Politics
Arizona mining country produced Latino leaders for L.A. Now, some are staying
To get to Clifton, you have to really want to get to Clifton.
The nearest big city is Tucson, about three hours away. After spending the night at an uncharacteristically ratty Holiday Inn Express in Willcox, I took U.S. Route 191 through a succession of towns, each seemingly smaller than the last.
The morning drive was quiet and scenic through hills dotted with creosote bushes, spiky cacti and spindly ocotillo plants leading up to Safford, the hometown of a good friend who got the hell out of there. Route 191 bends east here, passing by blooming cotton fields nourished by the Gila River before the terrain becomes rockier and steeper.
Seven days. Seven states. Nearly 3,000 miles. Gustavo Arellano talks to Latinos across the Southwest about their hopes, fears and dreams in this election year.
Soon, I saw what has drawn so many to Clifton over the last 150 years: one of the world’s largest open-pit copper mines.
The Morenci mine looked like the Sarlacc monster from the “Star Wars” movies. Once-picturesque cliffs had been carved into a series of pale terraces that descended hundreds of feet. Dust rose from the bottom. Rows of houses with the same gray roofs stood below me as I drove past a training center operated by the mine owner, Freeport-McMoRan.
When you picture an Old West town, Clifton is it. A decommissioned railroad car stood gleaming next to the main road. A hole blasted out of a cliff once served as a jail cell, according to a plaque. Silhouettes of cowboys decorated a motel.
Times columnist Gustavo Arellano with a plaque commemorating a jail cell carved out of a cliff in Clifton, Ariz.
(Gustavo Arellano / Los Angeles Times)
I was looking for a different history.
For generations, Mexican immigrants have landed in this area before decamping to Los Angeles. Some of the most important names in L.A. Latino politics — former U.S. Rep. Esteban Torres, Councilmember Richard Alatorre, U.S. Treasurer Romana Acosta Bañuelos — were born in Arizona mining towns or traced their lineage there.
I share those roots.
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1. Richard Alatorre is among the L.A. politicians with roots in Arizona mining towns. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) 2. The list includes Romana Acosta Bañuelos. (Bettmann Archive via Getty Images) 3. Esteban Torres also hails from mine country. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)
My maternal grandmother, Marcela Miranda Fernández, was born in 1912 near Clifton, in a town called Metcalf. Her future husband, my maternal grandfather, José Miranda Bermúdez, spent time there as a child before migrating to Anaheim to pick oranges.
My grandparents were always vague when they spoke about Metcalf — but I had vowed to visit one day. A reporting trip to see how Latino voters were faring as the presidential election approached was as good a reason as any.
And now I had another question: Why would anyone want to stay in a place so many had left?
The 1970 U.S. census recorded Clifton’s population as 5,079. A crippling strike in the early 1980s led to the decertification of the miners union and spurred an exodus. By 2002, only about 2,600 people remained, according to Greenlee County statistics.
One of those who left was Janeene Carrillo.
“Growing up here was amazing,” she told me as we enjoyed breakfast at the Little Frisco, a newish diner in town. (Random L.A. connection: She’s related to the Arechigas, one of the last families evicted from Chavez Ravine). “It was probably the best childhood any kid could have. Because you’re safe. Everyone knows everyone.”
But other than the mines, opportunities were limited. After graduating high school in the late 1990s, she headed to Phoenix to study acting.
Janeene Carrillo, councilmember for the town of Clifton, Ariz., on a bridge overlooking the San Francisco River. The 45-year-old wants to bring businesses to the mining town in anticipation of Clifton’s main source of employment, the nearby Morenci copper mine, shutting down in the future.
(Gustavo Arellano / Los Angeles Times)
Family matters brought her back home in 2012, and she began thinking about how to make Clifton a place where people wanted to stay.
Today, she is a member of the town council, and Clifton is staging a modest comeback. The most recent census pegged the population at nearly 4,000. The median household income is $78,862, fueled by a boom in mining jobs, while the cost of living has remained low.
“We’re getting people from New Mexico, from even the Midwest,” said Carrillo, 45, picking at an omelet. “I’ve seen people come from Mississippi, from Alabama. We’re a work in progress.”
Now a security guard for Freeport-McMoRan, she is the third generation of her family to work at the mine. Wearing a cream-colored sports coat, Carrillo brushed her perfectly coiffed, jet black hair out of her eyes while we talked. Her urban polish was a contrast to the stereotypical copper country getup of checkered shirt, western-style belt buckle, bolo tie and Stetson hat.
