The following is an original production of AZPM News.

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The US Supreme Court delivers decisions on immigration, how the rulings affect Southern Arizona.

Another story about ICE detention and a family's fears of deportation.

And difficult questions for the University of Arizona and how it manages its money.

It's all in The Press Room, starting now.

(upbeat music) Hello and welcome to The Press Room.

I'm Tony Perkins and we're joined in the studio by our panel of journalists, Angela Gervasi with AZPM News, Caitlin Schmidt with Tucson Spotlight, and Eric Fink joins us from KVOA News 4 in Tucson.

Thanks for being with us on The Press Room.

We'll start off talking about the 14th Amendment says all children are born in the United States, they're US citizens.

President Trump ordered an end to birthright citizenship, but this week the Supreme Court said he can't do that.

Eric, no matter what the high court decided this decision and it's a big one, what's gonna be politicized.

Absolutely Tony, this is arguably, I think the biggest decision the Supreme Court has made since it overturned Roe v. Wade four years ago.

I think there was a whole lot of anticipation for this one and they waited until the very final day.

And in a 6-3 ruling with Justice Roberts writing for the majority, he said, "Birthright citizenship is constitutional.

"They'll be breaking no new ground today."

Meaning nothing has changed.

However, Justice Brett Kavanaugh also said he concurred that it does not go against the 14th Amendment, but he concurred that Congress is certainly open to potentially getting a constitutional amendment on the books.

And this is gonna be have a big, I think, issue in the fall.

We saw Adelita Grijalva, Representative Grijalva and say, "Birthright citizenship is an American right "in the Constitution period."

We did not see Representative Ciscomani, the CD6 representative here, gonna be in a tough race this fall, come out with any kind of statement on that.

Angela, let's talk a little bit more about that.

Representative Ciscomani did not have anything to say, at least not yet anyway, but this is going to impact immigration and how we talk about it in Arizona for the next several weeks going into the primaries and then on into the general election.

Yes, definitely.

I do think it's worth noting that Ciscomani made the time to comment on the Supreme Court's upholding state laws banning transgender athletes.

You know, he called that a big win for girls in women's sports, but he did not put out a comment regarding any of the decisions regarding immigration that were really huge news this week.

Now, sticking with the Supreme Court, it's not affecting asylum seekers.

Specifically, that was the decision regarding Temporary Protected Status.

It's made unavailable for Syrians and Haitians.

But, Angela, what does it mean for asylum seekers in general here in Arizona?

So there were a couple of decisions.

There was the decision regarding TPS and then there was the decision regarding asylum seekers being turned away at ports of entry.

And the Supreme Court upholding that decision, what's really interesting is Justice Sotomayor, she wrote the dissenting opinion and said that as a result of this SCOTUS decision, that more people will die crossing the border illegally.

If people can't come to ports of entry and present themselves and ask for asylum, they will try to enter in between those ports of entry in dangerous remote areas of the desert, was the argument she made.

And that almost verbatim matched up with the statement from Octavio Fuentes, who's the executive director here for Humane Borders, a Tucson based humanitarian aid nonprofit that sets up water stations for migrants and maps migrant deaths along the border.

He made a very striking, strikingly similar statement about how this will continue to prompt people to enter the country between those ports of entry in more dangerous areas.

Caitlin, there's this energized debate about TPS in our area.

Oh, absolutely.

We've already seen chaos at a local level for people with protected status.

And I think this just opens the door for tens of thousands of more people to end up in court, which we'll be talking about here in just a few minutes.

It has not been calm, even with TPS still not being intact, but now with the ability to overturn those decisions, I think it's about to get much worse.

Now let's talk about the court coming down on the side of mail-in ballots.

It ruled that election ballots that come in after election day can still be counted.

Eric, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes commented that Arizona will not be impacted by that decision, but that states had an ongoing fight over this issue.

It's been around for a while.

Well, you know, vote by mail here in Arizona has been around since the early 90s.

And very clearly Arizona state law says that you have to get your ballot back by election night at seven o'clock.

No matter whether it's a mail-in ballot, or you go to the polls, or you drop it off on election night, it must be back by election night.

But I will point out that back in California and some other states, they allow up to five to seven days as long as the ballot is postmarked by election day.

If it is received afterward, you can, it can be counted.

It will not affect Arizona, but the narrative about elections will, or I should say more fodder about, you know, whether or not there are some shenanigans going on in our election in the counting might be a possibility as related to this.

I was frankly surprised to see that upheld by the court.

Another anticipated decision from the court had to do with transgender rights and sports.

The majority of justices came down to uphold bans on transgender biological males from competing in female school and collegiate sports.

