The Bulwark and the Blog for Arizona’s Larry Bodine have reported that the Trump regime is planning on bolstering their Gestapo-ICE forces and detention facilities in the Phoenix area.
The report, if true, has already generated bipartisan backlash to the planned proposal, which is invoking memories of SB1070 and the repressive tactics of former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Both State Democratic Legislative Leaders offered their reactions to Blog for Arizona.
Senate Democratic Leader Priya Sundareshan commented:
“Reports that ICE may ramp up enforcement in Phoenix are alarming. We have seen what these raids look like in cities like Chicago and Los Angeles, families torn apart, U.S. citizens wrongly detained, and hardworking people taken from their communities without cause. These actions do not target dangerous criminals, despite the Trump administration’s claims. They target everyday people who are working, raising families, and contributing to our economy. Raids like these only spread fear and violate human rights as well as our due process rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. This does nothing to keep Arizona safe and nothing to make life more affordable. Democrats will continue fighting for real solutions that respect dignity, focusing on the challenges families are actually facing.”
House Democratic Leader Oscar De Los Santos conveyed:
“While Arizona families are struggling to afford groceries and healthcare, Donald Trump is focused on sending masked ICE agents to rip apart families. As we have seen across the country, ICE has detained a Marine Corps veteran’s wife while she was still breastfeeding their 3-month-old baby, locked up a woman with cancer and denied her medical treatment, and detained a longtime Arizona small-business owner with no criminal history. That does nothing to keep us safe, and it does nothing to make life more affordable.”
Vice President of Matters of State Strategies Matt Grodsky relayed:
“These policies are becoming less and less popular with voters who want prices to come down and the erratic behavior of the administration to stop. Increased ICE activity is bad for the local economy and bad for Republicans who will ultimately have to defend ICE hurting Arizonans and likely grabbing US citizens in their effort to appease Dear Leader. History will not look kindly on this moment or the people who enable it.”
In the Bulwark and Bodine articles, former advisor to Republican Governor Jan Brewer, Chuck Coughlin commented that this plan will not go over well with the majority of residents in Maricopa County, saying:
“I don’t look at this as being a positive move in Maricopa County; it’s not going to play well. Everybody believes the border control problem is under control. That was always the issue that created the angst back when I worked for Brewer. Back then, it was that people were coming over the border with impunity; that’s not happening at all now, so that sentiment isn’t there.”
In a message to constituents in her third Congressional District, Representative Yassamin Ansari warned that, thanks to the provisions of Trump and Republicans’ Big Beautiful Billionaires First Bill, which saw funding from vital health insurance and food assistance programs being partly diverted to fund increased ICE operations and expanded and new “inhumane” facilities, this would “potentially be very, very dark time for immigrants in Phoenix.”
Representative Ansari, an outspoken opponent of what ICE is doing with her constituents (including one who was arrested on Christmas Eve while holiday shopping and Yari (Arbella “Yari” Rodríguez Márquez), a cancer patient suffering in the Eloy Detention Center, also warned that, with ICE’s increased resources, “it is going to get worse before it gets better.”
In her remarks, she also outlined steps so all people in her district, immigrant and United States citizens, “are as prepared and as proactive as possible,” calling on them to familiarize themselves with their rights, access Ansari.house.gov to get pamphlets in multiple languages to find out their rights and options, visit her Phoenix offices, report ICE abuses on the Oversight Democrat Dashboard, and peacefully video any ICE transgressions they come across, noting that these videos have shown the American People how brutal ICE tactics are.
In the Bulwark article, Representative Adelita Grijalva commented with a perspective toward Southern Arizona, remarking:
“Here, specifically in Southern Arizona, we’ve been anticipating something like this happening. In Tucson, the mayors met with Pima County elected officials and the Tucson police department, who have all taken strong positions that none of our government resources are going to be used to help ICE in any way.”
“I don’t want any kind of detention facility here, people languishing, given no kind of process at all. I have not been able to see constituents in Florence and Eloy, so I think I’m just going to start showing up. They have to meet that quota, and the only way to do it is illegally.”
On January 3, Representative Greg Stanton, upon hearing about the possible increased ICE activities, posted:
“My office is aware of reports that ICE may ramp up enforcement in Phoenix.
I’m in touch with Mayor Gallego and our federal and local partners. ICE should prioritize violent criminals and drug traffickers, as Trump committed to during his campaign. ICE should not be engaging in political revenge or mass deportations that spread fear. We will not tolerate tactics that terrorize Phoenix families because that is not who we are as Arizonans or Americans. It makes our community less safe.”
While ICE may be preparing to intensify its Gestapo-like tactics in the Phoenix area, people also need to know that Robert F. Kennedy’s Unhealthy and Human Disservices Department has reduced the number of required recommended childhood vaccinations from 17 to 11.
Republican Lousiana Senator Bill Cassidy, who provided a pivotal vote in confirming Mr. Kennedy to his position, posted this reaction on social media:
“As a doctor who treated patients for decades, my top priority is protecting children and families. Multiple children have died or were hospitalized from measles, and South Carolina continues to face a growing outbreak. Two children have died in my state from whooping cough. All of this was preventable with safe and effective vaccines.
The vaccine schedule IS NOT A MANDATE. It’s a recommendation giving parents the power. Changing the pediatric vaccine schedule based on no scientific input on safety risks and little transparency will cause unnecessary fear for patients and doctors, and will make America sicker.”
And the board of The Corporation of Public Broadcasting, the organization that, until recently, helped fund PBS and NPR with allocated federal funds, voted, due to defunding from the Big Beautiful Billionaires First Bill, to dissolve itself.
Sad times people.
Please consider donating to your regional PBS and NPR stations by clicking below:
Discover more from Blog for Arizona
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.