Once [Donald] Trump came around, I decided that’s not the Republican that I am.
— Janeene Carrillo
In Phoenix, Carrillo ditched acting after the double gut punch of a cousin’s murder and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks made her feel that government was too lax on “bad guys.” She volunteered for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department and helped to process passports, realizing that “a lot of people need a voice because they don’t have it.”
The divisions that surfaced in the 2016 election made her ditch the GOP, become an independent and get involved in politics.
“Once [Donald] Trump came around, I decided that’s not the Republican that I am,” said Carrillo, who is “into hearing both sides.”
She voted for Joe Biden in 2020 and plans to vote for Kamala Harris this year out of distaste for Trump’s “disrespect” toward military veterans.
“And I really got passionate about the right and the wrong, and how some [politicians] can get away with things, especially when running for president, you know?” she said.
Carrillo worked as a town clerk to learn the mechanics of local government, then unsuccessfully applied for an open council seat in 2021. The following year, she beat an incumbent.
“We needed something different — someone new, someone younger,” Carrillo responded when I asked why she won. “I felt like I’m looking at Clifton, like I’m on new ground. Because I never lived here as an adult, I can see what’s wrong, what’s broken. I can see the faults. I can see the patterns and what Clifton needs.”
What does her hometown need?
“There’s always talk about how the mine is probably only going to be working until maybe 2045,” she said. “And I don’t want Clifton to be dependent on the mine.”
She mentioned bringing in national chains — an Old Navy, a Target, even a Boston Market — so people don’t have to drive to Safford or beyond for necessities, and a truck stop to take advantage of the traffic that passes through. The jobs and revenue would allow Clifton to offer more municipal services, such as youth sports.
The problem, she said, is that no one outside Clifton pays attention to it.
In Clifton, Ariz., the median household income is $78,862, fueled by a boom in mining jobs, while the cost of living has remained low. The open–pit copper mine in nearby Morenci, shown in 2004, is a major employer.
(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
“On the news, when they’re doing the weather, they totally ignore us,” she said, frowning. “All they say is, ‘Oh, precipitation is moving to the east,’ but they don’t say the name. And I’m like, ‘Why don’t they say our name?’”
This erasure also applies to Clifton’s miners, I pointed out. The archetypal American miner nowadays is from Appalachia — Trump rallied with them in West Virginia. The Biden administration, including Harris as vice president, promised to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in moribund coal towns. This year, it announced that Freeport-McMoRan would receive up to $80 million to invest in clean energy to operate the Morenci mine — but none of the money would go directly to towns such as Clifton.
“Latinos have given so much to the mining industry because of the struggles that they have to … overcome,” Carrillo said, describing how Mexicans in the area were once buried apart from whites, and housing segregation existed right up to the 1970s.
“We need our stories told,” she continued. “We need Americans to know what we’ve accomplished — we help build the United States.”
Does discrimination still exist in Clifton? The town is 54% Latino and 38% white.
“Everyone is married with everyone nowadays, and that’s great,” she said with a grin. I looked around Little Frisco, and Carrillo was right. Mixed race couples ate breakfast with their children in tow.
I said I was surprised to not see any presidential campaign posters in town, amid a plethora of local ones.
In 2020, Trump won two-thirds of the vote in Greenlee County while losing Arizona in a squeaker he falsely maintains was stolen. But on the drive to Clifton, I had seen few signs of the county’s red heart — or of national politics at all.
“No one wants to get into feuds,” Carrillo said. “Because you have to be seeing everybody — you know, much more than what you would in the city. I think everyone’s really careful on how they display who they’re voting for.”
Carrillo attributed the local support for Trump — especially among Latinos — to the overtures he has made to the mining industry.
But she thinks the Biden administration’s investment in the Morenci mine may help Harris make inroads in Greenlee County this year.
“They’re seeking a candidate who supports” the hometown’s livelihood, Carrillo said.
A billboard promoting the Greenlee County Democratic Party near the unincorporated community of Three Way, Ariz. In 2020, Donald Trump won two-thirds of the vote in Greenlee County while losing Arizona.
(Gustavo Arellano / Los Angeles Times)
After taking some photos at a historic bridge spanning the San Francisco River, we drove up U.S. Route 191 to Metcalf, where my grandmother was born. Beyond a gate was a hill as tall as a high-rise building — turned into a dump for the Morenci mine in the 1930s. Somewhere underneath the detritus was the town, buried and abandoned.
