by Staff Reporter | Apr 8, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Republican lawmakers are challenging Pima County over its resolution to prevent federal immigration enforcement from using county property.
House and Senate leadership filed a complaint with Attorney General Kris Mayes on Monday requesting an SB1487 Investigation. There is only one other active complaint under this designation, relating to a similar regulation prohibiting federal immigration enforcement activity on city property passed by the city of Phoenix.
In February, Pima County adopted a resolution, “Protecting County-Owned Properties,” prohibiting county departments, agencies, and employees from giving federal officials access to county buildings without a court warrant. The policy also barred departments, agencies, and employees from voluntarily assisting, facilitating, or cooperating with immigration enforcement.
The policy also prohibited county property from being used for staging areas, processing locations, or operations bases for immigration enforcement. The county defined staging area to include an assembling, mobilization, or deployment of vehicles, equipment, materials, or personnel for immigration enforcement.
Pima County Supervisor Rex Scott told AZPM that federal agents would have to justify themselves to county officials.
“If somebody with an enforceable warrant comes in, wanting to deal with what we’ve heard are the ‘worst of the worst,’ they’re going to be able to do that,” said Scott. “These warrantless, random sweeps that we’ve been seeing around the country are not going to happen on county property.”
Pima County Supervisor Tanya Nunez went a step further. She told KOLD that ICE needed to cease operations entirely.
“It’s a first step, it’s an important step, but it is really just the beginning. We need to have ICE not operate anywhere in our community, not just county property,” said Nunez.
According to the supervisors, the goal of the resolution was to prevent mass deportations and to limit immigration agents to warrant-based actions.
GOP leadership in the legislature say this resolution violates Arizona law prohibiting subdivisions of the state from limiting or restricting the enforcement of federal immigration laws, and the Supremacy Clause included in the Arizona Constitution.
Senate President Warren Petersen called the resolution a “radical” undermining of public safety in a press release.
“We’re seeing Democrat-run local governments put radical political agendas ahead of public safety,” said Petersen. “Instead of supporting law enforcement and protecting their citizens from crime, they’re creating barriers that make it harder to enforce the law and easier for criminals to stay in our communities.”
Senate President Pro Tempore TJ Shope argued these patchwork mandates from municipalities would only undermine law and order.
“This is about making sure our laws are applied consistently across Arizona,” said Shope. “When one county decides to go rogue, it creates gaps that undermine enforcement statewide. Arizonans expect coordination between all levels of government, not policies that tie the hands of law enforcement.”
House Majority Leader John Kavanagh questioned whether Mayes would have an biased approach, given her outspoken criticisms of ICE.
“Given her record and her public opposition to immigration enforcement, there is a serious question about whether she can review this case objectively. This is not a policy debate. The law is clear, and it must be applied,” said Kavanagh.
The city of Phoenix passed a regulation similar to Pima County’s resolution last month.
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by Staff Reporter | Mar 29, 2026 | News
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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by Staff Reporter | Mar 28, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
Protests against President Donald Trump over his mass deportation policies are scheduled to take over the streets across dozens of Arizona cities this weekend.
The protests were coordinated through the national “No Kings” organization. “No Kings” refers to the belief that Trump has overreached in his powers, much like a monarchy, based on the drastic increase in federal immigration enforcement actions. The organization coordinated protests last spring, summer, and fall.
Over 7 million activists attended over 2,700 protests across the nation during the latest designated No Kings protest day last October.
Last year’s No Kings protests presented problems as some devolved into looting and rioting.
Some who hit the streets under the pretense of protest committed crimes that targeted law enforcement and local businesses.
Activists on the lookout for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have targeted local law enforcement under suspicion of their affiliation with the federal agency. Officers conducting operations and arrests for crimes other than immigration have faced off against violent rioters attempting to disrupt what they believe to be deportation proceedings.
Such was the case in one incident last summer when anti-ICE activists assaulted a Peoria police officer participating in a narcotics raid.
