Divided Arizona contends with Trump’s sweeping border plan

Donald Trump has offered a sweeping immigration pitch that he has promised to begin on the first day of his presidency, including mass deportations and a major crackdown on illegal border crossings. Arizona could find itself on the frontline of these moves, and the sharply divided state is contending with what they could mean.

In the Phoenix home of the Villalobos family, members across three generations discussed Donald Trump’s decisive election victory with their friends.

Over Latin jazz and a dinner of empanadas, beans and rice, the group – mostly women – were close to tears.

“I really had hope for humanity, and I feel like we were let down,” said Monica Villalobos, 45. “It changes the way we think about ourselves in the Latino community.”

Her family made America their home after immigrating from Jalisco, Mexico. They worry that friends and relatives’ families could be torn apart with deportations.

Trump has promised the biggest mass deportations of migrants in US history, and has pledged to seal the border and stop the “migrant invasion”. He is also promising to hire 10,000 Border Patrol agents and says he will ask Congress to give all agents a 10 % pay raise.

His message is one that resonates with many voters here who consistently rank immigration and border security as top concerns. Many detail seeing the impacts of illegal migration firsthand, but voters are divided on how to handle it.

Arizona was, for a time, a Republican stronghold. Trump was the first to lose here in more than 20 years when Joe Biden came out victorious in 2020. The 2024 result is still too close to call – a testament to just how split residents are.

Voters on Tuesday, however, overwhelmingly approved a Republican-supported measure that gives sheriffs, police and state law enforcement the authority to enforce federal immigration laws and arrest those who cross the border illegally. It had faced opposition from Democratic and Latino groups, who argue it could result in racial profiling.

There are an estimated 12 million undocumented migrants in the US, and many have lived and worked here for decades. When discussing Trump’s mass deportation proposals, Ms Villalobos’s niece, 19-year-old university student Alexandra de Leon, said they were “terrifying”.

“It’s your neighbours, it’s the people you see in the grocery store, it’s your teachers, it’s your friend’s parents,” she said. “To know that those people are in danger and their families could be torn apart at any moment… it’s heartbreaking.”

One of the main storylines of election night was the extent to which Trump racked up huge support from Latino voters nationwide. He saw a mammoth 14 percentage-point bump compared to the 2020 election, according to exit polls.

One of these supporters is Jorge Gonzalez, Sr, who moved his family to Arizona from Mexico 20 years ago in the hope of building a more prosperous future. Now the proud owner of a body shop in Phoenix, he believes Trump’s policies will help him as a business owner.

“As a person I don’t like him, but as a politician, I like how he ran the economy. Many Latinos probably think he managed the country better,” he said.

“He allowed a large number of undocumented workers to come here and get work visas. I didn’t see any family separations,” he added. “I saw that he integrated and allowed undocumented immigrants to live and work here in a regulated way.”

Across the yard, Jorge’s son, Jorge Jr, was under a car examining brake pads and checking an engine.

As he swapped out wrenches, he said Trump had the right tools to be a successful president.

“I don’t like his attitude. His mouth gets the better of him a lot of times, but when you are in a position of power or leadership, you need to be able to be a little bit tough,” he said.

When asked about the mass, militarised deportations Trump campaigned on in his home state, Jorge Jr just laughed.

“That’s impossible!” he said, noting the millions of undocumented immigrants in the US. “You will need a lot of resources, planes, food, detention centres, police, more ICE officers, so I don’t think it will be feasible.”

If the Trump administration were to move forward with mass deportations, they would likely face a host of challenges. Experts are wary that federal immigration authorities do not have proper staffing to track down migrants, or the capacity to hold them until a court date.

“You learn to develop a thick skin, especially coming from where we come from,” Jorge Jr said. “We don’t pay attention to a lot of the things that people say, because we know those are just words and there’s a long gap between the things that we say and the things that we actually do.”

Others are excited to see Trump’s proposals come to fruition.

Mark Lamb, the sheriff in Pinal County – a conservative area just south-east of Phoenix – said Trump winning the White House would deter migrants.

“Once you start holding people accountable, securing the border, you’re going to start to see a lot of these folks will go back on their own. And then we can start to go after the criminals, people that are causing problems in communities.”

But how Trump’s policies will actually work on the ground is still anyone’s guess.

“I don’t think anybody has the resources right now,” Sheriff Lamb said. “But the people he picks are going to really have to figure out what that looks like.”