Republican lawmakers at the Arizona Legislature advanced a package of bills designed to force state and local officials to support the Trump administration's effort to deport millions of people.
The Arizona House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 1164, also called the Arizona ICE Act, on a party-line vote. The legislation would ban state agencies and local governments from adopting policies banning cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
It would also require sheriffs and the state prison system to comply with detainer requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE issues those requests when it believes a jail or prison has a person in custody who is in the country without legal status and asks local officials to hold onto that person, so they can be transferred to ICE custody.
“If you want to make sure that ICE does their job effectively, then the best way is to get the criminals who are locked up in our prisons, locked up in our jails, cooperate with ICE and get them out of here,” Rep. Teresa Martinez (R-Casa Grande) said. “Because I can tell you, I want legal and proper immigration.”
The bill passed days after Trump administration immigration officials visited Arizona and expressed a desire to build out a streamlined, business-like deportation apparatus.
According to the Arizona Mirror, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said the deportation process should be “like (Amazon) Prime, but with human beings.”
Rep. Nancy Gutierrez (D-Tucson) said comments like that are why she voted against the bill.
“Human beings should not be treated like goods that you get from Amazon Prime,” she said. “This kind of legislation emboldens disgusting and racist rhetoric like that.”
Sen. President Warren Petersen (R-Gilbert), who sponsored the bill, said it was designed “to focus on the 700,000 criminal illegal aliens that have been identified and helping with that effort,” referring to claims by President Donald Trump late last year that there were around 700,000 people with criminal records in the country without legal status.
But Democrats claimed the bill will disproportionately impact minority and immigrant communities.
And they said they are staunchly opposed to any bill that would increase collaboration with federal immigration officials, citing due process concerns amidst reports the Trump administration is targeting some green card holders and admitted to mistakenly deporting a Maryland man from El Salvador who was in the country with protected legal status.
“This bill doesn't make us safer. It makes us weaker. It makes us divided,” said Rep. Marianna Sandoval (D-Goodyear).
The bill must still make it past Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs’ veto pen, which is unlikely.
“We need to work with law enforcement and not force them to do things with limited resources and unfunded mandates,” Hobbs said. “I know that every law enforcement agency I talk to wants to cooperate with other law enforcement agencies to keep violent criminals off the streets, and I don't think we need a lot that forces them to do that.”
However, after introducing the bill earlier this year, Petersen said legislative Republicans could refer the measure to voters if Hobbs vetoes it, noting that they used a similar tactic last year to send a controversial piece of border security legislation to the ballot. Proposition 314 passed with 63% of the vote.
“For the good of our state, I hope she signs this bill. It's time for the governor to put politics and partisan animosity towards President Trump aside,” Petersen said in a statement following the passage of his bill.
The day before the Arizona House sent the ICE Act to Hobbs’ desk, the Senate passed a similar Martinez bill that would require the governor, attorney general and local governments to “enforce, administer and cooperate with federal actions, orders and programs that relate to the enforcement of federal immigration laws.”
The requirements for the governor and attorney general expire in January 2029, the date when President Trump’s second term in office ends.
The Arizona House is also considering a third bill that would require the state to lease the recently-closed Marana prison complex to federal immigration officials for $1 per year.
While debating the bills, Democrats argued that immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility and the state should not be required to fund that effort.
“While the federal government is making deep cuts to funding programs that help us, this bill demands we spend even more of our own tax dollars to do Washington's job,” Rep. Betty Villegas (D-Tucson) said before voting against the Arizona ICE Act. “That's not fiscal responsibility. It's political theater.”
