The Tucson City Council is preparing to send a clear message to federal immigration officials that land controlled by the city of Tucson is off-limits.
On Wednesday, the council ordered City Attorney Roi Lusk to draft an ordinance that will turn city-controlled parking lots, garages, vacant parcels, parks and public facilities into places that are safe from ICE and other federal immigration officials. A finalized version of the ordinance will come back before the council in 30 days.
The city is trying to ensure that its property is not used for “staging, processing, debriefing, or other civil immigration enforcement operation” by ICE, Homeland Security Investigations or U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
But it remains unclear whether federal officials will honor a city ordinance as part of their enforcement actions.
Especially considering ICE thinks it doesn’t even need a warrant to bust into your house, per a new training memo the Associated Press uncovered.
The ordinance follows Vice Mayor Lane Santa Cruz’s recent remarks emphasizing that Tucson police do not work hand-in-hand with ICE or other federal immigration agencies, though they do cooperate with federal authorities on limited investigations. The city also published last week a know-your-rights website for city residents.
“We want to be a good governing body that's gonna protect all of our community members regardless of their immigration status, I think it is important in this moment,” Santa Cruz said.
And it comes as concerns — and protests — are ramping up across Southern Arizona.
On Tuesday night, thousands of people descended on downtown as part of planned nationwide protests tied to President Donald Trump's inauguration anniversary. Tucson Police responded to the peaceful protest, but only acted to control traffic and keep protesters who had taken over several city blocks safe from traffic.
Protesters marching in downtown Tucson. (BGBoyd Photography)
On Wednesday, Mayor Regina Romero said she is continuing to talk to other mayors about how they are responding to the threat of federal officials conducting immigration sweeps in their city, as they have in other communities.
“We are going through a very dark time in our country,” Romero said. “We've got to give our residents the certainty that if they go to the park to walk their dog or take their kids for a picnic … that they will not be confronted or harassed by any of these federal agencies.”
And there’s reason to believe ICE is ramping up operations in Southern Arizona.
On Sunday, a volunteer with the Tucson Rapid Response Network recorded ICE breaking the window of an older Latino man’s truck and arresting him on Tucson’s southside.
The witness told the Arizona Luminaria that an unmarked ICE vehicle followed the man after he left the El Super store on South Sixth Avenue, and they left behind his full grocery bags in his damaged truck after the arrest. And a volunteer with Derechos Humanos who answers their rapid response line told the Luminaria that there has been a sharp spike in calls in the last 10 days.
This is a sobering reminder that while Tucson has not had any of the large-scale “ICE raids” seen in Minneapolis, Los Angeles and Chicago there has been a steady stream of single-person arrests.
Meanwhile, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes sat down with 12News’ Brahm Resnik on Tuesday to encourage Arizonans to record ICE, saying her office is relying on citizens to document incidents of illegal behavior from agents that she can then prosecute.
“We are watching you,” she warned ICE. “If you violate Arizona law, I will prosecute you.”
Her office put up an online portal this week to allow people to upload videos and photographs of what they believe is misconduct by federal agents.
And she says she’s deeply concerned that things could escalate quickly as masked, unidentified federal agents mix with Arizona’s strong gun culture and “Stand Your Ground” law, calling the combo “a recipe for disaster.”
“It's kind of a recipe for disaster,” Mayes said. “We have in other states un-uniformed, masked people who can't be identified as police officers. That is a problem. That's why it's so important to have uniforms and to be identified, especially in a state like Arizona.”
The law is not a James Bond license to kill but Mayes worries about how individuals will be able to distinguish between legitimate law enforcement actions and masked criminals wearing gear purchased from the internet.
“But how do you know they're a peace officer? That's the key… If you're being attacked by someone who is not identified as a peace officer, how do you know?” she said.
For months, Marana residents concerned about plans to convert an old state prison into a privately owned ICE detention facility have been asking the town council to do something to stop it.
On Tuesday, Marana Mayor Jon Post broke the city’s silence, telling a crowd of protesters that, while he may not be happy about the plan, there’s nothing he or the council can do to stop it.
