In Arizona’s 7th Congressional District — stretching from Tucson, brushing parts of outer Phoenix and running through border towns like Douglas, Nogales and Yuma — border policy is more than a talking point. Backyards run up against 30-foot walls. Immigration raids echo in neighborhoods. Ports of entry bring both economic vitality and federal scrutiny. And the increasingly militarized boundary slices through ancestral Indigenous lands.
In CD7, which runs through six counties, border and immigration politics are not forgotten between election cycles. They are a daily reality that shape identities, the economy and how Southern Arizona residents feel safe, conduct business and relate to each other.
Since Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva died in March after two decades in office, 12 candidates have lined up to fill his seat: five Democrats, three Republicans, as well as two Green Party, one Libertarian, and one No Labels candidate. Their divergent visions of immigration and border policy reflect national fault lines, but also — in a way that national politics typically doesn’t — address the perspectives of border towns, the history of Arizona’s immigration policies, and changing migration patterns as experienced right here in Southern Arizona.
From calls to abolish ICE and keep local law enforcement away from immigration issues to vows to finish the wall and stage massive deportations, this race is a microcosm of America’s border debate.
There is one immigration issue on which all the candidates fall neatly into party lines — the Laken Riley Act. Named after a Georgia student killed by an undocumented Venezuelan man and the first law signed by President Trump in his second term — the act has emerged as a revealing policy test. The law mandates detention without bond for undocumented immigrants accused (not convicted) of certain property crimes, ranging from larceny to shoplifting.
Arizona’s Sen. Ruben Gallego was a co-sponsor of the bill, so support of the law means crossing the aisle for Republicans and opposition for Democrats means breaking with both Democratic Arizona senators — who would be key allies for the next congressional representative. And that is exactly how the candidates lined up: All Republicans in the race support the law and all Democrats oppose it.
Digging deeper, however, into the weeds of border and immigration policies, consensus falls away.
Arizona Luminaria spoke with the candidates to get their perspectives.
Jump to a candidate
Early voting for the race starts June 18. The primary election will be July 15. The primary winners will face each other in a special election on Sept. 23.
The Democrats
Adelita Grijalva
Daughter of the late congressman Raúl, Adelita Grijalva positions herself as the race’s unapologetic progressive. During the first Democratic debate, Grijalva said, “I don’t think you can be too progressive when you’re on the right side of history.”
Grijalva told Arizona Luminaria what, in her view, that means.
“The militarization of our border is an offense,” she said. “It is an attack on all of us.”
Grijalva emphasized modernizing ports of entry and investing in cross-border trade infrastructure as key to public safety and financial stability. “Not only does the nation rely on having a good partnership with México and Canada, but here in Southern Arizona, delays at the border are causing huge problems for everyone, including restaurant owners, business owners, trucking companies,” Grijalva said.
She also expressed concern that border militarization and slow-downs in crossings could affect agriculture, especially in and outside of Yuma, which relies heavily on cross-border workers.
Grijalva supports decriminalizing border crossings, repealing laws that make reentry a felony, and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement in its current form.
“ICE is targeting people who are just working,” she said. “If I had the ability to snap my fingers, I would abolish it in its current form.”
Grijalva said she would support a policy change akin to what former presidential candidate and former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Julián Castro, proposed in 2019. The idea would be to treat unauthorized border crossings as civil, not criminal, violations.
She also calls for passing the Protecting Sensitive Locations Act to bar ICE from making arrests at schools, churches and hospitals. “If you want to keep us safe, modernize the border — don’t criminalize our neighbors,” she said.
Another priority for Grijalva would be holding public hearings, for which she would invite both Democratic and Republican officials, as well as a diversity of residents. She said the first such hearing she would like to hold would be on the Tohono O’odham Nation.
Message to immigrants in the district: “I’m the granddaughter of a Bracero. I know why you come here. I know that you just want to do well for your families and I wish that I could say you would be safe. Unfortunately, that’s not something that I can say right now. And that’s heartbreaking. Right now this administration cares more about how much money you can pay for that green card than how much you can contribute to this nation. It’s not friendly for immigrants and I hate that for Southern Arizona. God, it hurts my soul.”