Eric, you've done some work sampling some reaction locally to this issue.

What have you found out?

I spoke to two trans women hours after the court made the decision.

Worth noting it came down on ideological line.

Tony, the six conservative members of voting to uphold the bans in West Virginia and Idaho.

Two people, one in Idaho, one in West Virginia sued saying that their state bans goes against the constitution, the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment.

The justices saying, no, it doesn't violate the equal protection clause and it doesn't violate Title IX, which is a long time federal civil rights law that says there can be no discrimination, sex discrimination in education.

Both of the trans women say that this is a sad day.

They say this goes far beyond sports and opens the door for more discrimination, potentially at a national level.

But on the other side, Tom Horne, Superintendent Tom Horne, Arizona has a law on the books here that was passed in 2022 that says, girls must play on girls sports teams, boys must play on boys sports teams.

And he says, look, it's common sense.

Boys or biological males are faster, stronger.

They are, in many ways, a place on a girls team would shatter the dreams of another girl.

And real quickly, there's a ballot measure coming up in November for Arizona voters to sort of weigh in on an associated part of this issue.

It would go further.

HCR 2003 was referred to the ballot.

It basically says that if approved by voters in November, if approved by Arizona voters, that high schools and the Arizona Interscholastic Association, the sports association that oversees high school sports here in our state would have to mandate boys and girls use a locker room and private spaces and showers associated with their biological sex.

So this is gonna be a big issue as we get closer in the fall.

And you're gonna likely see, I would think, I would think a lot of debate about this on both sides.

All right, let's switch over to immigration.

And Angela, you reported this week on a man from Russia seeking asylum, picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Tucson.

If he is deported, he could wind up in a war zone in Russia.

Tell me a little bit more about that.

Yeah, so earlier this week, I met Andrea Landavazo.

She's a Tucson resident.

She just got married to her husband.

And a few days later, her husband Vlad got picked up by ICE.

Vlad came here four years ago.

He was just 19 when he left Russia.

It was 2022.

Putin was drafting young men for the war against Ukraine.

And for years, Vlad has been in this country going through the legal process to seek asylum.

You know, what's kind of striking about this story is that ICE's statements to me about Vlad's case line up with what his wife told me.

He presented himself at a port of entry in San Ysidro, which is a legal, very standard step in the asylum seeking process.

He got detained because he missed one of his court hearings.

His wife told me he got confused.

It had been rescheduled a couple times.

He tried to remedy that error and reopen his case.

When he was filing a motion to reconsider on his case, he went to the ICE field office in Tucson and he was detained.

I think it's just a pretty striking example of how things can change very quickly in the immigration court system, even when you're following the legal process, how a single mistake can lead to being detained and possibly deported to the country whose regime he fled.

And Caitlin, this is just another case of life-changing circumstances affecting a family or an individual getting wrapped up in the immigration issues in Arizona.

Yeah, and I think we're gonna see many more families caught up in this dragnet based on the Supreme Court decision.

I mean, and anybody that's been involved even to the slightest degree, the court system is so incredibly complicated to navigate.

Even if English is your first language and if you have an advanced education, if English is not your first language, maybe you've just completed high school, I mean, it's, and one mistake can send you into a literal war zone.

The stakes are just incredibly high and we're seeing active members of our community who have been working, have been paying taxes, have been bettering lives for years, just getting caught up in this.

This is similar to like the Karla Toledo case, a DACA recipient who has been four years volunteering and helping out in the community and now is facing deportation.

Again, it's just, it's really sad, it's heartbreaking.

A new ICE Detention Center could be on its way to Marana and, Angela, is putting pressure on members of the town council.

What's happening there?

So yeah, for, you know, I think on a weekly basis, I was checking public federal records to try and stay updated on this prospective ICE facility in the town of Marana.

And for months it felt like there were no new updates.

Basically, MTC, Management and Training Corporation, owns a shuttered prison in Marana and they have not signed a contract with ICE yet.

There still is no contract, but a couple weeks ago, you know, members of the group PRICE, Pima Resist ICE, which is a group that formed an opposition to the detention center, they actually dug up a public notice that was sitting on the Department of Homeland Security website saying, hey, we're, you know, working on this detention center, give us your public input.

This public notice was sort of buried on the DHS website and it had not been posted on DHS social media.

And it talked about, you know, plans for this detention center and it described it as holding potentially more than 1300 people, which was significantly larger than the previous estimate, 775 people.

I called up town council member Patrick Cavanaugh, who's the only town council member to have consistently voiced public concern over this detention center.

He was surprised at this new estimate for a much larger detention center, the town manager was also surprised.

