Latest news with #ArizonaICEAct
Axios
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Capitol Roundup: Hobbs and lawmakers reach disabilities funding compromise
A prolonged fight between Gov. Katie Hobbs and the Legislature over a funding shortfall for a developmental disabilities program ended with a bipartisan solution shortly before it ran out of money. The big picture: The House passed legislation Wednesday night to fill a $122 million budget deficit, and the Senate followed suit Thursday. Hobbs signed the bill later in the day. The agreement will prevent the Department of Economic Security's Developmental Disabilities Division, which serves about 60,000 people, from running out of money on May 1. It also ends a standoff in which Hobbs threatened to veto any legislation that reached her desk before a solution to the budget impasse was reached. Why it matters: Much of the dispute between the Democratic governor and Republican lawmakers revolved around the pandemic-era Parents as Paid Caregivers program, which grants funding to home caregivers for children with severe developmental disabilities. Federal funding for the program dried up this fiscal year and the state must now cover one-third of the cost. Zoom in: The bill caps the number of hours parental caregivers can be paid at 40, covers the funding shortfall with money from the state's Prescription Drug Rebate Fund, and requires legislative approval for future agreements with the federal government to expand or increase health care coverage. What they're saying: Hobbs praised the compromise as "common-sense proposals" that provide critical services and important guardrails without pulling money from a housing program, as Republicans initially proposed. House Speaker Steve Montenegro, R-Goodyear, called it a "responsible and effective plan." In other legislative news: 🗳 Following Hobbs' veto of a raft of bills last Friday, including one that would forbid local governments from barring cooperation with federal immigration authorities, Senate President Warren Petersen said he's considering sending the Arizona ICE Act to the 2026 ballot. That's the playbook GOP lawmakers used when Hobbs vetoed a border security law, which passed last year with about 62% of the vote. 🔥 Utilities would get some protections from legal liabilities if their equipment causes wildfires while allowing victims of those blazes to sue in some circumstances under a bill that the Senate gave preliminary approval to on Tuesday. If it receives the final OK from the Senate, the bill will go back to the House. ⛺ Overnight or prolonged encampments on college campuses would be banned under a bill that got preliminary approval from the Senate Thursday.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
GOP threatens 2026 ballot measure after Hobbs vetoes Arizona ICE Act
Senate President Warren Petersen speaks at an April 21, 2025, press conference at the Arizona Capitol. Petersen and other Republicans said Gov. Katie Hobbs was wrong to veto their "Arizona ICE Act" legislation and said they may take it to the ballot in 2026. Photo by Gloria Rebecca Gomez | Arizona Mirror Despite multiple cases of U.S. citizens being wrongfully detained, Republican lawmakers in Arizona want to force law enforcement agencies, city officials and even school leaders to make it easier for ICE to deport people — and they're threatening to go to the ballot to do it. Last week, Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed a GOP priority bill, known as the Arizona ICE Act, that sought to force state and local cooperation with federal immigration authorities. On Monday, Republican backers of the bill lashed out at the Democratic governor's rejection of that idea, and warned that the legislation might return in 2026. Senate President Warren Petersen, who sponsored the bill, lambasted Hobbs for playing 'political games' and said the bill's backers are considering going to voters next year to circumvent her veto stamp. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Senate Bill 1164 would have mandated that every police department and sheriff's office in the state comply with ICE detainers. Also known as immigration holds, detainers are written requests from ICE to law enforcement agencies to hold a person in custody for an extra 48 hours after their scheduled release time — even if that person hasn't been convicted of any crime — to determine whether they're eligible for deportation. Hobbs vetoes Republican bill that would have brought ICE agents into Arizona schools Under the vetoed legislation, law enforcement agencies that didn't follow its mandates could have faced investigations and lawsuits from the Arizona attorney general. ICE detainers have become a focus of GOP politicians in multiple states, despite the murky legal basis behind them that has led to U.S. citizens being forced to endure prolonged imprisonment. Detainers don't require probable cause and are often erroneously issued. Just last week, a Georgia native spent the night in a Florida jail under an ICE hold, despite his mother showing a judge his birth certificate. The judge said she was powerless to release the man because Florida law requires law enforcement agencies to comply with ICE detainers. And that case isn't an isolated or recent occurrence either: between 2002 and 2017, ICE wrongly identified as many as 2,840 U.S. citizens as being eligible for deportation. The Arizona ICE Act also sought to bar state government, city councils, law enforcement agencies and even school boards from adopting any policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. It is currently optional for Arizona law enforcement agencies to comply with ICE detainers Some cities and law enforcement agencies in other states have passed ordinances or chosen to refuse to obey ICE detainers, in light of court rulings that determined imprisoning people beyond their scheduled release date is unconstitutional and lawsuits filed after detainers were issued against U.S. citizens.. During an April 21 news conference, Petersen pointed to the success of the Secure Border Act as proof that Arizonans both want the state to take a more active role in enforcing federal immigration laws and would welcome the Arizona ICE Act. 