An Arizona Democrat seeking to unseat Rep. Juan Ciscomani has called for eliminating Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, emphasizing the need to reconsider border security strategies.
“First and foremost, what we need to address is we need to stand up to ICE and end ICE operations right now to provide a safer border,” JoAnna Mendoza said in a recorded interview with the Cochise County Voice.
Mendoza, a Marine veteran, is running in a district where roughly 27% of the population is Hispanic and has argued that her stance reflects voter sentiment.
Mendoza believes that addressing the challenges of the southern border will resonate with voters and is crucial for the community’s future.
Recent polling, however, suggests border security remains a top concern among Hispanic voters in the Southwest. A National Victory Strategies poll of more than 1,000 registered Hispanic voters in the region found that 36% cited a lack of border security as their primary concern.
Support for enforcement operations has been driven in part by concerns about drugs and violent crime in border communities, according to law enforcement officials.
A Department of Homeland Security report released last June found violent crime declined sharply after the Trump administration began enforcing stricter border operations in January 2025. Between January and June 2025, gun assaults fell 21%, aggravated assaults dropped 10%, sexual assaults declined 10%, and carjackings decreased 24% compared with the same period the previous year, DHS reported.
“Seventy percent of Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests are of illegal aliens who have been convicted or charged with a crime,” then‑Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said at the time. “These arrests and deportations of criminal illegal aliens are having real impact on public safety.”
Mendoza’s criticism of ICE is not her first clash with law enforcement policy. During a March town hall in her district, she suggested shifting police funding to social programs.
“I support the reallocation of funding to programs that would allow people to live their best lives,” Mendoza said, citing housing, public education, health care, economic stability, and environmental safety.
Her campaign later attempted to walk back those remarks.
“Any claim that she wants to defund the police is categorically false, a lie, and a political smear from D.C. hacks hoping to save Juan Ciscomani from an early retirement,” spokesman Kyle McCarthy said in a statement.
Despite the campaign’s response, Mendoza’s repeated criticism of law enforcement has drawn scrutiny from Republican officials.
“Far‑left activist JoAnna Mendoza is completely out of touch with Arizonans who have repeatedly rejected Democrats’ extreme open‑border policies,” Republican National Committee spokesman Nick Poche told The Daily Signal. “If Mendoza got her way, drugs would be pouring over the border, and more families would be burying victims of completely preventable crimes. Democrats are off their rocker if they think an open‑border, defund‑the‑police radical has a shot at winning in November.”
Poche added that ending ICE operations would have broader implications beyond deportations. He cited how during the Department of Homeland Security shutdown earlier this year ICE agents assisted Transportation Security Administration personnel at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, one of the region’s busiest airports.