They both reached out to, or the town manager reached out to MTC and it was this whole just sort of cloud of confusion.

Ultimately MTC who owns the site of the potential detention center says they will only incarcerate 775 people, not 1300, but I could not get a clear answer from ICE about how large this detention center would actually be.

In fact, when I specifically asked them about the capacity, sent me a statement lauding Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill which allocates money to the detention system.

Eric, considering the current political climate, is this actually going to be built?

Hard to say.

When you talk to the town of Marana, they will be very quick to say, we don't have anything to do with this.

Management and Training Corporation is contracting with the federal government, it's not in our purview.

But again, look at how immigration played just two years ago.

It was a huge issue for both parties and ultimately when you talk to voters who were concerned about immigration, they broke heavily for the Republican party.

Now you're seeing perhaps a little bit of a different take.

There's some belief that the tactics the Trump administration are going too far and Democrats can really, they think they can seize on this immigration issue.

It's difficult to say whether or not it will be an issue, but I do want to point out that Attorney General Kris Mayes, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes just got, just had some litigation to try to stop a similar detention center from going up in Surprise.

Would not be surprised if she takes the same approach down here.

All right.

Caitlin, this is going to impact, already impacting the town council and council members are facing elections.

What's the next few weeks leading into the primary and the general going to be like for them?

Yeah, this has become quite the flashpoint over in Marana coupled with the data center that also has been highly contested.

It's really been interesting kind of to see the crossover between the citizens that are protesting these things.

I mean, it's basically the same group of people that are against both of them.

And this data center, the town council approved the rezoning of it earlier this year, despite much community outcry for the past year over data centers coming to the region.

So we now have four challengers who are running as a slate, one for mayor, three for council seats to kind of remove the candidates that are up for reelection who they believe have opened the door for both the immigration detention facility and a data center to come to Marana.

And there's a lot of concern.

I mean, even when these issues aren't on the agendas, people are coming to the meeting and speaking at calls to the public about them just to make their voices heard.

There's a lot of concern about what either one of these things, but particularly the detention facility will make Marana look like from an outside perspective.

I'm not hearing a whole lot of community support.

So it'll be interesting to see what happens at the polls.

All right.

The University of Arizona in the news this week, the University deciding to move money in donor endowment funds while at the same time, trying to make sure it has adequate funding for a new medical research building in Phoenix.

Caitlin, the timing is interesting to say the least.

You're gonna get us familiar with what's going on there.

Yes, the timing is interesting.

And I'm gonna, the UA has said these two things are not related, but it certainly is worth discussing.

So within the last month or so, the UA Foundation, which is the nonprofit that manages donor funds, sent a notice to the endowment holders, single endowment holders, so not the pooled ones, but single holders saying that in June 30th, so two days ago, $70 million in funds would be transferred from the foundation to the university.

In the past, the foundation has overseen not only the total endowment amount, but also this 4% annual payout that then is sent typically to the department, the school, whoever was supposed to get it, to make sure that it is spent in according with donor wishes.

Now, that whole chunk of money is going from the foundation directly to the University of Arizona in its general pooled funds, or perhaps its separate account, but it's under the university control, and so that removes kind of an independent layer to make sure that these funds were being spent the way that they were supposed to.

The U of A is saying that this is to increase visibility and to ensure better efficiency of the funds, but in the letter sent to donors, the UA Foundation directly said that this was a move at the UA suggestion in order to increase its days of cash on hand, which we know has been an issue for a couple of years now.

ABOR, the Arizona Board of Regents, wants its universities to have 140 days of operating expenses on hand.

The U of A has been hovering in the 70s since the financial crisis, more or less.

They reported earlier this month, actually last month during the ABOR meeting, that they were up to 84, but moving the $70 million over gives them about an additional 10 days of cash on hand, and June 30th was the date that they had to report their finances, both to the credit bureaus and to the Arizona Board of Regents.

So, it's a big pool of money being moved.

Kind of at the same time, what is happening is they are trying to move along this medical innovations building project in Phoenix, which is a partnership with some hospitals up there, the city of Phoenix.

In September, there was an Arizona Board of Regents meeting where this was discussed, and it was found that the U of A had not fundraised any gift money for it.

So, it was entirely state and federal funds and a bond that they were seeking to get for roughly $70 million that would be paid back by lottery funds.

The U of A would only be responsible for about 20%.

So, they were seeking this bond.

There was a meeting in February that once again showed they were pretty short on funding.

And I was told last week by the U of A that while these two things have nothing to do with each other, they will have secured the final amount of funding to complete construction this summer.

