AZCIR

Patients file grievances, experts want reforms at Arizona State Hospital

This project was funded in part by support from the Fund for Investigative Journalism. Isaac Contreras lives alone and he says it’s making him sick. He’s got a room and a bathroom to himself, but the ...
Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting

Border Patrol now targeting legal immigrants for ‘carry your papers’ law in southern Arizona

Border Patrol in southern Arizona cited more than 100 people for not carrying their immigration documents in 2025 as part of Trump administration efforts to revive decades-old immigration laws.
AZCIR

Dozens of people died in Arizona sober living homes as state officials fumbled Medicaid fraud response

Arizona officials acknowledged that a fraud scheme targeting Indigenous people with addictions cost taxpayers $2.5 billion. But they haven’t accounted publicly for the number of deaths tied to the ...
AZCIR

State leaders misled public about scope of Medicaid fraud crisis

Carmen Heredia resigned this week as director of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System ahead of a state Senate confirmation hearing. Republican lawmakers had criticized her response to a ...
AZCIR

Groundwater regulation weaknesses exploited by industrial-scale agriculture

ELFRIDA, Ariz. — Elaine Bailey stood at the microphone at the Sunsites Community Center in southeastern Arizona, voice shaking as she described the massive scale of new agricultural development next ...
AZCIR

God-given rights: The nationwide spread of the ‘constitutional sheriff’

Get AZCIR’s latest investigations and updates delivered straight into your inbox, for free. GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Against the background hum of the convention center, Dar Leaf settled into a club ...
AZCIR

Border vigilantes are blurring the lines of law enforcement

This story is a collaboration between the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting and the Texas Observer. It was late afternoon when a small group traveling in a white Ford F-150 approached a ...
AZCIR

Medicaid fraud targeting Indigenous communities continues despite AHCCCS reforms

Nearly three years after Arizona uncovered an unprecedented $2.5 billion Medicaid fraud scandal that targeted Indigenous communities, sober living program operators are still recruiting vulnerable ...
AZCIR

Investors, cannabis corporations acquire more social equity licenses as deadline to open dispensaries looms

As Arizona’s remaining social equity license holders scramble to open marijuana dispensaries before a looming October deadline, private investors and major cannabis corporations have continued to ...
AZCIR

Despite renewed attention, pregnancy and childbirth still deadly across Arizona

Get AZCIR’s latest investigations and updates delivered straight into your inbox, for free. It had been six weeks since Danielle Lerner delivered her second child via cesarean section in April 2019, ...
AZCIR

How AZCIR identified Arizona’s ‘constitutional sheriffs’

Get AZCIR’s latest investigations and updates delivered straight into your inbox, for free. The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) and Protect America Now are the most ...
AZCIR

Corporate marijuana dispensaries flex financial muscle, overtake Arizona’s social equity program

Denzel Mason was halfway through his Friday shift as an assistant manager at Phoenix Relief Center, a marijuana dispensary in southwest Phoenix, when his phone rang with the news. He had spent much of ...