PHOENIX, September 14 — A unanimous three-judge panel of the Arizona Court of Appeals rejected an effort by Living United for Change in Arizona to void Proposition 314, the 2024 voter-approved immigration measure, ruling on Thursday, September 10 that the advocacy group lacked standing to bring its challenge. Judge David Weinzweig, writing for the panel, was blunt about the threshold question. The challenge fails, he wrote, “if for no other reason than LUCHA lacks standing.” The decision leaves Proposition 314 in force.
The measure allows police to arrest individuals who cross the border at other than a port of entry and charge them with committing a state crime.
The Standing Question
LUCHA filed its lawsuit in 2025, arguing the measure violates federal and state constitutional protections. The group pointed to possible discriminatory enforcement and to what it described as a failure to provide a new source of revenue for enforcement. Weinzweig declined to reach the merits on the enforcement claim.
“Declaratory relief should be based on an existing set of facts, not those which may or may not arise in the future,” he wrote. He also rejected the argument that the arrest standards ignore constitutional requirements, noting the law provides three options for officers: their own observation, a recording, or “any other constitutionally sufficient indicia of probable cause.” That language, he wrote, mirrors Fourth Amendment standards.
The court likewise dismissed the funding challenge, which cited the Arizona Constitution’s requirement that ballot measures proposing mandatory spending must provide a new revenue source.
Reaction and What Comes Next
Alejandra Gomez, executive director of LUCHA, said in response, “We are appalled that the Court of Appeals has allowed Proposition 314 to stand at a moment when immigrant communities are already being terrorized by an increasingly aggressive federal immigration enforcement apparatus.” Gomez added that no decision has been made on whether to seek Arizona Supreme Court review.
The ruling parallels a July 2025 decision by U.S. District Court Judge Michael Liburdi, who dismissed a separate challenge to Proposition 314 brought by the Florence Immigrant Rights and Refugee Project, finding the organization failed to show anyone had been affected by the law. Strategically, the calculus for opponents is narrowing.
Two courts have now turned back challenges to the measure on procedural grounds without reaching the constitutional questions at its core, leaving the law intact and its critics searching for a plaintiff who can demonstrate concrete harm. Whether LUCHA appeals to the state’s high court is the next marker to watch.
