Arizona Dems pissed at Gallego, Kelly for backing MAGA immigration bill

Arizona Democrats were bracing for an anti-immigrant crackdown as President Donald Trump reassumed the White House, which Trump has already begun to deliver. But they weren’t prepared to see the state’s top Democrats bending over backward to help Trump screw over immigrants in Arizona.

On Monday, more than 200 state Democrats sent a letter to Arizona’s most powerful Democrats — Gov. Katie Hobbs, Sens. Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly, and Rep. Greg Stanton — criticizing their support of the Laken Riley Act.

The bill, which has passed both houses of Congress and is now heading to Trump’s desk, requires that federal authorities detain for deportation proceedings any undocumented immigrants accused of crimes as minor as shoplifting. It makes no allowances for due process and no apparent exception for people who were brought to the country as young children.

It’s the kind of bill Democrats would have uniformly rejected in the past, but stinging from November election losses, Arizona’s top Dems apparently feel more collaborative when it comes to harsh immigration measures. Gallego co-sponsored the bill in the Senate, and he and Kelly voted to pass it, helping Republicans overcome a filibuster. Stanton voted for it in the House, and Hobbs tweeted her support of the bill.

To a host of rank-and-file Democrats, many of whom have been in the trenches protecting immigrant rights since the battles around Arizona’s SB 1070, the about-face from their party leaders feels like a betrayal.

“I think it’s a big mistake,” said Kai Newkirk, the co-chair of the Arizona Democratic Party Progressive Council. Newkirk added he was “disappointed and angry” that Gallego, Kelly and Stanton backed the bill.

Spokespersons for Hobbs, Gallego, Kelly and Stanton did not respond to New Times’ request for comment.

The letter calls the Laken Riley Act “but the first step in Trump’s fascist mass deportation effort and escalating assault on our democracy.” It continues, stating, “We cannot effectively resist that attack on our communities if we start abandoning due process and rule of law before he even takes office.”

The letter was signed by many state party leaders and members of the progressive wing of the Arizona Democratic Party. Eight state senators signed it, including Sen. Analise Ortiz and Democratic leader Sen. Priya Sundareshan. Among the 14 state representatives adding their signatures is Rep. Oscar De Los Santos, the House Democratic leader.

Also signing were Anna Hernandez, who will take office on the Phoenix City Council in the spring, and former state Sen. Raquel Terán, who narrowly lost a congressional primary to freshman Rep. Yassamin Ansari. Ansari did not sign the letter but voted against the Laken Riley Act.

Struggling to find footing

Phoenix New Times spoke to several who signed the letter. Many worked hard to get those same Democrats elected to such powerful positions — and in Gallego's case, supported him after becoming disillusioned with his predecessor, Kyrsten Sinema —- only to watch them be taken advantage of by Republicans and Trump.

Ortiz said Gallego and others are allowing Republicans to control the immigration narrative. Democrats, she said, have failed to negotiate in order “to get bills to a place where both sides can somewhat agree.”

“The majority of Americans want a common sense, bipartisan approach to immigration, one that addresses the issues on the border, but also provides a permanent pathway to citizenship,” Ortiz said. “The Laken Riley Act does absolutely nothing to address either of those pieces of the puzzle.”

Hernandez, who has vocally opposed the bill, called Gallego’s support of it “a slap in the face of the Latino community.” Mark Ceniceros, a state committee member who serves on the Littleton Elementary Governing Board, jadedly said he wasn’t surprised that top Democrats would glom on to such a troublesome bill.

“They have made it known that they are very, very supportive of any immigration reform,” Ceniceros said.

Ansari has stopped short of critiquing her congressional colleagues by name, but speaking at a Martin Luther King Day event on Monday, she said normalizing the Trump administration’s policies is “unacceptable.” She thinks Democrats need better a better pitch for Americans on immigration, one that shows “we can have a secure border” and “be pro-immigrant.”

The state’s major Democrats haven’t gone along with everything the Trump administration wants, most notably opposing his executive order that attempts to limit birthright citizenship. But they have adopted more of a “let’s work together” tone. That strategy of allowing Republicans to drive the narrative and “kind of sitting back and taking it” isn’t working, Ansari said.

Newkirk agreed, saying Democrats are “struggling to find their footing” on immigration as an issue after Trump’s win. “We can't let Trump lead us in terms of how we have to change our immigration policy,” he said.

Gallego, Kelly and others may think they’re responding to the desires of voters who took a marked rightward turn in November, but Hernandez thinks that’s misguided. If top Democrats continue to vote in ways that harm communities of color, she said, when subsequent elections roll around, “we are going to continue to lose.”