Trump is turning metro Phoenix into the Southwest’s next immigration “hub of removal,” with a dramatic escalation of ICE operations, expanding arrests, raids, and even a Tent City prison.
The Supreme Court ruled against sending the National Guard into Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. So ICE is pivoting to Phoenix—a city with a Democratic mayor, a history of immigrant resistance, and a population scarred by Maricopa Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s tent-city era.
Multiple former DHS officials said the goal is to transform Phoenix into a regional deportation engine, supported by thousands of new detention beds that would feed removals across the West, according to reporting by Adrian Carrasquillo.
Trump’s Big Bad Bill handed ICE a massive funding increase, enabling a rapid expansion of detention infrastructure—especially controversial soft-sided, tent facilities that civil-rights groups say are inhumane by design.
Arizona residents have been fighting plans to reopen the private Marana prison near Tucson and construct new industrial holding centers across Maricopa County, including a proposed facility in Glendale.
Raids Already Underway
Community organizers in Phoenix report ICE goons already targeting workplaces and businesses. Immigrant rights coalitions have mobilized hotlines, legal observers, and emergency response networks as families brace for arrests.
“We want to push back on the lie that these are the ‘worst of the worst,’” said Ricardo Reyes, an organizer with Common Defense, which advocates for immigrant and veteran rights. “People have court dates. People are scared. And ICE doesn’t want that on the record.”
The Ghost of Arpaio’s Tent City
For 24 years up to 2017, Maricopa Sheriff Joe Arpaio housed thousands of incarcerated people in outdoor canvas tents, where summer temperatures exceeded 120 degrees.
The facilities drew international condemnation before finally being shut down by his successor.
Now, DHS is once again eyeing tent-style detention—this time under federal authority.
Andrea Flores, former director of border management on the National Security Council, warned that expanding soft-sided facilities doesn’t increase deportations—it just warehouses human beings in extreme conditions.
“Alligator Alcatraz was unique and also a failure,” Flores said, referring to a Florida detention camp opened during Trump’s second term. “It didn’t ramp up removals. It just put people in intensely inhumane conditions.”
Notorious Private Gulag in Eloy
Arizona already hosts one of ICE’s most notorious gulags: the Eloy Detention Center, a massive private prison at 1705 E. Hanna Road, Eloy, that holds 1,600 immigrants.
Eloy has been linked to repeated deaths in custody, medical neglect allegations, and aggressive use of solitary confinement. In 2025, Rep. Yassamin Ansari conducted several surprise oversight visits and demanded answers from ICE about conditions inside the facility.
Detainees described conditions such as:
- Inadequate medical and mental healthcare.
- Overcrowded, moldy cells and dirty living conditions.
- Filthy drinking water.
- Being given used underwear, which led to infections.
- Forced marches outside in extreme Arizona heat.
Advocates warn that expanding detention capacity in Phoenix would funnel more people into Eloy-style incarceration—out of public view, far from legal resources, and difficult to monitor.
Arizona Pushback Is Coming
A Pew survey found 53% of Americans believe Trump is doing too much on immigration enforcement. Arizona GOP strategist Chuck Coughlin said an ICE surge in Maricopa County “won’t play well” with voters who already believe border crossings are down and the crisis narrative is fabricated hype.
State and local officials say they will not cooperate.
In Tucson, mayors and county leaders have pledged that no city resources will be used to assist ICE. Rep. Adelita Grijalva says she plans to personally show up at detention centers in Eloy and Florence to confront unlawful quotas and due-process violations.
Grassroots organizers—from LUCHA AZ to labor unions—say Arizona’s immigrant-rights movement is reactivating the energy forged during the SB 1070 era. “This has been tried before,” said National Day Laborer Organizing Network attorney Chris Newman. “And it failed. It turned Arizona blue.”
Trump may see Phoenix as the next battlefield in his vicious deportation campaign. But Arizona voters remember brutal tent cities, inhumane prisons and federal tyranny. The result will be seen in the streets, where furious protestors will overwhelm ICE raids and cripple their Gestapo raids.
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