Congressman Juan Ciscomani told local business leaders and elected officials that the trick to getting anything done in Washington is finding common ground.
“I’m proud of taking that notion to Washington, to make sure that we can work with people that we don’t always agree with,” Ciscomani said at a State of the District breakfast at Oro Valley’s El Conquistador Resort, where he gave brief remarks and then sat for a Q&A with Southern Arizona Leadership Council CEO Ted Maxwell.
The freshman Republican, who is facing a rematch against Democratic challenger Kirsten Engel in November, represents Congressional District 6, which includes Tucson’s East Side as well as suburbs such as Oro Valley and Marana and precincts in Cochise, Pinal, Graham and Greenlee counties. His reelection race is shaping up to be one of the most competitive in the country.
At the Wednesday morning event, Ciscomani said immigration reform was a key issue for him.
“We need to secure the border,” he said. “No question about it. Bad people are entering. They are. Problem is, that some people think that only bad people want to come into the country, and some people think that only good people want to come into the country. Both exist, and we have to have the ability to talk about them in a smart, decisive way that actually is looking for solutions and not looking for headlines.”
Ciscomani added that he supported changes in immigration law to allow more foreign workers into the country and to give legal status to so-called Dreamers who were brought to America as children. He also cited the importance of trade between the United States and Mexico.
But he said he was skeptical that comprehensive immigration reform was possible because such packages contained too many provisions.
“I wish it was different,” he said. “I wish we could put everything in it and get a small win on each area, but that’s not the appetite of Congress right now. So do we just do nothing? And let me tell you this one more thing: Both parties have had an opportunity to take a shot at this when they controlled the House and Senate and the White House, Democrats have had it, and Republicans have had and it’s not fixed yet, so there’s a lot of talk around this issue. That actually makes me mad.”
Ciscomani rejected the most recent effort to reform the border, the Border Act of 2024, which was negotiated by independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma and Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut.
The three lawmakers in February released a draft that leaned toward border enforcement, with additional funding for Border Patrol agents, higher standards for asylum claims and more equipment for ports of entry, such as scanners to help detect fentanyl.
Donald Trump, the former president and current GOP candidate for that office, assailed the bill the morning after it was introduced.
“Only a fool, or a Radical Left Democrat, would vote for this horrendous Border Bill, which only gives Shutdown Authority after 5000 Encounters a day, when we already have the right to CLOSE THE BORDER NOW, which must be done,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
The next day, Ciscomani threw cold water on the legislation, saying it need to be “much tougher.”
“Our border is in complete chaos, and the Tucson Sector is the most impacted in the entire country right now,” said Ciscomani in a statement to the Sentinel. “I have major concerns and cannot support this package in its current form. We need a much tougher approach to stop this crisis. In order to vote on an issue of this consequence, I need to know that it’s going to prioritize border communities like mine, and this bill falls short of doing so.”
As Republicans joined in lockstep with Trump, GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson declared the bill “dead on arrival” in the House of Representatives even before it was released and with so much resistance in that party, the bill didn’t get a hearing in the Senate. An effort to revive it in May went nowhere.
Speaking to reporters after the event, Ciscomani said that while he stood by his opposition to the Senate bill, he didn’t see his rejection of that legislation to be at odds with his willingness to work across party line to move border legislation. He pointed out that the legislation never got out of the Senate.
“Had that made it over to the House, I would have been at the table to work on this,” Ciscomani said. “The whole idea of, ‘I don’t like it and while thing needs to burn down,’ I don’t subscribe to that… Being critical and saying what I don’t like about it shouldn’t mean the same thing as saying not willing to talk about it.”
Bringing home the bacon
Ciscomani, the only freshman congressman on the House Appropriations Committee, also touted his record at bringing dollars back to the district.
“I get criticized for this, but I’ll stand by it, for bringing federal dollars back to the district,” he said. “This is no secret. So everybody has to own where they are, but I am the only one on my side of the aisle who brings back these projects.”
While he said there was too much wasteful spending in Washington, he said the projects he was assisting supported local communities, such as a paved road in the tiny community of Duncan, new bridges in Oro Valley and new vehicles for the Tucson Police Department.
He also said he worked to ensure the state would receive funding to expand Interstate 10 to three lanes between Casa Grande and the Phoenix outskirts.
“We couldn’t say I-10 specifically, but we described the ‘western highway and blah blah blah blah,’ like, that’s what needs to prioritized,” Ciscomani said. “So I’m not saying that’s what pushed the grant through, I think it was the effort of everyone, but that’s a role that we play.”
Overall, Ciscomani estimated he had brought back $60 million in funding for projects in Congressional District 6 over the last two years.
He also said his office had been responsive to the needs of veterans.
“If you’re a veteran, I don’t care where you call from, we’re going to we’re going to go to work on your behalf,” he said.