Never a dull moment
Federal wrecking crew ... Taking to the streets ... And local campaigns heat up.
Even though we took last week off, the political world just kept right on turning, didn’t it?
How rude. But what can you do? These are crazy times.
While we were taking care of all the business and planning tasks that tend to pile up at the Agenda last week, President Donald Trump threw the global economy into disarray with tariffs, based on dubious math (potentially calculated by ChatGPT), and even floated the idea of an unconstitutional third term.
In Southern Arizona, the federal funding cuts kept wreaking havoc on local governments, a woman in Tucson watched federal immigration agents haul away her husband, and the Democratic candidates in Congressional District 7 are casting themselves as the ones who can take on the Trump administration.
It’s a lot to take in, but it looks like the people who are fed up with Trump and his tech-bro consigliere Elon Musk are starting to organize on a much grander scale.
Thousands upon thousands of people across the country took to the streets to tell Trump and Musk to stop wrecking the federal government, including an enormous crowd of Tucsonans who lined 22nd Street on Saturday.
People stood shoulder-to-shoulder and carried handmade signs as they lined the curbs and medians from Country Club to Alvernon, while others marched the perimeter of Reid Park carrying megaphones and chanting protest slogans.
Several local political campaigns were also active at the rally, gathering qualifying signatures for the CD7 race.
Tucsonans have been protesting Musk’s Tesla dealerships and Trump for weeks — the movement actually began here — but Saturday’s protest was a little different.
While most of the Tesla protesters have been older residents, on Saturday there was much more diversity in the crowd, including lots of families with children.
And at least one person dressed as a dinosaur.
To buy Joe a dinosaur costume he can wear while covering the next protest (and get a Madagascar-sized discount), click this button.
The sheer number of people attending the protest overwhelmed the available parking, leaving residents to park in nearby neighborhoods and businesses.
Joe, who showed up an hour early, had to park two blocks west of the park because so many cars were there already.
The Tucsonans on 22nd Street joined 1,300 protests in towns and cities under the banner “Hands Off!”
It’s a nationwide effort to tell the Trump administration to stop slashing federal programs, deporting immigrants without due process and enacting hostile economic policies.
All politics is local
The Pima County Health Department is the latest local agency to take a hit from the Trump administration’s funding cuts.
Federal officials terminated several grants, which could lead to layoffs at the health department, per County Administrator Jan Lesher's memo. Two of those grants were related to COVID-19 and their cancellation will hit dozens of positions in the health department and cost the county about $2 million.
All the while, a measles outbreak is becoming a creeping worry. There was a false alarm about a measles case in Pima County last week, but the news was grim in Texas, where a second unvaccinated child died from the measles.
The Trump administration also put on hold a half-billion dollar federal grant for the Arizona Electric Power Cooperative in Benson, the Arizona Daily Star’s Tony Davis reports. The grant would have helped cut the cost of two solar energy and battery facilities.
And Trump opened a new front in the never-ending battle over voting.
Trump tried to impose new federal regulations with an executive order, including requiring proof of citizenship to register in presidential and congressional elections and making it harder to provide that proof. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and her counterparts in other states sued to stop the executive order from taking effect, Capitol Media Services’ Howard Fischer reports.
Crackdown continues
With each passing day, we’re getting more insight into how the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration is playing out in Tucson.
A landscaper with a work permit who has lived in the U.S. for 30 years was taken from his house by federal agents who rolled up in black SUVs and immediately pointed their weapons at the family, Arizona Public Media’s Danyelle Khmara and Samantha Callicutt reported.
At the University of Arizona, officials are telling international students and faculty to carry their essential documents with them at all times, per AZPM’s Hannah Cree. That advice carries new weight now that eight students at Arizona State University had their visas revoked, the Arizona Luminaria’s John Washington reported.
ASU officials said they couldn’t release much information, but they did say none of the students were from Latin American countries and none of the revocations were related to protests on campus.
Out in Southern Arizona’s deserts, right-wing vigilantes have long been obsessed with the blue water barrels that humanitarian aid volunteers set up. The water is meant to lessen the ongoing tragedy in the desert, where thousands of migrants have died from exposure. They’re also a common target when immigration becomes a hot political topic.
Now there’s a new vigilante tactic. Pose as a migrant.
A vandal dressed up as a migrant and tried to drain the water barrels, the Star’s Emily Bregel reported. Before he went after the barrels, volunteers offered him food and water. The vigilante then filmed volunteers and a visiting high school class, and even blocked their vehicle as they tried to leave. One volunteer called it the “weirdest experience I have ever had volunteering.”
Through it all, the Trump administration continues with its brazenly callous attitude toward immigrants.
Grabbing seats
The big news in local officialdom was Supervisor Adelita Grijalva announcing last week that she is going to run for her late father’s seat in Congress.
We’re all watching to see how that race plays out. The district is heavily Democratic, so the outcome likely will be determined in the July 15 primary. So far, the only other high-profile contender is former state lawmaker Daniel Hernandez.
But 24-year-old social media strategist Deja Foxx, who was at Saturday’s protest, also is making waves as she runs for the CD7 seat, the Arizona Republic’s Laura Gersony reports. She spoke at the Democratic National Convention last year and said she wanted to bring the “fight” that is lacking among national Democrats.
Locally, a big question is who will take over the younger Grijalva’s seat on the Pima County Board of Supervisors. Grijalva handily won re-election in November to a four-year term, but she stepped down last week after she announced her run for Congress.
Today is the deadline for candidates to apply to replace her on the board. Next week, supervisors will announce who they plan to appoint.
Whoever is selected will serve on the board until the end of 2026. More immediately, they could be the deciding vote in the ongoing budget discussions at the county.
Correction: In the March 27 edition of the Tucson Agenda, we referred to the wrong part of the FEC reporting database. Daniel Hernandez's FEC report, along with everybody else’s, will be available in mid-April.