PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that a bill that would allow local police to make arrests near the state’s border with Mexico will be on the Nov. 5 ballot for voters to decide.

This is the biggest push to involve local authorities in immigration control since the state passed a groundbreaking law in 2010 requiring police to question people’s immigration status in certain situations.

The court late Tuesday afternoon dismissed a lawsuit brought by Latino groups that argued the ballot proposal violated a rule in the state constitution that says legislative proposals must cover a single subject. In an order written by Chief Justice Ann A. Scott Timmer, the state’s highest court concluded that the proposal met the single-subject rule.

If voters approve the proposal, known as Proposition 314, it would make crossing the Arizona-Mexico border anywhere other than at ports of entry a federal crime. State and local police officers would have the power to arrest lawbreakers and state judges could order people to return to their home country.

It would also make selling fentanyl that results in a person’s death a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and would require some government agencies to use a federal database to verify noncitizens’ eligibility for welfare benefits. The proposal will go before voters in a state expected to play a crucial role in deciding which party controls the White House and the U.S. Senate. Republicans hope it will draw attention to the border and blunt the political gains Democrats hope to gain from a ballot bill on abortion rights.

Opponents had argued that the proposal addressed the unrelated issues of immigration control, the fentanyl crisis and the regulation of public services. A lower court had previously rejected these arguments.

Although federal law already prohibits migrants from entering the U.S. without authorization, supporters of the measure say it is necessary because the federal government has not done enough to stop people from entering illegally through Arizona’s porous border with Mexico. They also said some people who enter Arizona without authorization commit identity theft and use public benefits. Opponents say the proposal would lead to ethnic profiling, damage Arizona’s reputation in the business community and create huge unfunded costs for police departments that are not normally responsible for enforcing immigration laws.

In early June, the Republican-dominated legislature voted to put the bill to a vote, bypassing Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs, who had vetoed a similar bill in early March and condemned efforts to put the issue before voters.

This is not the first time Republican lawmakers in Arizona have tried to criminalize migration.

When the Arizona legislature passed its immigration bill in 2010, it considered expanding the trespassing law to criminalize the presence of immigrants and impose criminal penalties. But the trespassing language was removed and replaced with a requirement that officials enforcing other laws must question the immigration status of people believed to be in the country illegally.

The survey requirement was ultimately upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court despite critics’ concerns about racial discrimination, but enforcement of other parts of the law was barred. Earlier this week, the Arizona Secretary of State’s office said that supporters of a proposal to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution had collected enough signatures to put the proposal on a vote in November. If passed, abortions would be allowed until a fetus can survive outside the womb, usually about 24 weeks, with exceptions to save the mother’s life or protect her physical or mental health. Abortions are currently legal in Arizona during the first 15 weeks of pregnancy.

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