Daniel Hernandez
A former state representative from 2017 to 2023, Hernandez says he offers a pragmatist’s approach to border and immigration policy. In his interview with Arizona Luminaria, he focused on the importance of restoring due process and constitutional oversight, as well as addressing negative rhetoric to show people what the border is really like.
“One of the biggest things I’m concerned about is the Trump administration’s failure to follow the law when it comes to due process,” Hernandez said.
“And part of that means giving people the opportunity to make their case, whether it’s seeking asylum or trying to stay in this country.”
Recognizing a substantive change would be difficult in the current political environment, Hernandez pointed to his own political history as a way forward. “I got some of my Republican colleagues to vote against their own self-interest electorally because it was doing the right thing,” Hernandez said, offering examples of anti-abortion or gun rights bills voted on in the state legislature.
“Part of being in the minority is being able to figure out where there are opportunities to leverage your power, and also using the soft power to force people to do the right thing,” Hernandez said.
He said he wants to remind people that “immigrants are actually human, that they deserve respect and that they deserve due process.”
Hernandez does not support abolishing ICE but supports reforms and expanded training.
“I think having border security is crucial,” Hernandez said. He added that border security means to him “feeling safe where you live,” as well as updating border infrastructure.
Saying that Southern Arizona “is dealing with an international problem with local resources,” he wants to focus on “making sure that local law enforcement has the tools and resources they need.” He said he wants more federal investment in local law enforcement and technology upgrades, arguing that local agencies are overstretched.
“I think for the people that live on the border, we are tired of being used as props. And I think that’s a big problem. Yes, there are issues with drugs. Yes, there are issues with immigration. But they are usually blown out of proportion and there is a lot of use and utility for the Republican Party to use this as a fearmongering tool to try and elect more of their folks who say they’re going to solve the problem and then don’t.”
Message to immigrants in the district: “I see you and I see the humanity that you have. One of the biggest things that people need to understand and need to hear who are in these communities is ‘We see you, we understand the challenges and we’re actually going to start trying to solve problems.’ We are a nation that was built on immigration. This is a country that is stronger because of the people that we’ve brought in, not the people that we exclude.”
Deja Foxx
The youngest candidate in the race and a Gen Z activist and influencer, Foxx frequently draws on her experience organizing around reproductive justice. She called the border wall a “spectacle,” supports dismantling portions of it, and seeks to reframe the conversation, emphasizing the positive contributions and humanity of immigrants.
Frequently citing her personal connection to immigration as a first-generation American, Foxx shared the story of a Mexican immigrant family who took her into their home when she was an unrooted teenager.
“Those are the kind of stories we need to share about the ways that immigrants in fact make our communities safer. Immigrants are at the heart of our communities and our families. And here in the borderlands, we know that all of us love an immigrant, right? Whether they’re in our family or they’re our neighbors or our friends.”
Foxx emphasized the contributions of immigrants and criticized Trump’s rhetoric.
“Donald Trump has spread lies about our communities and about immigrants and immigration. And it’s having real impacts right here at home through policy and culture.”
She said that regardless of anti-immigrant rhetoric or policy, migrants will continue to live in our city.
“They pay taxes,” Foxx said, “and yet they don’t get to have the same level of representation. And they are being forced to live in the margins because of cruel policies enacted by people who are more interested in reelection than they are in humanity.”
She added: “As much as it’s important to wield political power, members of Congress have a dual job to create narrative, to drive the conversation forward.”
Message to immigrants in the district: “I know what it feels like to have elected officials who feel so far away making decisions about the things you need to just get by. And that is exactly how our undocumented community feels. I want people to know that for the last decade, I have been an activist using social media in a smart way, because I share impactful personal stories and I want to share that microphone with them. I want them to be able to know that our office is open to them, that their stories matter. I do believe that there will be days after the Trump administration and that we need to talk to those people here in our community. We have to find each other again. And we’re going to do that through good storytelling, through humanizing one another and remembering what Donald Trump is asking us to forget, which is that regardless of immigration status, these folks are our neighbors.”
