by Staff Reporter | Jan 30, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Over 7,300 illegal aliens have been deported in President Donald Trump’s first week in office, per the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
DHS published this latest dataset on Monday. Following Trump’s inauguration, DHS and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began posting daily updates with immigration enforcement totals.
DHS reported that among these 7,300 apprehensions were “hundreds of convicted criminals” for crimes such as sexual assault and rape, robbery, burglary, aggravated assault and battery, drugs and weapons offenses, domestic violence, suspected terrorism, firearms trafficking, kidnapping, vehicular manslaughter, driving while impaired, and possession of an illegal substance.
This latest update follows the Senate’s confirmation of South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem last Saturday as Trump’s DHS secretary.
“Ensuring Americans’ safety and securing the border is President Trump’s and Secretary Noem’s top priority,” stated DHS.
DHS also reported that their novel implementation of deportation flights returned many of these detained illegal aliens to Mexico, Jordan, Brazil, and El Salvador.
In remarks made Monday during the House GOP’s annual Congressional Institute conference, Trump declared his administration’s use of military planes for deportations marked a historic approach to U.S. immigration enforcement.
“For the first time in history, we are locating and loading illegal aliens into military aircraft and flying them back to the places from which they came — and made clear to every country they will be taking back their people,” said Trump.
Per data provided by ICE in their daily enforcement updates, as of Monday there were over 3,500 arrests and 2,650 detainers lodged since Trump took office.
Under Trump, immigration and law enforcement officials have also begun “enhanced targeted operations” on major hotspots for illegal aliens. On Sunday, ICE announced a partnership on such an operation with the FBI, ATF, DEA, CBP, and Marshals Service to enforce immigration law in Chicago, Illinois.
“For the record: targeted enforcement operations are planned arrests of known criminal aliens who threaten national security or public safety,” stated ICE.
Chicago considers itself a “sanctuary city.” Chicago and other cities which adopted this status are now under investigation by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, per a letter sent to local leaders on Monday. Other sanctuary cities named in that letter were New York City, New York; Denver, Colorado; and Boston, Massachusetts.
Although Phoenix declined years ago to declare itself a sanctuary city officially, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego maintains a position similar to those maintained by sanctuary city leaders. Last November, in the weeks following Trump’s election, Gallego declared that no city resources would be used for mass deportation efforts.
“I can say without equivocation that as long as I’m mayor, Phoenix will not use its police department—or any city resources whatsoever—to assist in mass deportation efforts by the Trump Administration,” said Gallego in a statement to Arizona’s Family.
Phoenix Police Department policy set years ago requires sergeant approval prior to contacting ICE.
Reportedly, Phoenix city leaders plan to meet privately for legal advice on the Trump administration’s immigration policies. The Department of Justice issued a three-page memo last week directing U.S. attorneys to investigate any state and local officials who refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement.
“Federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing, and otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands or requests,” read the memo from acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove.
The Trump administration put in a workaround to these refusals by major cities on immigration enforcement. Several days after Trump’s inauguration, then-acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman issued an internal memo granting immigration enforcement authority to law enforcement agents throughout various agencies, as reported exclusively by The Wall Street Journal.
Days later, the Phoenix office of the DEA announced its partnership with the DOJ and DHS in carrying out illegal alien apprehensions. Like its federal peers, the Phoenix DEA has taken to posting about their work with greater frequency since their Sunday announcement of a federal partnership.
Like Phoenix city leadership, Tucson’s city leaders vowed in a press release to not participate in any federal immigration enforcement efforts.
In his first week in office, Trump’s administration also ended the CBP One app enabling illegal entry into the border, and repealed ex-Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ memo limiting ICE agents.
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by Staff Reporter | Jan 29, 2025 | Education, News
By Staff Reporter |
The Phoenix Union High School District (PXU) passed a resolution declaring its right to refuse entry to federal immigration officials on school grounds.