So, regardless of this endowment money is used for this campus, the movement of it into the U of A's bank account certainly isn't gonna hurt.

All right.

Now, let's talk about this time of year in Tucson.

It's the hottest time of the season, and with it, some new ideas to boost the local economy.

Downtown Tucson partnership is starting an after-hours event.

Eric, are people going to actually leave the comfortable indoor environment of their home in 100 degree weather to go out to do something in downtown Tucson?

Well, I figure if it's a good monsoon, perhaps they will.

But, you know, it's such a hot time of year.

And, you know, I've been in Tucson now almost a decade, and these summer months, you just know, you can just feel the fact that everything changes.

Many, many people leave, there are snowbirds that are here for many months, and then they leave for the summer.

So, businesses are struggling.

I think it's a terrific idea to try to boost the bottom line for some struggling businesses.

Whether or not they're gonna come, or whether or not people will come, I would hope so.

But the heat can deter a lot of things and a lot of people in these summer months.

Right.

You know, Caitlin, even though, you know, once the sun goes down, the heat island effect means that it's still pretty warm outside.

Yeah, yeah, you know, but, you know, this deep into it, 90 degrees feels good by evening time.

And I will say they held their first downtown experience last Friday.

It was an effort with the museums where they're doing special after-hours events.

And I saw some social media reels and photos from the one at both the Tucson Museum of Art and Children's Museum, and it looked like a pretty good time.

So, they might be a win.

And at least the city is doing something.

I think they may have received some pressure or some information saying that, hey, you know, get the people out there and give them opportunities.

And of course, give the city opportunities to generate some income during this time.

- Sure.

- Ya.

All right, now I'm gonna give you guys each an opportunity, like we try to every week, to talk about what you're looking ahead to covering over the next few weeks.

Of course, primary election is coming up.

And other facts as well.

Eric, let's start with you.

What do you have on your radar for the next few weeks?

Well, two things.

I think, you know, I'm kind of looking at whether or not this Democratic Socialist movement is gonna hurt the Democrats down the line, both in the midterms and then for 28, I think that's something interesting.

And then the race for Oro Valley Mayor.

It could be decided in just a couple of weeks.

Mark Napier, the former Pima County Sheriff, who won in 2016, lost a close race to current Sheriff Chris Nanos, is the outsider in this race taking on the Vice Mayor, Melanie Barrett?

And we'll see which way voters go on that.

Angela, what do you have coming up?

I am excited to head back down to the border where I was earlier this week, sorry, last week.

Time is flying.

But last week I got the chance to head down to Lochiel, a small ranching community right along the US-Mexico border.

It's the site of an old port of entry that closed in the 1980s.

Right now there is border wall construction happening there that's very close to potentially destroying a historic cottonwood grove.

It's been really insightful to chat with the residents down there on both sides of the border.

And I also hope to head over to Kino Springs where for weeks now contractors have been building not one border wall, but a double border wall.

And it's a very striking image.

Paul Ingram from the Sentinel took some really striking images of this and just exploring what that construction looks like through the people that have lived there for, families that have been there for generations.

Caitlin?

I am following up on a large number of tips about the UA's finances that I've gotten in the past couple weeks.

And then my team is digging in to do some profiles of local restaurants and food trucks.

We've already been hit pretty hard this summer by closures.

We've seen a couple long time staples, I used to think, closed their doors.

And so we kind of want to share some love with the ones that are still out there and help them out.

All right.

That'll do it for The Press Room.

Angela Gervasi from AZPM News.

Caitlin Schmidt of Tucson Spotlight.

Eric Fink from KVOA News 4 Tucson.

Thanks for being with us.

And thanks again to our guests and our staff and crew at The Press Room.

I'm Tony Perkins.

A moment now to think back to one of our colleagues on The Press Room.

Duncan Moon was a Tucson journalist at Arizona Public Media.

He died Wednesday, July 1st.

Duncan was 68 years old.

During his career, Duncan Moon covered the end of the Cold War in Europe, including the fall of the Berlin Wall.

He worked for NPR as the network's religion correspondent and covered modern challenges for education in the Deep South.

Duncan served as interim News Director at Arizona Public Media during the COVID-19 pandemic before retiring in 2024.

Duncan Moon's daughter said he was a kind of man who showed up for people and made you feel like you mattered.

He did the same for us as a journalist and he will be missed.

That's it for The Press Room.

See you next week.

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(upbeat music) (upbeat music) Support comes from Banner Health, a nonprofit healthcare system with an integrative health plan committed to giving back to Arizona.

Last year, Banner reinvested $1.1 billion into the Arizona community.

Learn more at bannerhealth.com.

This has been an original production of AZPM News.