'Arizona's voters spoke loud and clear last November when they overwhelmingly passed the Secure the Border Act,' he said. Neary 63% of Arizona voters cast their ballots last year in favor of Proposition 314, the Secure Border Act. Republicans sent that proposal to the ballot after Hobbs vetoed similar legislation. Along with enacting new penalties for the sale of lethal fentanyl and the use of false documentation to apply for jobs or public benefits, the act made it a state crime for migrants to cross the southern border anywhere but at an official port of entry. Since its passage, Republicans have touted it as a voter mandate and latched onto it as the motivation behind the party's aggressive border policies. Petersen sold the Arizona ICE Act as a bid to support President Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda and he linked immigrants with criminality to justify tightened relationships between local and federal authorities. 'Gang members, child sex traffickers, murderers, rapists, drug dealers, human smugglers and terrorists were allowed to freely walk across our borders into the United States under the Biden administration,' he said. 'President Trump has finally come to put a stop to this madness.' Encounters at the country's southern border reached record highs during the Biden administration, but federal immigration authorities responded by ramping up deportation efforts. Between January 2021 and November 2024, approximately 4.6 million people were expelled from the country. By comparison, Trump oversaw 2.1 million removals during his first term. U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials estimated that the majority of people encountered at the country's southwest border between February 2021 and October 2023 were removed. Yavapai County Sheriff David Rhodes, a Republican who oversees a county that is more than four hours away from the Arizona-Mexico border and who has been a frequent proponent of anti-immigrant legislation, also claimed that the Arizona ICE Act simply seeks to ensure that people who have committed crimes are detained. 'You have very bad people that live in communities that just haven't been caught yet, and they're subject to removal,' he said. Proponents of the Arizona ICE Act have frequently employed xenophobic language to frame immigrants as criminals and call for the legislation's passage. Advocates claim that compliance with ICE detainers will keep such criminals off the street, despite evidence that the vast majority of detainers are actually issued for non-violent offenses. An analysis of detainers issued in the first two months of the Trump administration by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse found that 72% of people who were subject to an ICE detainer had no previous criminal record. And out of the 17,972 ICE holds, only 30 were targeted at convicted rapists and just 65 were issued for people who committed murder. Petersen waved off concerns about due process violations because of wrongly issued detainers, saying that he trusts law enforcement agents to do their best. Plus, he said, we should expect the police will make errors, and it's not a big deal when they make mistakes. 'Any time law enforcement is in a situation, there's a potential that they don't enforce the law properly, so that's no different than any other situation,' he said. 'Of course, law enforcement gets it right 99% of the time. Sometimes they don't, and there's consequences to that: litigation and the government ends up settling a lawsuit. But I trust law enforcement to properly enforce the law almost all of the time.' If the Arizona ICE Act ends up on the ballot and voters approve it, taxpayers may have to foot the bill for legal challenges that arise from unconstitutional detainments. The legislation also presents other costs that the GOP-majority legislature has yet to address. Along with requiring local sheriffs offices and police departments to hold onto people in custody for longer than the initial arrest warrants, the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry would also be required to house people under an ICE hold. A fiscal impact report by legislative budget analysts concluded that, while some of the expenses could be covered by the federal government, new costs for the Department of Corrections, the Department of Public Safety and local law enforcement agencies could still be incurred. Additionally, the state would have to pay for any investigations and lawsuits launched by the state attorney general to enforce the bill's mandates. Before lawmakers send the Arizona ICE Act to the 2026 ballot, they would first need to identify a way to pay for its expected costs. The Arizona Constitution requires ballot measures that are projected to increase government spending to come up with funding that isn't pulled from the state's general operating fund. Whether they will actually do so is an open question. Last year, GOP lawmakers failed to account for that issue when they sent the Secure Border Act to the ballot, and are now facing a lawsuit that could potentially invalidate it. But, according to Petersen, there is no funding shortfall in the Arizona ICE Act. 