I texted a photo to some of my cousins with the note, “Somos de aquí.”
We’re from here.
Suddenly, a Greenlee County sheriff’s vehicle made a U-turn, flashed its lights and drove directly toward us.
“Everything all right here?” Deputy Daniel Medina asked as he got out of his car. “There was a crash here recently, so I want to make sure you guys were OK.”
The name sounded familiar.
“Hey, you’re running for sheriff — I saw your signs!” I exclaimed, identifying myself as a reporter.
He smiled, greeted Carrillo, excused himself and drove off.
I soon left Clifton as well, taking winding back roads toward my next stop. Signs for Medina and his opponents were everywhere. For Harris or Trump?
None.
new video loaded: Jan. 6 Rioter Hired by Pentagon
transcript
transcript
Jan. 6 Rioter Hired by Pentagon
Elias Irizarry, who pleaded guilty to climbing through a broken window at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, now works for an office responsible for uncovering and defending against terrorism plots at the Pentagon.
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“Full pardon or commutation?” “Full pardon.”
By Alisa Shodiyev Kaff
June 4, 2026
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Democrats splintered over a resolution seeking to block the U.S. from assisting Israel’s war against Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed terrorist group, on Thursday.
The measure, offered by progressive Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., would require President Donald Trump to withdraw U.S. forces from Lebanon. For months, Israel and Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated terrorist group and Iranian proxy, have been at war in southern Lebanon, but the United States has not joined the conflict.
A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., rejected the measure. Critics argued the resolution could aid Hezbollah and potentially hamstring U.S. military operations in the country.
Tlaib’s resolution failed 92-324, with more than half of House Democrats joining nearly all Republicans to vote it down.
The Lebanon war powers resolution divided Democrats, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., joining Republicans in rejecting the measure. (Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg)
REP RASHIDA TLAIB MOVES TO BLOCK US OPERATIONS IN LEBANON BUT IGNORES HEZBOLLAH
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., an Israel critic, was the lone Republican to support Tlaib’s measure. Meanwhile, Reps. Derek Tran, D-Calif., and Betty McCollum, D-Minn., voted present.
House Democratic leaders said shortly before the vote they would oppose Tlaib’s resolution and work with the progressive lawmaker on a narrower measure exempting some U.S. military operations in the country. Their statement also denounced Hezbollah as a “violent terrorist organization” and a “sworn enemy of the United States.”
Tlaib, who has accused Israel of committing “ethnic cleansing” in Lebanon, did not mention Hezbollah in her resolution. She and other proponents of the measure also avoided discussing the Iranian proxy force during heated floor debate over the measure.
Republicans highlighted the omission and accused the legislation’s supporters of serving as “proxies for Hezbollah.”
“Apparently they don’t want to see Israel killing Hezbollah, even though it’s Hezbollah that is killing Israeli children, Israeli adults, Israeli elders,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., said Wednesday, referring to his Democratic colleagues.
Tlaib asserted that her resolution would only affect U.S. forces actively engaged in hostilities. Republicans, however, disputed that claim and suggested it would hurt U.S. efforts to counter Hezbollah.
“It doesn’t say anything about [whether] you can keep the Marines that are in the embassy,” Mast said, referring to the U.S. embassy in Beirut. “That’s a pretty big oversight. It doesn’t say anything about whether we can keep United States armed forces that are training missions with the LAF [Lebanese Armed Forces]. Again, pretty big oversight.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from Michigan, attempted to bar U.S. forces from joining Israel’s war in Lebanon. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg)
RASHIDA TLAIB HIT WITH HOUSE CENSURE THREAT, ACCUSED OF ‘CELEBRATING TERRORISM’ IN PRO-PALESTINIAN SPEECH
The debate turned personal when Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, linked Tlaib to Hezbollah.
“Hezbollah is a terrorist organization … and its members are butchers that you like to hang out with to a certain extent,” the Ohio lawmaker said, referring to Tlaib.
A shouting match between the two then broke out, with Tlaib demanding that Miller’s remarks be stricken from the record.
The presiding chair ultimately complied with her request, but Miller doubled down on his remarks.
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“Yes, I said it. I own it, and I stand by it,” Mast said on behalf of Miller on the floor.
Tlaib’s failed war powers resolution comes as Iran has sought to tie Israel’s invasion of Lebanon to its ceasefire negotiations with the United States.
Hezbollah, which has long helped Iran project power in the region, rejected a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon’s government Thursday.