During a special meeting last Friday, the PXU Governing Board unanimously passed its “Safe Zone Resolution” which designated PXU as a “Safe Zone.”
Under this “Safe Zone” designation, the governing board claimed, PXU officials reserve the right to deny Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) entry to any campus.
The governing board required ICE — as well as any state or local law enforcement agencies acting for ICE — to submit a request to Superintendent Thea Andrade or her designee for review. PXU asserted that Andrade or her designee had the authority to review whether each requested instance of campus access by immigration enforcement would be permitted by law or would require a judicial warrant.
Similarly, PXU required immigration enforcement agents to go through Andrade’s office to request student information.
PXU further claimed in its resolution that their district doesn’t maintain any data relating to students’ immigration status, characterizing the distinction as “potentially discriminatory” and “irrelevant” to education. The district declared that all students “regardless of immigration status” had a right to free public K-12 classrooms, even claiming that illegal alien minors had “other legal grounds for presence” in the country. The district resolution didn’t clarify what those were.
“[F]ederal immigration law enforcement activities, on or around District property and transportation routes, whether by surveillance, interview, demand for information, arrest, detention, or any other means, harmfully disrupt the learning environment to which all students, regardless of immigration status, are entitled and significantly interfere with the ability of all students, including U.S. citizen students and students who hold other legal grounds for presence in the U.S., to access a free public K-12 education,” stated the resolution.
The resolution was submitted before the board for approval by PXU general counsel, Eileen D. Fernandez.
Fernandez formerly served as the associate general counsel for Orange County Public Schools from 2010 to 2021.
The Trump administration has already indicated its intent to bring accountability to those who hinder immigration enforcement efforts.
The day after Trump’s inauguration last week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued an internal memo warning that all laws and actions “that threaten to impede” the Trump administration’s immigration initiatives were to be considered threats to public safety and national security.
The DOJ directed its Civil Division within the Office of the Associate Attorney General to identify and take legal action against state and local laws, policies, and activities serving as noncompliance to the Trump administration’s immigration initiative.
That memo also launched investigations into state or local law enforcement officials believed to be interfering with immigration enforcement.
“[I]n the absence of unusual facts, prosecutorial discretion at the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Offices is bounded by the core principle that prosecutors should charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offenses,” stated the memo from Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove.
Bove’s memo declared that all state and local actors were required by the Constitution and federal law to comply with Trump’s immigration enforcement initiatives. The DOJ said that noncompliance would trigger federal investigations and, likely, prosecutions.
“Federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing, and otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands and requests pursuant to, for example, the President’s extensive Article II authority with respect to foreign affairs and national security, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the Alien Enemies Act,” stated the memo.
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by Staff Reporter | Jan 28, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Constituents of the seventh congressional district are calling on their congressman, Rep. Raúl Grijalva, to retire from office due to his failing to show up for key votes this session.
Per House Clerk records, Grijalva hasn’t cast a vote on legislation this session yet. His last vote was for Hakeem Jeffries for House Speaker at the start of this month.
Critics of Grijalva’s continued absence in the House pointed out how Grijalva urged former President Joe Biden to drop out of last year’s presidential race.
House Clerk records also show that Grijalva last cast votes in November 2024 during the second session of the last Congress. There were nearly 40 roll call votes taken that second session, during which Grijalva was registered as “not voting.”
Grijalva sat on the committees for Education and Workforce, and Natural Resources. The congressman stepped down from his leadership position in the latter last month. Grijalva entered Congress in 2003.
Grijalva’s lack of presence in Congress is attributable to his lung cancer diagnosis, which he announced last April. Despite undergoing cancer treatments, Grijalva committed to running another term — his final, he promised.
Last October, Cronkite News reported that Grijalva didn’t cast any votes since mid-February, several months before he announced his cancer diagnosis. Those missed votes amounted to over 300.
