Adelita Grijalva and Daniel Butierez debate ICE, healthcare and water in CD7

Rep. Adelita Grijalva and Republican challenger Daniel Butierez Sr. debated immigration enforcement, healthcare funding and Arizona’s water future in a Clean Elections Commission debate Wednesday.

The two are vying to represent Arizona’s 7th Congressional District, a border-spanning seat that stretches from Yuma and San Luis to Tucson, Nogales and Douglas across southern Arizona.

Immigration shows widest disagreements between the candidates

Grijalva, who won a 2025 special election to succeed her late father, longtime Rep. Raúl Grijalva, in the seat he held for more than two decades, called for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), describing the agency as “completely, fundamentally corrupt.”

“When you look at what has happened in our communities and the lawlessness of this agency, there is no reform,” she said in the Clean Elections Commission debate.

Butierez said ICE should remain as law enforcement agency and urged Congress to pass the bipartisan Dignity Act, a bill he said would protect long-term residents from deportation.

“We don’t go over and attack ICE. We don’t protest ICE. We go to Washington and we rewrite the laws to improve it,” he argued.

Both candidates agreed that comprehensive immigration reform has stalled for decades, though they blamed different forces.

Grijalva pointed to private prison money flowing to political campaigns. Butierez said career politicians have no incentive to solve the problem.

On healthcare, the exchange turned personal

Butierez revealed that his son-in-law is battling cancer and that his family temporarily lost Medicaid coverage during a re-verification process, he said was aimed at combating $2.5 billion in fraud.

“She said, ‘they’re just not answering me,’” Butierez said of his daughter’s attempts to restore coverage.

“I had some connections, I made some phone calls and U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs wound up calling some people and within two days my daughter had it, but not everybody has those connections.”

Grijalva warned that 300,000 Arizonans are at risk of losing coverage and that St. Mary’s hospital in Tucson may close after November because of federal funding cuts tied to the Trump administration’s tax policy.

“We’re looking at St. Mary’s, a main hospital in the middle of Tucson, is considering closure after November because we’ve seen some cuts, but coincidentally, the main cuts to healthcare come after the midterms,” Grijalva said. “We will have cuts in access, Medicare and Medicaid, and those will be devastating for our communities.”

She advocated for universal healthcare and expanded preventive care.

Water policy drew the closest alignment between the two candidates

Both criticized the data center industry’s water demands, with Butierez insisting companies build water treatment facilities before construction begins.

Grijalva called a proposed 14% cut to Arizona’s Colorado River allocation inequitable and praised local conservation gains, noting the state uses the same amount of water it did in the 1950s despite adding 750,000 homes.

The general election is Nov. 3.

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