Jose Malvido
A longtime activist, Malvido grew up in the small town of Ajo. He described how his political views were shaped by his family’s experience of losing their home to a mining operation when he was a child. “At the tender age of eight, I witnessed the devastating power of eminent domain when Phelps Dodge Copper Mercantile, the very lifeblood of our town, gave families a mere five weeks to vacate their homes before bulldozers arrived,” Malvido writes on his campaign website.
“The image of my neighbors, some forcibly removed and even arrested by police, remains etched in my memory.”
While aligned with Democrats, Malvido criticizes the party’s role in the current anti-immigrant environment. “Even Democrats have been compliant in allowing racialized dehumanization,” he said.
Malvido said he was “very concerned about the overt racism and racialization of people from Latin America, Mexico, Venezuela.”
“I support asylum. I support immigration. And I support having people come across. This country was born on immigrants.”
He added: “We need to have more courage than ever. Especially folks that are elected officials.”
Message to immigrants: “Know your rights. There’s a lot of folks doing know-your-rights workshops and helping to prevent folks from being arrested, and this goes for citizens and non-citizens alike. We can build coalitions. We can tie different coalitions together. I have extensive experience organizing and coalition building. People are scared, but we still have a chance to pull this back and retake the country and make it for everybody and not just certain groups.”
Patrick Harris Sr.
A former CEO of Alcor Life Extension Foundation — a company that uses cryonic technology to freeze people in the hopes of restoring them to life in the future — Harris has focused his campaign on federal finances.
While he wants to streamline the asylum process and hire more judges, he also said he’s wary of suggesting potentially costly fixes at the moment.
“I would love to tell you one of the first things I would do is make sure that there are enough judges,” Harris said. “But I can’t say that until I can tell you how I’m going to pay for it.”
Harris thinks the best approach to fixing the economy, not just in the United States but throughout the world — and which, he claims, would drastically mitigate the challenges of forced displacement and migration — is an idea he calls Capitated Capitalism, or Cap the Cap.
The idea behind “Cap the Cap” is a nationwide $1 billion wealth cap. Anyone earning above that amount would be required to reallocate additional funds as they choose. Harris argues this would incentivize billionaires to invest in solving global problems rather than accumulating more wealth.
Harris says his plan would stimulate the economy, pay down national debt, and create increased international cooperation.
“I don’t see a viable structural permanent solution [to forced migration] until we fix the economy,” he said.
Message to immigrants: “I would say to immigrants that, yes, you want a better life. And this is how you do it: you start at home. Capitated Capitalism’s platform is adaptable to every country. In the U.S., the cap might be a billion dollars. If you live in a poor country, it might be a hundred million. You come together as a nation and pass this legislation and ratify it into your constitution. You will see money infused in your economy and there’s no need to leave your home. What you need to do is stand on this platform. It’s simple, it’s moral, it’s practical.”
The Republicans
Daniel Butierez
A small-business owner with a passion for rescuing horses and dogs, supporter of the Laken Riley Act, Butierez advocates for the swift deportation of anyone who crossed the border within the past four years, regardless of ongoing asylum claims or their legal status.
“I’m the only candidate who can answer questions [about the border] because I have been on the border for the last two years,” Butierez said.
He explained that he had gone out with Arizona ranchers multiple times to assess the situation at the border. He described one instance, at the border near Sasabe a couple of years ago — during the Biden administration — when he attended to a young child who he claimed was a trafficking victim. He said that during Biden’s time in office, there were hundreds of people crossing the border on a specific ranch without authorization every day. Now, Butierez said, that number has dropped to zero.
“We don’t have mass immigration coming here now.”
“A lot of people are challenging Trump with not doing due process,” Butierez said, “but they weren’t worried about due process when they [unauthorized migrants] came into the country.”
“We should implement due process and start it at the other side of the wall and let them follow due process through the system the way it’s supposed to work. My big thing, and I got into it with the [Pima County] board of supervisors here was that no one who came to Tucson here were valid asylum seekers. Under the asylum law, you must go through a port of entry,” Butierez said — which is incorrect.
According to U.S. law, “You may apply for asylum regardless of how you arrived in the United States or your current immigration status.”
Butierez said he has family members married to undocumented migrants who have, for over 20 years, been unable to gain citizenship status.
“Because of that I kind of have a little understanding and a little more compassion than other Republicans, just because I know what they’ve gone through and why they stopped trying to get citizenship,” Butierez said.
