By Staff Reporter |
The city of Phoenix approved a resolution that will limit Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations despite a warning from Arizona Senate Majority Leader John Kavanaugh (R-LD3) against taking such an action.
The resolution by the Phoenix City Council will effectively prohibit immigration-related law enforcement operations on property owned or controlled by the city. In order for federal law enforcement to do their job, the resolution declares they will need to obtain permission from the city — specifically, Phoenix Police Chief Michael Giordano.
Kavanagh called the resolution “meaningless” in an interview with The Center Square, stating that both Arizona and federal law require cooperation with immigration enforcement. The majority leader accused city of Phoenix leadership of “pandering for votes” disguised as policy.
“ICE is not going to listen to them. They have no control over what ICE does in public places, so they can’t even prevent that,” said Kavanagh.
Even after Kavanagh’s warning, Phoenix City Council voted 8-1 to restrict ICE from using city property in its approved resolution on Wednesday.
“Prohibited uses include, but are not limited to, using City property as a staging area, processing location, or operations base for civil law enforcement actions, unless approved by the City Manager or their designee,” stated the resolution.
Councilmembers said the vote represented their commitment to protecting all Phoenix residents.
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego said mass deportations had no positive impact on public safety were “un-American and shameful.” Gallego accused ICE of violating civil rights and committing crimes.
Last month, Gallego and the city council promised to frustrate federal immigration enforcement efforts in a joint press release. They met with residents and sought counsel to determine a pathway for resisting ICE.
Out of these meetings, city leadership developed a response framework, which included the policy framework to allow a restriction on immigration enforcement activities on city property.
Other aspects of the framework included the city’s decision to employ local law enforcement resources to investigate and prosecute federal immigration enforcement.
The city will create an online public complaint portal to document and track allegations of criminal and civil rights violations by federal immigration enforcement, with the intent to submit the reports as criminal referrals to the attorney general’s office. This portal will be connected to one created by the attorney general.
The city will also collect data on immigration enforcement impacts to businesses and city services such as police, fire, the community assistance program, and the office of accountability and transparency.
Along with the portal, the city will create a website detailing the civil rights that immigrants have and sharing data related to community transparency initiative directives. This site and others, including the complaint portal, will have translation capabilities.
The city will require employees to undergo training on how to respond to federal enforcement actions.
In all these efforts, the city of Phoenix will work closely with the attorney general, Tucson, and Flagstaff, and share information with congressional representatives and community-based organizations.
On Monday ICE agents began assisting TSA agents with processing Phoenix Sky Harbor passengers at security checkpoints.
Most travelers expressed support for the ICE presence.
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