Arizona's county sheriffs say they are “deeply concerned” that requests for law-enforcement help went unanswered during weeks of unrest over border-wall construction in Santa Cruz County, where federal agents and protesters have clashed near the small community of Lochiel. The Arizona Sheriffs' Association says the reports it received involved alleged violence, threats and property damage tied to the protests, and that member sheriffs have pledged personnel and resources if the state's Department of Public Safety asks for backup.
According to AZ Family, Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway has acknowledged directing his deputies not to respond to calls associated with the border-wall protests except in cases of violence. The station reports that the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office had not responded to a request for comment on the association's allegations. The Arizona Sheriffs' Association separately said law-enforcement agencies reported multiple incidents in which requests for assistance went unanswered, according to Arizona Daily Independent, which reported that the association's account of those incidents involved alleged violence, threats and property damage during the protests.
The association framed its concern as a matter of basic duty, saying the obligation to preserve peace and protect the public cannot be set aside simply because an incident involves federal operations or politically contentious circumstances. It called for documentation and an appropriate investigation into the reports, and said its member sheriffs pledged to make personnel and resources available if the state's Department of Public Safety requested additional support.
What's Happening on the Ground in Lochiel
The dispute centers on an ongoing Customs and Border Protection project building a double-layer border wall stretching 27 miles through the San Rafael Valley under a $334 million contract, according to Tucson Sentinel. Protesters had maintained a months-long tree-sit to block construction before federal agents moved in on Oct. 5 to clear the camp and remove a cottonwood tree, deploying a cherry picker to pull a protester down. A Border Patrol spokesperson told azpm.org that agents took enforcement action in response to alleged violations and an alleged assault on a federal officer.
Accounts of how many people were arrested that day differ. Tucson Sentinel reported that agents arrested 10 protesters and cited 10 more after demolishing the cottonwood, while the Lookout News reported at least 20 arrests during the same raid, and AZ Luminaria reported that activists said at least 12 people had been arrested as of 8 a.m. that morning while the operation was still underway. Construction continued steadily in the days that followed even as roughly 50 people remained at the site holding the line against further building, according to the Intercept, while protesters camped on nearby private property with permission, according to Tucson Sentinel.
A Sheriff Pushed Out Over the Response
The fallout has reached Hathaway's own standing among his peers. The Arizona Sheriffs' Association terminated his membership through a vote over a separate matter concerning his standing, and he is no longer a member of the group. Maricopa County Sheriff Jerry Sheridan said he is prepared to send resources to Santa Cruz County to assist the state's Department of Public Safety if public safety issues there continue to escalate.
This is not the first time Hathaway has staked out a combative position on border-wall construction in the county. In an earlier dispute, he threatened action against contractors hired by then-Governor Doug Ducey's office to build a shipping-container border wall, saying he would charge them with illegal dumping because no permit had been issued for the project on public land, according to KGUN9.
A Broader Pattern Among Arizona Sheriffs
The standoff also lands amid wider scrutiny of how some Arizona sheriffs approach federal authority. An investigation by AZCIR found that more than half of the state's 15 county sheriffs had aligned with at least some core ideologies of the constitutional-sheriff movement, and that four had direct connections to groups including Protect America Now or the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association. Experts cited in that reporting warned the movement can encourage selective enforcement and undermine the legitimacy of law enforcement and the Constitution itself, with one expert saying the trouble comes “when you get ‘constitutional sheriffs' who are picking and choosing what they're going to enforce.”
Arizona law spells out that a sheriff shall arrest people who attempt to commit or have committed a public offense and shall prevent and suppress breaches of the peace, riots and insurrections that come to the sheriff's knowledge, according to the Arizona Legislature.