Saturday’s No Kings protests are scheduled to occur in Ajo, Anthem, Apache Junction, Arivaca, Bisbee, Bullhead City, Casas Adobes, Casa Grande, Chandler, Cottonwood, Douglas, Flagstaff, Florence, Fountain Hills, Gilbert, Glendale, Globe, Goodyear, Green Valley, Kingman, Lake Havasu City, Marana, Maricopa, Mesa, Nogales, Oro Valley, Patagonia, Payson, Phoenix, Prescott, Quartzsite, Queen Creek, Safford, Sahuarita, Scottsdale, Sedona, Show Low, Sierra Vista, Sun City, Sun City West, Superior, Surprise, Tempe, Tubac, Tucson, Tucson Estates, Vail, Willcox, Winslow, and Yuma.
The No Kings coalition has over 200 partners backing it, including: Accountable.Us, American Federation of Teachers, American Federation of Government Employees, ACLU, Bernie Sanders campaign, College Democrats of America, Freedom From Religion Foundation, Greenpeace, Human Rights Campaign, Indivisible, NextGen America, Planned Parenthood, and Sierra Club.
The primary coordinators behind the initial formation of No Kings were the organizations Indivisible and 50501.
The 50501 movement has a chapter in Arizona, which has a private Facebook group containing over 6,500 members. This chapter’s online administrators include Tucson resident Scott Jackson; Erica Connell, a Phoenix drag performer who goes by the name “Weird Violet”; and Gilbert resident Kristin Clement.
Activists aligned with the 50501 movement attempted to breach the Arizona Capitol last February.
Other local activist organizations have played a role in organizing No Kings protests as well. Among these are the Party for Socialism and Liberation in Phoenix, East Valley Unite AZ, Gilbert Good Trouble, Mesa Valley Indivisible, Rural Arizona Action, Instituto Power, Progress Arizona, LUCHA Arizona, AZ Resistance Front, and United Campus Workers of Arizona.
Earlier this month, anti-ICE activists disrupted proceedings in the Arizona legislature to protest deportations.
In addition to educating illegal aliens on avoiding immigration enforcement, these organizations have encouraged the use of hotlines to report and track the whereabouts of federal agents. One hotline, “Migra Watch,” has dedicated caller hotlines for Phoenix, Flagstaff, Tucson, and rural areas, and a text hotline as well.
Financial data revealed tens of millions of federal dollars flowing into the organizations throwing their support behind No Kings protests.
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by Staff Reporter | Mar 7, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
More is coming to light about the handling of unaccompanied alien children under President Joe Biden’s administration.
Approximately 450,000 unaccompanied alien children were smuggled into the country under the Biden administration and placed with sponsors.
On Tuesday, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that an investigation into the Biden administration found that they paid individuals to act as sponsors for unaccompanied alien children, with the knowledge that those individuals were traffickers.
“So, under that administration, we not only had children that were in this country as a part of a [government] program, [but the] government was paying individuals that were knowingly trafficking them and abusing them. That has stopped,” said Noem.
Noem said their agency has located about 145,000 unaccompanied alien children. Last December, that number was just over 129,000.
Throughout mid-to-late 2024, the Biden administration denied claims that their administration had lost track of over 300,000 unaccompanied alien children. These claims stemmed from a DHS report issued in August 2024. Officials at the time said the lack of knowledge concerning these children’s whereabouts didn’t mean the children were missing.
Last March, the Trump administration announced the discovery of a backlog of over 65,000 reports regarding unaccompanied alien children who came into the country under the Biden administration. By July, HHS processed over 59,000 of those reports; over 4,000 investigative leads on crime emerged from these reports, including for fraud and human trafficking.
Last November, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) issued a report on Biden administration data from 2021 and 2022 revealing Health and Human Services (HHS) lost contact and couldn’t determine the safety status of nearly half of all unaccompanied alien children transferred into sponsor custody. CIS is engaged in multiple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits against HHS to obtain more data on these unaccompanied alien minors under the Biden administration.
That same month, ICE launched an initiative to partner with state and local law enforcement to conduct welfare checks on unaccompanied alien children. DHS asserts that “many” of these unaccompanied alien children were placed with smugglers and sex traffickers acting as sponsors.
Last summer, Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ02) participated in a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing on the Biden administration’s hotline for unaccompanied alien children. Testimony revealed the Biden administration assigned one staffer to man the hotline. There was no information to be found about the number of hours that lone staffer worked.