Altogether, Grijalva missed about 480 out of the 490 roll call votes from mid-February through last week. As Arizona Daily Star columnist and constituent Tim Steller pointed out, that amounts to 97 percent of voting opportunities missed.
Grijalva told KOLD at the time that his failing to vote made no difference in Congress.
“They’re inconsequential because the Republicans are in charge and it’s the worst performing Congress in decades, if not a hundred years,” said Grijalva.
This session, Grijalva has missed out on 25 key votes on 19 pieces of legislation:
- House Resolution 5: Adopting the Rules of the House of Representatives for the One Hundred Nineteenth Congress, and for other purposes
- House Resolution 29: The Laken Riley Act
- House Resolution 23: Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act
- House Resolution 192: Amtrak Executive Bonus Disclosure Act
- House Resolution 152: Federal Disaster Assistance Coordination Act
- House Resolution 153: Post-Disaster Assistance Online Accountability Act
- House Resolution 28: Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act
- House Resolution 164: POWER Act
- House Resolution 144: Tennessee Valley Authority Salary Transparency Act
- House Resolution 33: To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide special rules for the taxation of certain residents of Taiwan with income from sources within the United States
- House Resolution 30: Preventing Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act
- House Resolution 186: Hershel “Woody” Williams National Medal of Honor Monument Location Act
- House Resolution 187: MAPWaters Act
- House Resolution 53: Providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 471) the Fix Our Forests Act; and providing for consideration of the bill (S. 5) the Laken Riley Act
- House Resolution 165: Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial and Sacred Site Act
- Senate Bill 5: Laken Riley Act
- House Resolution 375: Continued Rapid Ohia Death Response Act
- House Resolution 471: Fix Our Forests Act
- House Resolution 21: Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act
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by Staff Reporter | Jan 23, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Attorney General Kris Mayes signed onto a lawsuit with other Democratic attorneys general against President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship.
Mayes called the order “unconstitutional” in a press release published Tuesday.
“No executive order can supersede the United States Constitution and over 150 years of settled law,” said Mayes. “While President Trump may want to take this nation back to a time before all American citizens were treated equally under the law – we will not allow him to do so.”
Mayes defended the modern interpretation of birthright citizenship — which inspired popularity of the pejorative “anchor baby” — as an accurate reading of the Fourteenth Amendment. Mayes cited the 1898 Supreme Court landmark decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark.
In its ruling, the court declared that the defendant, Wong Kim Ark, had obtained citizenship through his birth on U.S. soil to parents who were legally residing in the U.S. but not citizens, and that those subject to U.S. jurisdiction apply to all domiciled within the country. The ruling remains precedent.
“Every person born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, becomes at once a citizen of the United States, and needs no naturalization,” ruled the court.
Mayes’ lawsuit against the Trump administration estimated there were about 255,000 children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrant mothers and about 153,000 children born to illegal immigrant parents in 2022. In Arizona that year, the lawsuit reported those numbers to be around 6,000 children born to illegal immigrant mothers and around 3,400 children born to illegal immigrant parents. Based on those latest totals, the lawsuit estimated that there are over 12,000 children born to illegal immigrants every month throughout the nation.
Additionally, Mayes’ lawsuit argued that the end to birthright citizenship for children born to illegal immigrant parents would harm Arizona and other states because they would lose federal funding.
Joining Arizona in this lawsuit against the Trump administration in the Washington Western District Court are Washington, Illinois, and Oregon.
The lawsuit is a separate one from another joint lawsuit filed earlier this week in the Massachusetts District Court by 18 states, along with Washington, D.C. and both the city and county of San Francisco: New Jersey, Massachusetts, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
In his executive order, “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” Trump asserted that the Fourteenth Amendment never interpreted the extension of citizenship universally to all born within the U.S., highlighting the provision excluding those “not subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”
Those that lack subjection to U.S. jurisdiction, the order says, include any individual whose mother was unlawfully present in the country and whose father wasn’t a citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of their birth, or; any individual whose mother’s presence in the country at the time of their birth was lawful but temporary, and whose father wasn’t a citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of their birth. For the latter case, “lawful but temporary” means those eligible to reside in the country under the Visa Waiver Program or those visiting on a student, work, or tourist visa.
