The ACLU of Arizona is headed to court later this month to try to compel the Pima County Sheriff's Department to produce records from a request made earlier this year.
In May, the group made a public records request to the Sheriff's Department asking for communications records between deputies and immigration officers. The ACLU says that request came after reports from community members and reporting from the Arizona Luminaria about incidents where deputies were working alongside immigration officers.
“I’d say the most concerning for us is seeing a routine traffic stop, you know, simply speeding or some other sort of traffic violation that ends up involving CBP or ICE,” said John Mitchell, immigrant rights attorney at the ACLU of Arizona.
The ACLU is asking for communications dating back to 2021 between the department and immigration offices including Customs and Border Protection and ICE.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has repeatedly said his department doesn’t cooperate with ICE. But Mitchell says the ACLU hasn’t received records in full to prove that.
“We believe that when a law enforcement agency creates policy, when they give public statements about their values and their practices, that the public be able to confirm that,” he said. “Arizona law is crystal clear on this, they have to respond to records requests promptly, and we believe they haven’t done that.”
As the Arizona Luminaria reported, the sheriff’s department had a rule requiring any calls to federal immigration authorities to be tracked and summarized monthly, but the rule was abandoned this year.
The ACLU filed suit in July after they say the department failed to turn over their full request. An Aug. 25 hearing before the Pima County Superior Court will determine next steps.
In June, the group also filed a records request asking for communications between immigration officers and the Phoenix Police Department, particularly during a series of arrests of migrants attending their asylum hearings at the Phoenix Immigration Court.
Mitchell says that request has not yet been fulfilled and the ACLU is considering various legal options.
A Phoenix Police Department spokesperson said the department receives some 11,000 requests per month and that the ACLU’s request requires queries from several different systems.
Department procedures say officers are not allowed to hold people for longer periods of time in order to check their immigration status and officers are required to get permission before calling ICE to a scene.
