stay in the country, though his apparent about-face has left many skeptical of his intentions.
The Daca program is already being challenged by Republican states in a lawsuit currently before the ultra-conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The case will almost certainly end up at the Supreme Court, which has a supermajority of six to three right-wing justices.
Despite the obstacles dreamers face, Mayes says she remains optimistic.
“I think the Supreme Court will ultimately see the benefits of protecting it. We want to give the courts the opportunity to make the right decision here, and we will make very strong arguments on that proposal,” she said.
Arizona’s attorney general also had strong words about any attempt by Trump to build detention camps in her state as part of his plans to mass deport millions of undocumented immigrants. She said her army of lawyers was also ready to push back on any move to renew family separation, the policy that saw thousands of children taken from their parents at the Mexican border as part of a “zero tolerance” strategy.
“If Trump tries to create family separation or build mass deportation camps, I will do everything I can legally to fight it. That doesn’t happen in Arizona, it doesn’t happen in our territory,” she said.
Mayes added that the separation of families — which still leaves some 1,000 families separated six years later — was “fundamentally an anathema to who Arizonans are.”
Mayes and her team have been preparing for months for the expected whirlwind of activity once Trump reenters the White House on January 20. They have, as she put it, sifted through Project 2025, the right-wing playbook for a second Trump term put together by the Heritage Foundation.
She has also worked closely with other Democratic attorneys general, noting that they collectively filed more than 100 lawsuits during Trump’s first presidency, winning 80% of them.
“One of our strengths is that we do a lot of this together, that we are united and we are organized,” Mayes said.
The importance of cooperation between states is likely to be even more important when it comes to border issues.
Mayes said she was working with her Democratic counterparts Rob Bonta of California and Raúl Torrez of New Mexico — with only Texas’ Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton, taking a starkly different, anti-immigrant approach.
“Three of the four border states have Democratic attorneys general and we are going to fight for due process and for individual rights,” she explained.
A complicating factor is Proposition 314, the ballot measure that passed in Arizona in November with a resounding 63% of the vote. It allows state police to arrest any undocumented person who enters the U.S. by any means other than legal ports of entry.
Mayes said the decision would not stop her from opposing Trump’s unconstitutional moves.
“Proposition 314 tells us that Arizonans are fed up with a dysfunctional border,” she said.
“We are facing a serious fentanyl crisis in our state, and there is no doubt that Arizonans want our border addressed. But when Arizonans voted for Donald Trump, they did not vote to tear up the Arizona and US Constitution – I strongly believe that.”
What was needed at the border were more federal resources to increase the number of border patrols on the ground, boost fentanyl interceptions and strengthen the prosecution of drug cartels. What was not necessary, Mayes emphasized, was Trump’s threatened plan to send in the National Guard and even the U.S. Army as a stepped-up deportation force.
“There is nothing more un-American than using the military against Americans,” she said. “It is clearly unconstitutional, and it is not something that Arizonans want to see.”
Since being elected Arizona’s top law enforcement official in 2022, Mayes has established herself as a rising star in the Democratic party capable of negotiating the sometimes fraught politics of a border state. Her most high-profile act came in April when she indicted 18 people, including Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani and former chief of staff Mark Meadows, for participating in the 2020 “fake voter” conspiracy.
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A similar prosecution of fake voters in Georgia was recently turned on its head after an appeals court disqualified the Atlanta prosecutor responsible for the case, Fani Willis.
Mayes told the Guardian that despite Trump’s victory in November, she had no intention of dropping the fake voter case. “These charges were brought by a state grand jury, and you are not doing justice to the popular vote. The matter is now in court, and there it will remain until it is over.”
Such a high-profile prosecution could put her in the crosshairs of Kash Patel, Trump’s pick for FBI director. Should Patel be confirmed for the job by the US Senate, he has made it clear he will pursue retaliatory investigations against those considered Trump’s enemies.
Mayes declined to discuss Patel’s appointment. But she did say: “I’m not afraid of anyone. I’m going to do my job, enforce the law and protect the people of Arizona. I’m going to do it regardless of who’s in charge of the FBI.”
