Bill that would send immigration agents to Arizona polling places stalls in state Senate

A bill that would have required Arizona election officials to bring federal immigration officers to the polls is effectively dead — for now.

Sen. Jake Hoffman’s Senate Bill 1570 would have required county recorders and boards of supervisors to sign agreements with “a federal immigration law enforcement agency to provide for a federal immigration law enforcement presence” at voting locations and ballot drop boxes."

Hoffman said the bill would only allow agents to observe election activity, not interfere with actual voting.

“This measure establishes clear, uniform standards across every county and brings additional oversight to locations where ballots are cast and collected,” he said in a statement a week after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Krisit Noem visited Phoenix and claimed noncitizens are voting in Arizona elections, though evidence shows that is exceedingly rare.

Critics called the bill a veiled attempt at voter suppression, arguing the presence of ICE or other immigration agents at the polls would intimidate minority communities.

“When voters see armed federal enforcement near polling sites and they're already part of our communities that have been profiled or traumatized by law enforcement they represent, that presence does not feel neutral,” the Rev. Veronica Alvarez said. “It feels targeted.”

The Arizona Senate’s Judiciary and Elections committee was scheduled to consider the bill at a rare Friday meeting. Lawmakers typically only meet Monday through Thursday, but Friday marked the last day for senators’ bills to be heard in a committee under Senate rules, leading Chairwoman Wendy Rogers (R-Flagstaff) to schedule the hearing to give nearly two-dozen bills a chance to move through the process.

Dozens of community members, activists and faith leaders opposed to SB 1570 filled the committee room early Friday morning and sat through a marathon committee session to call on lawmakers to reject the bill.

But, six hours into the meeting, Rogers announced the committee would not vote on the bill, meaning it would not be considered in a Senate committee deadline.

“He’s been ill off and on,” Rogers said, referring to Hoffman. “And because he has just recently communicated with me — I waited, hoping he could get here today and overcome that illness, but given the circumstances as they are, I have to defer to him and I will hold SB 1570.”

Rogers then ended the meeting and exited alongside other Republicans.

Wayne Schutsky

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KJZZ

Opponents claim victory

The bill’s critics, who held their own impromptu discussion in the committee room after the GOP lawmakers left, didn’t buy Rogers’ explanation.

“You have these politicians who introduce these racist proposals, and they don't expect the community to come out in such force to stand against them,” Sen. Analise Ortiz (D-Phoenix) said. “But when they actually see just how unpopular their ideas are, they run scared, and that's what happened.”

Immediately after Rogers announced she was holding the bill, many in the committee room began singing, shouting, chanting and accusing Republican senators of running away rather than face criticism.

“This is a police and surveillance state. They want to patrol how you vote. Cowardice,” a protester screamed.

Sen. John Kavanagh (R-Fountain Hills) claimed the protests had nothing to do with the decision to hold SB 1570, repeating Rogers’ statement that Hoffman asked them to hold it.

“They don’t stop us,” Kavanagh said, referring to protesters.

Tensions simmered throughout the day as activists and other community members opposed to the bill fill the committee room.

Dead, sort of

Whatever the reasoning behind the move, the bill’s opponents claimed victory.

Under the rules, a bill cannot advance to a vote of the full Senate vote without first passing through a committee. And SB 1570 failed to clear that hurdle before the Friday deadline.

However, lawmakers and Capitol watchers often warn that no bill is ever truly dead at the Arizona Capitol. That’s because there are multiple workarounds that allow legislators to skirt the rules and introduce legislation after deadlines have passed.

“It's effectively dead, but we're not going to let our guard down because it could pop up at any point between now and sine die,” Ortiz said. Sine die is a Latin term that refers to the last day of the legislative session.

Kavanagh, the Republican senator, said he was unsure whether SB 1570 would come back this year in another form.

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Simmering tensions

The Republicans who control the Arizona Senate even blocked several organizers with LUCHA, a progressive advocacy group, from entering the Senate.

“Upon trying to go in and speak and use our First Amendment inside, they let us know that we were banned from the Senate building,” said LUCHA’s Gina Mendez. “And so they didn't give us a reason. All of their warnings didn't have any names, and essentially they just told us that if we go inside that we would get arrested, that we were being trespassed.”

Mendez and others who received the envelopes relocated across the street to Wesley Bolin Plaza and continued to chant with megaphones.

“They don't want us here because we're brown and because we keep showing up with community members and to speak against all of these injustices, all of these bills that would create further harm in our community,” Mendez said.

Kavanagh, who is also the Senate Majority Leader, said he didn’t know why the individuals were prohibited from entering the Senate, though he speculated it had something to do with previous run-ins with the committee that resulted in protesters being removed from the building.

“So I would guess that security identified those people who were told they could not come back and they returned, so they were not allowed in,” he said.

Ortiz, the Democratic Senator, criticized the decision.

“There has been an increase in authoritarianism here at the state Legislature, and it's frustrating because this is the people's house,” she said.