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After forceful, violent raids in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago and Charlotte throughout the first year of the Trump administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is planning on descending upon Phoenix next, according to reporting by The Bulwark.
On Jan. 2, The Bulwark, a political news organization, reported that the metro Phoenix area will be the next city targeted by the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration operations, in line with the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda.
Three former DHS officials in contact with their former colleagues told reporter Adrian Carrasquillo that the Democratic-led city will be the agency’s next focus of arrests, detentions and deportations. They didn’t know the definitive timeline, but local immigration organizations and officials are preparing for the anticipated influx of agents.
“No one is safe from the recklessness of this administration,” state Sen. Analise Ortiz told Phoenix New Times. ICE, she said, has been “more egregious in their activity” and the “potential for even more enforcement is horrifying.”
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During the first year of the Trump administration, ICE has maintained a steady presence in the Phoenix area. Raids and arrests have occurred at work sites, immigration courts, Home Depot locations and individual homes. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients and holiday visitors have been detained.
Neither ICE nor DHS would respond on the record to New Times’ request to comment.
As the new year approaches, these enforcement actions and detention facilities are expected to increase, as ICE is flush with cash following the Republicans’ passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The report that Phoenix will be targeted next also comes on the heels of a “joint enforcement operation” between ICE and the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office, which has resulted in a lot of activity in the San Tan Valley area, some 50 miles southeast of Phoenix.
“These actions do not make us safer,” wrote Beth Strano, the director of Borderlands Resource Initiative, who said the community has been preparing for increased immigration enforcement. “Instead, they create fear, divide families and erode trust in local leaders and law enforcement.”
“It’s been quiet out here, to an extent,” said Clarissa Vela, the founder of PeopleFirstProject. “It’s going to start turning into California.”
Vela was out on a community patrol tracking ICE activity when New Times reached her Friday morning — she said she’d seen nine arrests already before lunch. With activity expected to ramp up, she said, “I believe the community should be embracing one another right now. Regardless of your immigration status, get out and fight. We’re gonna be what stops this.”
TJ L’Heureux
The Bulwark wrote that the administration plans to turn the Valley into a “hub of removal” in the Southwest, significantly expanding operations in such cities as Denver, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. Specifically, this will include building more tent-like, soft-sided detention facilities of the sort that are holding thousands of detainees in Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz.”
As ICE attempts to expand its detention capacity nationwide, it appears to be aiming to make Arizona a significant part of that effort. New Times found that Maricopa County Sheriff Jerry Sheridan considered adding 1,000 ICE beds in the county’s jail system and Marana residents are currently fighting plans to turn a former prison into a detention center.
According to reporting by the Washington Post on Dec. 24, ICE is planning to renovate a warehouse site in Glendale to be used as a processing facility, where 500 to 1,500 people would be held. The specific location of that facility is not yet known. Ortiz, who represents the West Valley and parts of Glendale, said the city of Glendale was unable to provide her with any information about the potential facility, which “tells me that it is very, very early in the process,” she said.
In a statement to New Times, the city of Glendale said it was aware of the Post’s reporting, but “has not yet received any information or notice from the federal government about the plan,” spokesperson Lesley Miller wrote.
“If there is an opportunity for the city to block this, they absolutely should,” Ortiz said. “There will be an outpouring, an outcry of opposition to putting this type of death camp in our community.”
ICE’s facilities in Arizona have already come under scrutiny for having hazardous conditions, and Ortiz is worried about the safety of these temporary structures in Arizona’s extreme heat.
“The vast majority of Arizonans do not want to see their friends, family, neighbors or coworkers taken by ICE, people who are doing nothing wrong and are contributing to the community,” she said. “Trump lied to the voters when he said he would go after the most violent people. That is not what is happening.”
