Arizona attorney general warns Trump deporting Dreamers would be a ‘bright red line’

Arizona’s top law enforcement officer said in a recent interview she is unafraid to stand up to President-elect Trump on immigration enforcement.

Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes told the U.K.'s Guardian any plans to construct deportation centers, which she previously called "concentration camps," in the Grand Canyon State would be a nonstarter.

Mayes defended Dreamers, beneficiaries of the Obama-era DACA program, saying any federal attempts to send them to their home countries would be "a bright red line for me."

"I will not stand for an attempt to deport them or undermine them," Mayes said. "I will do everything I can legally to fight [family separation or construction of deportation camps.

"Not on our soil."

The Dreamer moniker originates from the DREAM Act — Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors. It was first proposed by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and the late Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in 2001 and has been reintroduced in several succeeding sessions of Congress by Durbin but has never become law.

Most recently, it was proposed in 2023 by Durbin and his Republican counterpart in Senate Judiciary Committee leadership, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

Former President Obama borrowed pieces of the legislation when he instituted DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Trump previously tried to get rid of DACA but was stopped by the Supreme Court in DHS v. University of California.