A petition was filed to disincorporate the city of Surprise ahead of a City Council meeting. This comes after plans to build an immigration detention center near a chemical storage facility were made public.
Activist Jeremy Helfgot submitted the petition and says the issue is a lack of communication from city leaders.
“I would much rather see the elected leaders of Surprise stand up and do something, even take a meeting with community members so we can talk about the situation,” Helfgot said.
Helfgot says the location poses a health risk to future detainees and local residents. The initiative would require 70,000 signatures to change ownership to Maricopa County.
“Mayor Kevin Sartor and the members of his City Council have refused every public inquiry regarding safety and hazards in connection with this facility and its location,” Helfgot said.
Helfgot says Surprise should follow the lead of other cities around the country in pushing back against DHS’s purchases. The city has not responded to the petition.
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Officials say the new plan is like digging in the "couch cushions" for promises to save Colorado River water, but compensation from the Arizona Water Banking Authority could help reach a larger goal. -
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has poured billions into expanding detention capacity under the second Trump administration, but a new watchdog report shows tens of millions of it were wasted. -
As a result, the GAO says millions in taxpayer funds were wasted. Under one initiative, ICE spent over a billion dollars purchasing 11 warehouses around the country to create new holding facilities — including in Surprise. -
ICE has signed a series of contracts worth up to $7.3 billion to expand detention in five states following the failure of ICE’s plan to buy warehouses and turn them into detention facilities. -
Two West Valley residents claim Republican state Sen. Janae Shamp doesn’t live in the district she was elected to represent. They want Attorney General Kris Mayes to remove her from office.
