How much should Arizona cops cooperate with ICE?

How much should Arizona cooperate with immigration agents? Legislators can’t figure it out.

Behind the Arizona State House in the Capitol’s Rose Garden on Monday afternoon, legislators from Arizona’s Latino Caucus pushed for a bill to prohibit local law enforcement from engaging in immigration enforcement. Minutes later, more than 150 protesters filled the courtyard between the state House and Senate to advocate against a bill that would mandate cooperation between local enforcement and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to enforce immigration laws.

By mid-afternoon, distant, muffled chants of “Hey, hey! Ho, ho! These racist bills have got to go!” and “Si se puede” were heard in a Senate committee hearing room as the committee chairman’s gavel hit his wooden desk. Discussion of another bill — to lease a closed Arizona prison to the federal government to be used as an immigration detention center — began.

Since President Donald Trump took office in early January, his administration has increased its enforcement of immigration laws through ICE raids and arrests. GOP legislators, such as Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen and Sen. John Kavanagh, have wanted Arizona “to cooperate with the federal government and assist in their endeavor” of mass deportation, Kavanagh said in a committee hearing Monday.

“The federal government is ramping up the enforcement of our immigration laws … and consequently there is anticipated to be a need for detention facilities,” Kavanagh told the Senate Committee on Military Affairs and Border Security. “Arizona could assist by offering the Marana Prison.”

The private prison, which closed in December 2023, was built for 500 inmates and is currently for sale (if you’re looking for your next real estate investment). Through Senate Bill 1264, the state would lease the prison to the federal government to use as an immigration detention facility for $1 a year.

“It’s a win, win, win for Arizona,” Kavanagh said. But before the bill passed out of committee along party lines in a 4-3  vote Monday afternoon, lobbyist Gaelle Esposito brought up concerns on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona.

The bill “lacks meaningful oversight over prison or detainee conditions,” Esposito argued. And because Trump’s federal government has shown “callous disregard for basic constitutional protections, Arizona should not be handing over shuttered facilities without mechanisms to ensure basic due process rights are respected.”

Arizona’s relationship with ICE was the theme of the day at the Legislature on Monday, and Kavanagh’s bill wasn’t the only legislation in the spotlight. Another bill that looks to increase Arizona’s cooperation with ICE was originally also on the Senate Committee on Military Affairs and Border Security’s agenda. And while Senate Bill 1164 — also known as the Arizona ICE Act — was struck from the agenda, opposition to it still came out strong.

The Arizona ICE Act

Pushed by Petersen, the Arizona ICE Act would require county sheriff departments and the Arizona Department of Corrections to enter into contracts with the federal government to enforce immigration laws.

"Ending the border crisis requires an all-hands-on-deck approach,” Petersen said in a Jan. 21 press release announcing the bill. “This commonsense legislation will not only allow federal and local law enforcement to work together to protect our citizens, but it will also prevent government obstruction.”

However, for many pro-immigration advocates and lawmakers, Petersen’s bill reminds them of Arizona’s infamous “show me your papers” law, SB 1070, and former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who terrorized Latino communities with his immigration sweeps.

The sheriff’s office is now barred via federal consent decree from enforcing immigration laws as a result of their unconstitutional policing and racial profiling of the Valley’s Latino community, so the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office might not enforce the Arizona ICE Act. But that doesn’t mean the bill wouldn’t lead to racial profiling and deepening fear in immigrant communities, critics argued.

On the House lawn Monday afternoon, organizers from several grassroots organizations channeled their best pans-slamming-together-in-a-nightgown performance — check the meme if you don’t get the reference — while chanting “I didn’t get no sleep cause of y’all, y’all not gonna get no sleep cause of me!” Speaking to a crowd of more than 150 people, former state senator and Democratic party leader Raquel Terán urged rallygoers to call their legislators and tell them to vote against the Arizona ICE Act.

“They need to listen to the people. The people that pay their salaries. The people who they represent,” she told the crowd in front of the Capitol, pointing to the state houses. “We want everyone in the House and Senate to hear us.”

Just moments earlier, Arizona Democrats had pushed their own answer to Peterson’s bill. Instead of mandating that local law enforcement cooperate with ICE and take on immigration enforcement duties, a bill sponsored by state Sen. Analise Ortiz would mandate that they don’t cooperate at all. Ortiz’s Immigrant Trust Act is based on a bill introduced in New Jersey’s state legislature and would prohibit local law enforcement from enforcing federal immigration laws or asking people about their immigration status — essentially the exact opposite of Peterson’s bill.

State Sen. Catherine Miranda, the co-chair of the Latino Caucus, said the bill would “ensure Arizona’s immigrant community feels comfortable seeking medical assistance, reporting crimes and completing their day-to-day activities without fear of deportation.”

Chances of becoming law

After all the hoopla at the Capitol, there’s a chance none of the bills discussed Monday become law.

With Republicans in control of both houses of the state legislature, it’s possible that Ortiz’s bill doesn’t even get a hearing. Petersen’s Arizona ICE Act is likely veto bait for Gov. Katie Hobbs, though Petersen could seek to refer the measure to the ballot.

It’s less clear what could become of Kavanagh’s bill to rent out a state prison facility on the cheap. Hobbs has not said whether she’d support it, although Kavanagh has already said he’d send it to the voters if she didn’t.

What’s clear is that if there’s to be any additional cooperation between Arizona police agencies and ICE, Arizona Democrats and Republicans will have to cooperate, too. To hear some Democrats say it, that’s highly unlikely.

“There’s no room to compromise or fix what they’re introducing,” Miranda said the Arizona ICE Act. “What we see in front of us, they’re not fixable. They refuse to sit at the table to talk about the consequences of the bill.”