The executive order is not retroactive. The order only applies to those born 30 days after the order’s issuance: February 19, 2025.
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by Staff Reporter | Jan 21, 2025 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Congressman Andy Biggs is planning to run for Arizona governor, per a statement of intent filed on Tuesday.
The 2026 gubernatorial race may be a showdown between a veteran lawmaker known for challenging the D.C. status quo and the Biden administration, and the state’s first Democratic leader in over a decade, Governor Katie Hobbs.
Biggs, a longtime member and former chair of the House Freedom Caucus, has made his mark in Congress as a fiscally conservative hardliner. This was made especially clear during the pandemic, when other Republicans unified with Democrats time and again on increasing spending to offset emergency government mandates which crippled the economy.
Biggs was just one of the only two representatives to vote against the $8 billion for COVID-19 pandemic aid in early March of 2020. The congressman remarked in a public statement at the time that President Donald Trump had requested a fraction of that “bloated” amount ($2 billion) to fund a federal response to the outbreak.
Biggs’ assessment of the political climate at the time — issued exactly a week before Trump declared a national emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic — ultimately proved a wise warning unheeded:
“Throwing money at a potentially serious issue does not alleviate the American people’s concerns. Nor does politicizing the issue to score points for future elections,” said Biggs. “Congressional Republicans and Democrats should join the White House to calmly, wisely, and pro-actively communicate a unified response to their constituents. We must rise to the occasion and do what is best for this situation – as well as for future generations.”
Biggs was also one of only a few dozen who voted against the $15 billion Families First Coronavirus Response Act passed days later.
In all, the federal government spent $4.6 trillion on COVID-19.
Biggs would continue to oppose efforts to mitigate unchecked spending. In 2023, Biggs fought against Congress’ plan to raise the debt ceiling.
Biggs’ other key votes included his opposition to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2022, in large part on the basis of since-removed provisions requiring women to register for the draft.
The congressman has consistently supported legislation to close and prioritize the U.S. border over aid to foreign countries’ military efforts. Consistent with his dedication to securing American interests first, Biggs has consistently voted against the billions in funding afforded to Ukraine under the Biden administration.
In 2021, that first year of the border crisis, Biggs sponsored a resolution to impeach then-Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. In subsequent years, Biggs signed onto several efforts to impeach former President Joe Biden as well as former Attorney General Merrick Garland.
During his eight years in Congress, Biggs has sponsored over 900 bills and cosponsored nearly 1,300 bills.
Only one of Biggs’ bills has passed Congress, made it to the president’s desk, and became law: HR 4983, designating the Department of Veterans Affairs community-based outpatient clinic in Gilbert as the Staff Sergeant Alexander W. Conrad Veterans Affairs Health Clinic.
35 of Biggs’ cosponsored bills made it to the president’s desk. Three were vetoed, and 32 became law.
This session, Biggs has introduced over 80 proposed bills on a wide scope of red-meat Republican issues to strengthen and enforce immigration laws, modify individual health coverage requirements, restrict executive national emergency authority, prohibit vaccine and mask mandates, roll back foreign intelligence surveillance, require greater performance measures from various agencies, tie congressional salaries to budgeting agreements, pull back on various agencies’ spending or authority, abolish certain agencies, expand veteran care options, undo spying on Americans, simplify congressional bills, eliminate DEI funding in federal government, expand oil and gas production, ban abortion, and establish school choice, to name a few.
Biggs currently sits on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and Committee on the Judiciary.
Other declared Republicans who filed statements of interest: Christopher Ames, Scott Neely, and George Nicholson. One declared Libertarian, Barry Hess, filed a statement of interest.
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