“This is not something that we want. It's not something that we wish on our residents. This is not something that the town of Marana is doing,” Post said, trying to reframe the public discussion.
Post and other Marana officials have explained their concerns to Management and Training Corporation (MTC), the Utah-based company planning to open the detention center. But MTC is set on moving forward with re-opening the prison as a detention center, he said.
One of the many signs at Tuesday’s Marana Town Council Meeting (Joe Ferguson)
The zoning is in place, Post told an angry crowd, and formal resistance from the town will end up in court.
“They have the right to have that facility there with absolutely zero participation from the town. This is not something the town is doing,” Post said.
And the court fight would be prohibitively expensive, Post believes — citing the $15 million MTC paid to buy the shuttered facility from the state.
“If we sit up here and deny that facility, that is a lawsuit that will hurt the town,” Post told the crowd. “It already starts at $15 million because that's what they paid for the facility. And so I don't know what, you know, I have no idea where that finishes up.”
To put it into perspective, the annual budget for the town this year is $416.2 million.
With a coordinated group of residents dedicated to opposing the detention center, the next phase might be at the ballot box. At least two candidates for town council this year have declared their opposition to the ICE facility.
But even if they win their races, it’s unclear that they can do anything to stop the new owners from opening the old prison to ICE.
If at first you don’t get a rehearing: Attorney General Kris Mayes got the news that the Arizona Corporation Commission denied her application for a rehearing on the energy supply agreement between Tucson Electric Power and the Beale Infrastructure Group, the developers of Project Blue. But she’s not taking no for an answer — vowing to appeal the decision and force a debate on whether the proposed data center got a sweetheart deal from the utility.
“The ACC did not respond to my office's very serious allegations that the energy supply contract they approved enables TEP and a data center developer to set their own rate. All they offered was this conclusory statement that the ESA is great. If that is the case, why is the agreement full of redactions? Why didn't they hold a full hearing or allow intervenors like the City of Tucson to cross-examine TEP, so the assumptions they are accepting without question can be examined and tested? What are they afraid of?” Mayes said in a press release.
We’re not talking about Venezuela, right?: The U.S. Space Force (yes, it’s real) is setting up shop at Davis-Monthan, per KVOA. A new unit at the base will use space technology to boost regional security partnerships with countries in Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean.
That’s a little too close: Arivaca residents came out in droves to oppose a new solar project, Jorge Encinas reports for the Green Valley News. Local nonprofit utility TRICO wants to use federal dollars to build a microgrid on about 20 acres near town, which prompted Arivaca residents to complain the site is “right next to a whole lot of houses.”
The clock is ticking: The official negotiators for Arizona and the six other states that use the Colorado River “got tired of each other” during a marathon session in Salt Lake City, the Utah News Dispatch reports. For a while, it looked like they might reach an agreement, but then the process broke down and they ended up pretty close to where they started. Still, the Utah representative said everybody is committed to keep trying to meet the February 14 deadline set by the federal government.
We never get tired of you, dear reader. Hopefully, you feel the same way.
In need of a venue: The Saguaro City Music Theatre could find itself without a place to perform if the Arizona State School for the Deaf and Blind moves to Oro Valley, Charlie Goldberg reports for KVOA. The theatre group has been using the Edward B. Berger Performing Arts Center on the school’s campus since 2022 to put on shows that include kids and teens of all abilities.
Pima County Supervisor Steve Christy, the lone Republican on the board, is getting tired of resolutions from his Democratic colleagues.
On Tuesday, Christy offered a fiery speech condemning another resolution reiterating the board’s opposition to Hudbay Minerals’ proposed Copper World mine in Southern Arizona.
The supervisors, minus Christy, signed off on a similar resolution last year.
“How many resolutions does it take? I'm sure everybody in the county, everybody in the state, everybody in the country, everybody in the world knows. The Hudbay board of directors and Mitsubishi — who just infused $600 million into it — I'm sure they are very intimately familiar with the fact that this board does not want the Hudbay Copper World project,” Christy said about the new resolution.