The newly chosen Phoenix police chief was a member of the department in 2010, when Arizona passed the so-called ‘show me your papers’ law.
Chief Matt Giordano remembers how SB 1070 sowed fear in the community, and he says there is no room for immigration enforcement in municipal policing.
"And as far I’m concerned, if we have a community member that’s scared to call the police based on their immigration status, whatever it might be, we’ve failed," Giordano said.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement can move to take custody of anyone booked into a Maricopa County jail.
Phoenix police say they do not take people to jail for civil traffic tickets.
More Immigration News
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This is the latest in a long-running legal challenge mounted by the ACLU AZ to find out the extent in which Pima County sheriff's deputies work with ICE and Border Patrol. -
New federal court filings reveal that efforts to build an ICE detention center in Surprise are progressing slowly, and the Department of Homeland Security has indicated there is no rush to open the facility. -
Court records obtained by the research group TRAC show the government filed 50 such cases in the month of July — including two in Arizona. -
Congress created the federal legal aid program almost two decades ago and has directed funds to it every year. But on July 31, the roughly $200 million annual contract to do that work came to an end. -
The lawsuit is the latest in a string of similar legal challenges the Trump administration has filed following a 2025 executive order directing the Justice Department to take action against state laws that allegedly favor undocumented people.
