Republican hopeful issues terrifying warning to 18K immigrant children: 'Be ready'

Republican Warren Petersen vowed to help the Trump administration deport the more than 18,000 Arizonans who were brought to America as children and have federal protection if voters in November make him Arizona’s next attorney general.

In a terse exchange on social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, Petersen and Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes traded jabs over the legality of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

“Here is some free legal advice to our sitting AG. DACA is found nowhere in the Constitution,” Petersen wrote, responding to video footage Mayes shared on social media in which she pledged to continue defending the rights of DACA recipients in court.

The Obama-era policy gives nearly 500,000 people who were brought to the country as minors a reprieve from deportation for two years at a time and allows them to apply for a work permit. According to a June report from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 18,450 DACA recipients call Arizona home.

Petersen called DACA recipients “illegals” and said he would work with the federal government to deport anyone in the country without authorization, including people who arrived as children.

“I will keep our border secure and will work with the federal government to deport everyone who enters this country illegally,” he wrote. “We welcome everyone who comes here legally and abides by the law. But be ready to be deported or prosecuted if you don’t.”

DACA recipients, commonly referred to as Dreamers, have temporary legal status under the program.

Mayes fired back in her own post on X, saying that Petersen’s stance shows that he isn’t qualified to be attorney general.

“News flash Warren: DACA recipients are police officers, firefighters, nurses and small business owners in Arizona. And you just announced to the world that you think they are criminals and should be deported. Disqualifying,” Mayes wrote.

Petersen, who has long claimed to support legal immigrants, pointed out that the 2012 program isn’t enshrined in the U.S. Constitution as proof that it isn’t valid. Only naturalization, under which people become citizens automatically at birth or through a process set by Congress, is addressed in the Constitution. All other forms of legal authorization for immigrants are determined by Congress or the federal government.

DACA was created through an executive action from former President Barack Obama as a way to provide protections amid decades of congressional gridlock on the issue.

If elected, Petersen would have the power to mobilize the state’s top prosecutorial office to attack the program. Mayes, who is seeking reelection, has joined litigation that advocates for the preservation of DACA. In February 2024, the Democrat and 22 other attorneys general filed an amicus brief with a federal appeals court urging it to keep the program in place. And in January 2025, Mayes moved to intervene in a case that sought to bar DACA recipients from purchasing health insurance through the Affordable Care Marketplace.

Also at stake would be legal stances on other actions taken by the Trump administration. The first lawsuit against Trump that Mayes joined was an effort to oppose the U.S. Justice Department’s bid to strip the children of immigrants of birthright citizenship.

Petersen didn’t respond to a question about whether he agrees with the Trump administration’s interpretation of the 14th Amendment, which has guaranteed citizenship for anyone born on U.S. soil regardless of their parent’s citizenship for more than a century and a half.

Rodney Glassman, who is facing off against Petersen in the Republican primary, didn’t respond to a request for comment on what his stance is on the DACA program and whether he, too, would support federal efforts to deport recipients.

Despite long enjoying bipartisan support, DACA has in recent years faced increasing opposition from the Republican Party, which has staked out an uncompromising anti-immigrant stance and made mass deportations a key pillar in its agenda.

But public opinion of the program, and of Dreamers, remains positive. A 2023 survey found that, even amid litigation launched by Republican-led states aimed at terminating the program, a majority of voters across the political spectrum would prefer to keep DACA in place. A 2025 Gallup poll found that the percentage of Americans who support offering a pathway to citizenship to immigrants who meet certain requirements and have lived in the country over a set period of time has increased from 70% in 2024 to 78% in 2025. And support is even higher for Dreamers: a whopping 85% of Americans believe immigrants brought to the country as children should be given a chance to apply for citizenship.

Public support for people who arrived in the U.S. as children is apparent even in Arizona, where voters agreed to give undocumented students the same ability as their peers to pay in-state tuition. In 2022, 51% of voters agreed that forcing undocumented students to pay nearly twice as much in tuition was unfair and cast their ballots in favor of Proposition 308. The campaign behind the ballot measure announced afterwards that it earned support from across the political divide, including from 54% of independents and 27% of voters who identified as Republican.

Democrats lambasted Petersen for attacking DACA recipients. Charlene Fernandez, the chair of the Arizona Democratic Party, accused Petersen of fearmongering and warned that his words would ripple through the state’s Latino and immigrant communities.

“Warren Petersen is promising a new era of fear, targeting young people who have spent their lives in our communities,” she said in a written statement. “He’s talking about using government power against people who grew up here, went to school here, and call Arizona home. That’s not leadership — it’s fearmongering.”

DACA recipients are already facing detainment and deportation, despite the legal shield promised to them by the program, which has strict eligibility requirements and a rolling two-year renewal process. Within the first nine months of Trump’s second term, 270 DACA recipients were arrested by immigration officials and as many as 174 were eventually deported. Critics fear that a failure to reelect Mayes could lead to a worse outlook for Dreamers living in Arizona.

Delaney Corcoran, Mayes’ campaign manager, likened Petersen to former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who infamously oversaw an era of racially motivated policing, and said that Mayes would protect constitutional rights. Petersen was recently endorsed by Arpaio.

“When Petersen tells Dreamers to prepare for prosecution and deportation, he’s telling Arizonans to prepare for a term of terrorization and family separation,” Corcoran said. “He’s basically promising to be an AG in the style of Arpaio. This is a serious threat to tens of thousands of Arizonans and their loved ones.”