Republicans in the Arizona house succeeded in unanimously passing their immigration ballot measure on Tuesday that would authorize the arrest and deportation of illegal immigrants who unlawfully cross the Arizona–Mexico border outside of the state’s officially designated ports of entry, effectively making illegal immigration a state crime.

The Arizona house passed the measure with a partisan split of 31–29 after it advanced in the state senate last month, also along party lines. Dissatisfied with the Biden administration’s lenient border policies, Republicans argue the legislation is necessary for the state government to curb record levels of illegal immigration itself. On the other hand, Democrats claim it would only lead to racial profiling of immigrants and U.S. citizens.

Now that the bill has been passed, it will go straight to the state’s ballot in November instead of being sent to Democratic governor Katie Hobbs’s desk. Notably, Hobbs cannot veto the measure if it’s approved by voters. She vetoed a similar bill in March.

H.C.R. 2060, otherwise known as the Secure the Border Act, is based on Texas’s S.B. 4, which also empowers state law enforcement to arrest illegal immigrants and local judges to deport them.

The Texas law has been put on hold pending appeal, which could spell trouble for the ballot proposal if Texas doesn’t prevail in lawsuits filed by the federal government and the American Civil Liberties Union. If passed by voters, the proposal wouldn’t become enforceable until 60 days after the Texas law takes effect.

H.C.R. 2060 features other provisions beyond S.B. 4, such as making it a crime to present false documents when applying for public benefits or a job and strengthening penalties for criminals who sell fentanyl that leads to the death of another person.

Prior to the start of the legislative session, Republicans closed access to the upper gallery of the legislative chamber, citing security concerns and possible disruptions from the public. The move was made after activists for Living United for Change in Arizona, a pro-immigration advocacy group, protested during the Arizona senate’s vote on the resolution. Nonetheless, this angered Democrats, who demanded that the gallery be re-opened to Arizonans.

“The public gallery should be open to the public. This is the people’s House,” said Democratic state representative Analise Ortiz.

Following Tuesday’s vote, Arizona Republicans in the senate congratulated their colleagues for passing the bill that the upper chamber advanced two weeks earlier. In a statement, Republican senate president Warren Petersen criticized President Joe Biden for announcing new restrictions on asylum requests earlier in the day.

“As soon as Joe Biden took office, he rolled out the welcome mat for illegal crossings and criminal activity,” Petersen said. “Now, just months away from an election, he issues yet another executive order so that we’ll all of a sudden believe he cares about the chaos he’s constructed. The citizens of this state aren’t buying it, and they will take border security matters into their own hands this November.”

Biden’s new executive order directs Customs and Border Protection to close the border between officially designated ports of entry when the average number of daily crossings surpasses 2,500 over a week-long period. After the asylum shutdown takes effect, the border can’t be reopened until two weeks after it is determined that average crossings have dropped below 1,500 for seven consecutive days.

The president’s order falls under the Immigration and Nationality Act, which authorizes the suspension of entries for immigrants if they’re deemed “detrimental” to the national interest.