Butierez proposes granting legal residency to long-term undocumented individuals but says migrants who have broken laws must be deported. “You don’t get to start a new life by breaking the law,” he said.
Message to immigrants in the district: “This has been a really bad situation created by the previous administration. And we need to fix it. We need to correct it in a way that’s fair. The only way I can see it being fair is that we deport the people who came here over the last four years. Otherwise you put them in front of the other 20 million that have been waiting, and that’s a major problem. I know it’s an emotional problem, but they need to go to the back of the line, not to the front.”
Jorge Rivas
Originally from El Salvador — where the Trump administration has been controversially deporting people in recent months — Rivas supports strict enforcement and deportation policies. Rivas is the owner of Sammy’s Mexican Grill, on North Oracle Road in Catalina. He faced backlash in 2024 for supporting Trump.
“To me it’s very important that you obey the laws, that the laws apply equally across the board,” Rivas said. “So when institutions, governments or especially the last administration was choosing not to enforce the immigration laws that were on the books, that was very bad.”
Rivas said it was important not to pick and choose which laws you want to enforce because if that was the case for immigration policy, “then you can pick and choose the laws for everything else.”
There is an important distinction between asylum seekers and economic migrants, Rivas said. He offered himself as an example of someone who fled a dangerous war zone in the mid-1980s.
“I myself was born and lived and grew up during the mid-80s in El Salvador when there was a civil war and you saw people shot, killed, murdered in gun battles, and people being persecuted. It’s a whole different world, a whole different scenario than fleeing Chiapas because there is no food, no work, no job.”
He added: “As a human being, I feel for all these people.” But he emphasized the importance of following the law, not allowing people to game the asylum system, and repeatedly blamed Democrats.
“I think part of the problem is that the Democratic party created a scenario and the media followed and made the Republican party look like racists and evil people, when all that they’re trying to do is follow the law.”
As for deportations to El Salvador, he said, “I feel that if you are a criminal where you belong is in jail, it doesn’t matter whether the jail is in Arizona or Angola.”
He acknowledged that prison conditions in El Salvador were harsh, but said, “I think that’s what a jail should be. A jail should not be a hotel.”
Rivas said that if green card holders in the country and people with student visas are picked up by ICE, they should get the chance to prove they are innocent of any crimes and try to remain in the country.
Message to immigrants in the district: “The United States is one of the greatest countries in the world in almost every aspect, in the legal aspect, in treating people with dignity, in treating people with respect. I know that society is not perfect. The laws have not always been perfect, but I think, compared to any other country, here you have so many opportunities, so many rights that you wouldn’t have in many other countries. And I think if you are an immigrant like myself, there’s nothing to worry about. If you’re not doing anything wrong, if you are just going about your life, taking care of your family, working hard, staying out of trouble, not doing drugs, there’s nothing to worry about.”
Jimmy Rodriguez
With a history in construction and auto racing, Rodriguez lost his son to a car crash, which he said prompted him to seek office. He said that after his son’s crash, he needed answers and support from elected officials, which he said he didn’t get. “I want to be there for families like mine who were seeking help,” he said.
Rodriguez supports border wall completion and prioritizing deportation of criminals, but opposes deporting people who are legally pursuing immigration processes. He advocates for more immigration judges to address the backlog and is developing a phone app to increase constituent engagement and accountability of members of Congress.
Rodriguez said the people who should be deported first are “people who broke the law, drug dealers, rapists.”
“There’s been a lot of fear, especially in CD7” among immigrants who “technically broke the law when they crossed over.” He said that crossing the border without authorization was perceived as acceptable when Biden was in office, and so empathizes with recent migrants currently facing deportation.
“I don’t personally feel like we should be targeting them right away. Maybe giving them the option of self-deportation and then giving them the option to maybe come back into the country legally.”
Rodriguez opposes arresting migrants at court houses. “You should feel secure when going to court,” he said.
Message to immigrants in the district: “Dreamers who were raised here are part of our communities. They pay taxes, they run businesses, they deserve a fair path to legal status. What I’m going to do is push for bipartisan legislation. We still need to offer a fair solution for those who are already integrated in our society and in our communities. I want to streamline a legal pathway for them.”