WASHINGTON — Initial efforts in the Senate failed Thursday to block the $1.8-billion fund that the Trump administration has sought to establish to pay people who claim the government wronged them, though further attempts were likely to come Thursday afternoon.
Republicans narrowly voted down a Democratic amendment to ban the payout fund and then Democrats killed a Republican amendment, which would have prohibited the use of federal money for the fund but would have sent $1.7 billion to the Justice Department’s fraud division.
It was the second effort in Congress to rebuke President Trump in two days, following the House vote Wednesday to rein in Trump’s war powers in Iran.
The dueling amendments were proposed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). They were attached to the reconciliation bill that would fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol, a high priority for Republicans.
The votes came as the Senate began a “vote-a-rama,” during which lawmakers were expected to propose a stream of amendments to the immigration bill on various topics.
The Trump administration’s plan for the payment fund — widely seen as a way for Trump to compensate his political allies, including those who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol — set off particular ire from some GOP lawmakers.
The plan has fueled growing unrest within parts of Trump’s party over his governance, compounded by the president’s endorsement of primary challengers to Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.), as well as Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), which angered some Republican senators.
Cassidy, who lost his primary and has since voiced strong opposition to Trump’s $1.8-billion fund, became a key player in the Thursday votes, voting down Schumer’s amendment but supporting Tillis’.
On Wednesday, Cassidy joined with Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) to argue in a court filing that the $1.8-billion fund circumvents Congress’ authority and violates the Constitution’s spending and appropriations clauses.
“It is an unconstitutional attempt to spend the People’s money without Congressional approval,” Cassidy and Booker wrote in an amicus brief filed in the federal court case challenging the fund.
The fund was created by the Justice Department to settle a lawsuit brought by Trump against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns. Trump and his sons agreed to drop their personal lawsuit against the government in exchange for the creation of the $1.776-billion fund. Critics immediately questioned the plan, and it drew a rare backlash from Republicans.
In late May, GOP senators derailed plans to vote on the immigration bill over their displeasure with the payout fund and with Trump’s desire to use taxpayer funds for his planned White House ballroom. Senate Republicans removed the ballroom funding from the immigration package Wednesday, another setback for Trump.
The Trump administration sought to back away from its plans for the fund this week, following bipartisan outcry and a federal court ruling that temporarily blocked any payouts from the fund. Acting Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche said Tuesday the administration would end its plans to move ahead with the concept.
But Trump on Wednesday told reporters he didn’t know whether the fund was dead, calling it “a beautiful thing.”
After Schumer proposed the first amendment to ban the fund Thursday morning, the Senate came to a standstill as three key Republican senators deliberated. Schumer framed his effort to ban the fund Thursday as a way to force a referendum on Trump’s plan.
The amendment “offers Republicans a choice: Do you support Donald Trump’s $2 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund, or do you want to protect the American people and their paychecks?” Schumer said on the Senate floor before the vote.
Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) urged Republicans to reject the amendment, saying Democrats were planning to “play so many games” on Thursday during the marathon session.
“We are going to fund immigration enforcement and border patrol, and I urge my Republican colleagues to stay united on that singular mission,” Moreno said.
The amendment failed after Cassidy voted against it. Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Jon Husted of Ohio and Dan Sullivan of Alaska voted in favor.
Schumer’s amendment was uniformly supported by Democrats, including California Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla.
Tillis, who also voted against Schumer’s amendment, immediately proposed his amendment. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) urged Democrats to oppose it, saying that the proposal would create “a new slush fund” by giving the money to the Justice Department.
“We heard over the last 48 hours that the acting attorney general said that this fund’s not moving forward. All this amendment does is codify what I believe the policy of the DOJ is,” Tillis said on the floor before voting began on his amendment. “This [fund] is unpopular, this administration has said they’re not moving forward with it; this is an opportunity for us to put it to bed.”
Responded Merkley: “Taking one slush fund and eliminating it and then creating a new slush fund still under control of the attorney general is not the way to go. The way to go is to get rid of these slush funds altogether.”
Trump has faced a recent string of failures, including the House vote Wednesday, a court ruling to remove his name from the Kennedy Center and a record-low approval rating among Americans as concern rises about economic issues, gas prices and Trump’s war with Iran.
On Wednesday, Trump lashed out against the four Republicans who backed the House war powers resolution, calling it “an unpatriotic thing” to do and calling the vote “meaningless.”
“They’re GRANDSTANDERS! They should be ashamed of themselves. MAGA!!! President DJT,” Trump wrote.
Times staff writer Ana Ceballos, in Washington, contributed to this report.
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