Arizona Reps. Ciscomani, Stanton to make bipartisan border visit. Why it's different

U.S. Reps. Juan Ciscomani and Greg Stanton are leading a bipartisan two-day visit to the Arizona-Mexico borderlands that said will be different from other congressional visits to the border.

This week's trip aims to find common ground and potential solutions to address ongoing challenges beyond border security, which continues to generate the most attention. Ciscomani is an Arizona Republican; Stanton is an Arizona Democrat.

The congressional visit, organized by the Washington-based nonpartisan think tank Bipartisan Policy Center, kicked off Thursday afternoon with discussions with immigration policy and legal experts in Tempe, within Stanton's district, before traveling down to Tucson for the remainder of the day to visit Arizona's largest migrant shelter.

The six-member congressional delegation will spend Friday with Cochise County leaders in Ciscomani's district, before meeting with Customs and Border Protection officials. The two-day visit will end with members of Congress crossing into Nogales, Sonora, to meet with the U.S. Consulate and to visit a maquiladora and talk about cross-border trade.

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Part of that strategy, according to Stanton, is not just to bridge gaps on contentious issues such as border security and immigration enforcement, but also to spotlight other policy areas that still unite lawmakers regardless of party affiliation, such as economic competition with China.

"Tensions with China, which are going to continue to increase, are going to have lots of companies think about near shoring," Stanton said, adding if these jobs do not come directly to the U.S., they could set up next door in Mexico.

"This trip, we're taking members across the border to visit maquiladoras and the manufacturing facilities there so they can see with their own two eyes, and they can get a better sense of how working in partnership with Mexico can help us win the economic battle that we're having with China," he said.

In addition to Stanton and Ciscomani, the bipartisan delegation includes two other Democrats: Reps. Nikki Budzinski and Eric Sorensen of Illinois; and two Republicans: Reps. Young Kim of California and Nick LaLota of New York.

Ciscomani noted that most of the visiting delegation is relatively new to Congress.

Four of the six, himself included, are first-term lawmakers. Ciscomani said when he arrived in Washington, he quickly learned that the best way to get laws passed is by working across the aisle.

"I see a real appetite to fixing this, and not just from my side of the aisle, hopefully from both. And what we learned here together, we can go back, we're all members of respective groups that are interested in this as well, so I see real positive change coming from this." Ciscomani said.

Along with Texas, Arizona has become a frequent stop-over for members of both chambers of Congress to posture themselves on where they stand when it comes to immigration and border security. Both Ciscomani and Stanton have hosted partisan visits to Arizona in recent months.

Last year, the state's border with Mexico became the busiest corridor from migrant crossings along the entire Southwest. After peaking in December, migrant crossings have begun to decrease border-wide. In March, Customs and Border Protection encountered nearly 52,000 migrants along the Arizona border, compared to more than 91,000 in December.

Have any news tips or story ideas about immigration in the Southwest? Reach the reporter at rafael.carranza@arizonarepublic.com, or follow him on X (formerly Twitter): @RafaelCarranza.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Juan Ciscomani, Greg Stanton lead bipartisan visit to Arizona border