Write-in candidates
Gary Swing
Running for the Green Party, Swing takes the most progressive position on immigration among candidates. He supports open borders, ICE abolition, and dismantling the border wall. He also proposes reparations for U.S. foreign policy harms and opposes militarization.
“I see a border wall between the United States and Mexico as the biggest monument to white supremacist racism in human history,” Swing said.
“It’s a symbol of racism and xenophobia. It’s environmentally destructive. It’s extremely environmentally damaging in terms of wildlife habitat and is destroying pristine environments.”
Swing says he supports due process and “an immigration policy that’s based on empathy and compassion and respect for human rights.”
“I see it as a fundamental human right to travel and to seek employment, to seek safety, to reunite with your families,” Swing said.
He added that criminal background checks for people coming to the country would be acceptable, “but it should be a fairly simple process to be able to move to travel to work in another country. And I do support the idea of open borders.”
“I think there’s some responsibility that the United States should take for the harm that it’s caused,” Swing said.
“There’s an argument for reparations for the damage caused by US foreign policy and economic policies and the US has an obligation to do the right thing and to provide safety for people who have been oppressed by systems and governments that were supported by the United States.”
Message to immigrants in the district: “I respect their rights. I respect their freedom. As a member of Congress, I would fight to protect their well-being, to support their right to seek asylum, to work where they want to work, to have legal residency that’s not tied to a specific employer. You should be safe, and I want to be there to help support them and make sure they are safe from oppression, safe from being arrested at home or at work or their school just because they’re not documented. I support the right to a process that allows them a reasonable path to citizenship.”
Eduardo Quintana
Formerly a technician for Hughes Aircraft, which was later bought by Raytheon, Quintana said he has long been a union organizer, as well as an anti-war and environmental activist.
Born in Durango, México, Quintana moved to South Texas as a child and says he is “very familiar with immigration from a personal standpoint.”
He described living very near the border when he was young and using tree branches to brush away tracks of migrants to throw Border Patrol agents off their trail.
He said he has always been “naturally sympathetic to people looking for jobs or to feed their families.”
Calling Trump’s immigration policies “very cruel” he said he has a very low threshold for injustice. Immigration policies, as well as U.S. policy towards Israel and what he called the genocide in Gaza is compelling him to run.
“As alarmed as I am, I don’t think we’re alarmed enough,” Quintana said. “This is a real dangerous time we are in.” He called the deployment of Marines to LA illegal and unconstitutional.
One of his initial moves, if elected, he said, would be to “establish a central organizing hub to fight back against this fascist takeover of the country.”
“We have to start thinking out of the box.”
Message to immigrants in the district: “If I can I would put a stop to these abominable deportations. They’re cruel. They separate families, they violate human rights. I’m going to put a stop to them. We need immigrants and they need us. Surely people with good will can come together with a plan that respects human rights, and I will work for that.”
Richard Grayson
Fiction writer and perennial candidate for Congress, Grayson said he was running with the No Labels party to “sabotage them.” Accusing the party of running as “spoilers,” he worries they will soon start to make regular appearances on the ballot in Arizona.
“I particularly hate the No Labels people,” Grayson said.
As a candidate for the presidential primary race in 2012, Grayson told Tucson Weekly that Republicans should be deported to the 18th century.
Grayson called running for Congress “a hobby” — he also ran for Congress in Alaska in 2024 and he is running for Congress in Arizona’s 5th Congressional District in 2026 — and said current immigration politics were “insane.”
“I’m outraged by people having no due process,” he said.
He said that deporting people is against America’s own interest, noting the dropping birth rate among native-born Americans. “They think we’re going to make babies all of a sudden, force people to make babies like the ‘Handmaid’s Tale’?”
He added, about immigrants: “We need these people.”
“Most of the undocumented people I know are better Americans than a lot of the native-born residents I know.”
Message to immigrants in the district: “It’s time to hit the panic button for democracy. It’s like the building is burning and you are talking like, ‘Oh, we should redecorate.’ It seems like no one has the urgency of the moment.”
Andy Fernandez
Entering late into the race, Fernandez was not available for an interview for this story.
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