Arizona

Immigrants without legal status make up a large part of the workers in several industries and have a combined household income of almost $27 billion in the Mountain West.

Nationwide, nearly 17,000 homes on tribal lands still need electricity hook-ups. A majority are spread across the Navajo Nation, where climate change is making it harder for families to keep cool. A mutual aid program, however, has helped to change lives.

A growing number of states are proposing legislation to give local law officers the power to arrest people in the country illegally. Other bills would require law enforcement agencies to notify federal immigration officials when they take someone into custody who is in the country illegally.

Bateman had pleaded guilty to claiming more than 20 spiritual “wives” including 10 underage girls. He acknowledged coercing girls as young as nine years old to submit to criminal sex acts with him and other adults.

Since 1906, all but three presidents have used the Antiquities Act to protect unique landscapes and cultural resources. Biden has signed off on six monuments and either restored or enlarged boundaries for a handful of others during his term.

The seven states that share the shrinking river are deeply divided about new rules for its future. They met in Las Vegas for the annual Colorado River Water Users Association, or CRWUA, conference.

As the Colorado River Water Users Association gathers, the seven river states are like kids coming home to a family reunion. Policy watchers are frustrated with their level of disagreement.

Biden's Interior Department released four proposals for managing the river in an apparent attempt to nudge the states toward agreement.

Arizona's top water official said states are still unable to agree on new rules for sharing water after 2026.

Water managers across the West say they do not expect a new Trump administration will alter post-2026 Colorado River talks.

In the leadup to November, Democrats and Republicans have flocked to the furthest reaches of 22 Native American reservations in Arizona in a bid for votes. Native Americans, who make up about 5% of the state’s population, voted in big numbers for the Democratic Party in 2020.

For decades, the government-run boarding school system forcibly separated Indian children from their parents. The president called it a “blot on American history” in his first visit to Indian Country.