Gov. Katie Hobbs at Intel’s Chandler plant, where President Joe Biden announced an $8.5 billion grant to help the company expand its chipmaking capacity there. (Photo by Sam Ballesteros/Cronkite News)
Gov. Katie Hobbs has created a joint task force to expand border security efforts, called Operation Desert Guardian, via her first executive order of 2025.
The order calls on the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs, the Department of Public Safety and the Department of Homeland Security to partner with local law enforcement and the federal government to stop cartels working in the state’s border counties of Yuma, Pima, Santa Cruz and Cochise.
“I’m proud to launch Operation Desert Guardian to combat the cartels, stop drug smuggling and human trafficking, and secure Arizona’s border,” Hobbs said in a written statement announcing the executive order. “My administration has been in contact with the federal government and local sheriffs about the Operation, its critical objectives, and our shared commitment to keeping criminals and drugs out of Arizona’s communities.”
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Operation Desert Guardian will focus on identifying security vulnerabilities along Arizona’s southern border, and fighting border-related crime by disrupting cartel supply chains and networks. In the statement, Hobbs said the task force will be funded with a portion of the $28 million balance in Arizona’s border security fund.
“I have worked productively with the federal government on Task Force SAFE and partnered with local law enforcement to deliver critical border security support, and I look forward to continued partnership on our shared border security priorities,” Hobbs said. “With Operation Desert Guardian, I’m confident we can take an important next step in our ongoing work to secure the border.”
President Donald Trump ordered the federal government to undertake mass deportations of undocumented immigrants shortly after he took office last month, although he’s reportedly displeased with the number of deportations that have taken place since then and is pushing for more.
The Hobbs administration has focused its border security efforts on stopping the flow of drugs into the state. In July, she launched Task Force SAFE (Stopping Arizona’s Fentanyl Epidemic), pairing U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers with Arizona National Guardsmen for inspections at the state’s ports of entry.
Since taking office in 2023, Hobbs has signed multiple executive orders aimed at stopping the flow of drugs and human smuggling through Arizona’s border with Mexico, including putting $100 million toward border security funding for local law enforcement agencies and creating a Border Coordination Office within the Arizona Department of Homeland security to ensure local, state and the federal governments work together on border issues.
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