Ali Hopper, president and founder of GUARD Against Trafficking, alleged in her testimony that from August 2023 to January 2025, 65,000 calls alleging neglect and abuse went unanswered on that hotline.
Approximately one dozen pregnant unaccompanied alien children have been housed in one Texas facility dedicated to their case type since last summer. At least half became pregnant as a result of rape, according to unnamed officials who contacted Texas Public Radio. The youngest among those children are 13.
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by Staff Reporter | Feb 27, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
The Arizona Senate approved legislation to facilitate coordination between law enforcement and federal immigration agents.
SB 1055 passed 16-11, with all Republicans in support and all Democrats against.
The bill requires law enforcement to notify either Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP) immediately following the arrest of an individual who is discovered to be an illegal alien.
The bill sponsor, Sen. Wendy Rogers (R-LD7), says this will give law enforcement the sense of security they deserve to appropriately process individuals with deportation orders. Rogers said her legislation was necessary to support safe neighborhoods and consistent enforcement within public safety.
“When someone is under arrest and unlawfully present in our country, law enforcement should never have to hesitate, second-guess, or worry about whether doing the right thing will jeopardize their career,” said Rogers. “For too long, unclear policies and political pressure have created confusion that undermines public safety and puts officers in an impossible position.”
Given the partisan nature of the bill, it’s highly likely the legislation will die under Gov. Katie Hobbs’ veto pen should it pass the House.
The first to speak against the bill during Monday’s floor vote was Assistant Minority Leader Catherine Miranda (D-LD11). She said the bill wasn’t needed. Miranda discouraged the idea that Arizona law enforcement needs to support ICE in deportation proceedings, since ICE agents were “terrorizing” communities across the nation.
“[SB1055 is] unnecessary and strives to increase fear in communities and empowers all law enforcement to act as ICE agents,” said Miranda.
During the committee hearing on the bill last month, Miranda said she carries all of her sensitive personal documents in her car — her birth certificate, Social Security card, and passport — just in case law enforcement questions her citizenship.
Sen. Sally Ann Gonzales (D-LD20) claimed the bill would cause racial profiling.
“Our communities are already, you know, not feeling well, not wanting to go to work, school, or otherwise because of what is happening in our communities with the federal immigration process that’s happening in and around our communities,” said Gonzales.
Sen. Analise Ortiz (D-LD24) called it an “anti-public safety bill” and “cruel.” Ortiz said the detainment facilities were “death camps.” She opposed the concept of deporting illegal aliens
“It is going to invite a violent, armed paramilitary force to have more unnecessary interactions with our communities,” said Ortiz. “ICE out of Arizona, ICE out of our communities.”
Similarly, Sen. Lauren Kuby (D-LD8) said ICE was too dangerous and relying on poorly trained and violent forces.
Majority Leader John Kavanagh (R-LD3) said it was effective government to have local law enforcement cooperating with federal law enforcement. Kavanagh lamented the likely veto from Hobbs.
“People who are accused of being here illegally need to be brought to justice,” said Kavanagh. “We shouldn’t be trying to hamper [the lawful execution of our laws].”
Sen. Jake Hoffman (R-LD15) reminded his colleagues across the aisle that the bill impacts individuals who were already arrested for committing a crime and in custody.
“It’s absurd that you would not want the criminals who come over illegally removed from this country. Apparently it’s just lawlessness run amok in this chamber. We are hearing [Democrats] advocate for not turning over illegal alien criminals to federal immigration law enforcement,” said Hoffman.
As a response to Democratic lawmakers citing the Minnesota deaths of anti-ICE activists Alexi Pretti and Renee Good, Hoffman read off a handful of the names of individuals murdered by illegal aliens, which prompted an outburst from the audience.
Minority Leader Priya Sundareshan (D-LD18) dismissed Hoffman’s list of victims, saying all illegal aliens who committed those crimes were facing charges unlike the officers involved in the Pretti and Good deaths. Sundareshan took issue that individuals arrested for civil violations, not just criminal violations, may face deportation.
“In this country we are innocent until proven guilty,” said Sundareshan.
Sen. Mitzi Epstein (D-LD12) said this would allow “perfectly innocent” individuals to be arrested and attacked.
“ICE has become an agency of thugs who do not follow the law,” said Epstein. “I am afraid of ICE agents.”
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