Governor Katie Hobbs has rejected a law that would have made it simpler for ranchers to shoot illegal immigrants who trespass. Honestly, is this where we’ve come to?
Gov. Katie Hobbs rejected a law that would have allowed ranchers to shoot migrants who were crossing their property, which surprised no one.
In Arizona, it has indeed come to that.
Hobbs vetoed House Bill 2843, stating that “the legislation as written values property over human life and incentivizes vigilantism.”
“The proposal would alter traditional laws on self defense to allow the unnecessary use of deadly force and further embolden a culture of armed vigilantism and violence with impunity.”
Republicans in the legislature, of course, argue that it has nothing to do with opening fire on trespassing migrants.
Don’t pay attention to the rancher from the Nogales area who is currently on trial for second-degree murder in January 2023 after shooting and killing an unarmed migrant who was crossing his 170-acre property.
Or to the fact that Representative Justin Heap, the bill’s sponsor, stated in February that the goal of his legislation is to safeguard farmers and ranchers because “we are seeing an increasingly larger number of migrants or human traffickers moving across farm and ranchland.”
By March, Heap had changed his song and was running for Maricopa County recorder. During a Senate hearing on the bill, the Mesa Republican argued, “This has nothing to do with migrants.”
Heap’s measure appears to be very harmless on paper. The state’s Castle Doctrine, which permits you to use physical force—up to and including lethal force—against someone breaking into your home, is proposed to be expanded.
The potentially legal killing zone would be expanded by Heap’s plan to include anybody who steps foot on your property, even if your residence is only 0.5 miles away.
All you would have to do is say that you were defending someone or yourself because you were endangered.
The 73-year-old rancher from the Nogales area is on trial in Santa Cruz County on charges of aggravated assault and second-degree murder for the death of a migrant who was passing through his property in January 2023.
About a football field away from where Kelly was standing when he fired his AK-47, Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea, 48, a Mexican citizen, was found unarmed and shot dead in the back.
According to the prosecution, Cuen-Buitimea was fleeing when he was killed after crossing the border in search of employment.
Kelly claims that after one of the males in the group aimed an assault rifle at him, he fired warning rounds over the heads of the men who were crossing his land.
Heap’s bill, of course, was approved on party lines by the Republican-controlled House and Senate.
Rep. Alexander Kolodin, a Republican from Scottsdale, gushed while voting in favor of the bill, saying, “This is a great Second Amendment bill that is also protecting the rights of the accused.”
Is this a “great” bill because it might ultimately result in the death penalty for trespassing on a ranch?
Luckily, Hobbs applied the Castle Doctrine’s Sanity Doctrine, granting Heap’s bill a merciful death.