'There's no costs to honoring a detainer,' he said. In her veto letter, Hobbs said her biggest issue with the Arizona ICE Act was that it gave federal immigration authorities unfettered power over how local officials and law enforcement agencies approach the enforcement of immigration laws, forcing them to comply even if they disagree with the White House's directives. It's bad public policy, she said, to 'tie the hands' of law enforcement officials. 'Arizonans, not Washington, DC politicians, must decide what's best for Arizona,' the Democrat wrote. But Rhodes defended the proposal as necessary to ensure that city council officials don't wade into law enforcement issues. 'We do not need the (local) governments putting wedges or barriers in between information sharing or cooperation between (law enforcement) agencies,' he said. Rhodes, who is serving his second term as sheriff of Arizona's most Republican county, said that the state needs to step in when other sheriffs choose to limit their cooperation with federal immigration authorities. 'The state should be telling those sheriffs: If you have somebody in your custody and that person has committed a crime, particularly a violent crime, and they are subject to removal from this country, they must notify the immigration authorities,' he said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Hobbs vetoes Republican bill that would have brought ICE agents into Arizona schools
An opponent of the Arizona ICE Act displays a poster referencing the message welcoming refugees inscribed on the Statue of Liberty at the Arizona Capitol on Feb. 10, 2025. Republican lawmakers have moved to require cooperation between ICE officials and every law enforcement agency in the state, which critics say could help facilitate President Donald Trump's mass deportation plans. Photo by Gloria Gomez | Arizona Mirror A Republican effort to boost President Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign in Arizona and force schools to open their doors to ICE agents was shut down by Gov. Katie Hobbs, who wielded her veto pen to reject the plan on Friday. 'Arizonans, not Washington, DC politicians, must decide what's best for Arizona,' the Democrat wrote in her veto letter of the Arizona ICE Act. Senate Bill 1164, named the Arizona Immigration Cooperation and Enforcement Act, would have mandated that every police department and sheriff's office in the state comply when ICE asks them to hold onto a prisoner. Such detainers, also called ICE holds, are written requests to law enforcement officials to keep an arrested person in custody for 48 hours after that person is scheduled to be released — even if they haven't been convicted of a crime — to give immigration agents time to determine deportation eligibility. The requests don't require probable cause and it is currently optional for law enforcement agencies to comply with them. Some cities, in light of lawsuits following erroneously issued ICE detainers, have approved ordinances forbidding compliance with them. Just this week, a U.S. citizen was forced to spend the night in a Florida jail on an ICE hold, even after his mother showed a judge his birth certificate. Law enforcement agencies in Florida are required by state law to comply with ICE detainers. The measure would also have prohibited the state, cities and even school boards from passing policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. In light of Trump's executive order that restored the ability of ICE agents to carry out immigration enforcement actions in previously protected spaces, like churches and schools, multiple school boards across the country have moved to bar ICE agents from school grounds without judicial warrants. In January, Phoenix Union High School District's governing board adopted a policy that declared its schools are safe zones from immigration enforcement and prohibited letting people who would disrupt an educational setting onto any of its campuses. In her veto explanation, Hobbs said she disagrees with the Trump administration's approach to immigration enforcement and touted her own initiatives addressing fentanyl at the ports of entry and targeting cartel operations. The Democrat has long favored solutions that center on partnering with local law enforcement agencies and increasing funding instead of criminalizing people and issuing mandates. 'I will continue to work with the federal government on true border security, but we should not force state and local officials to take marching orders from Washington, DC,' Hobbs wrote. The legislation sparked weekly protests from Latino and immigrant rights organizations, who denounced it as a new iteration of SB1070, the state's notorious 'show me your papers law' from 2010 that gave police officers the power to question a person's immigration status during routine traffic stops and critics say resulted in rampant racial profiling. Alejandra Gomez, the executive director for Living United for Change in Arizona, a progressive organization that led the protests against the Arizona ICE Act, celebrated the veto in a written statement. 'Governor Hobbs' veto of the Arizona ICE Act is a critical victory for our communities and a powerful rejection of Trump's mass deportation agenda,' she said. 'Today, the Governor sent a clear message: Arizona will not be bullied into becoming a tool of federal overreach and extremist politics. We thank her for standing with immigrant families, defending local control, and showing the courage this moment demands.' The Arizona ICE Act was a top priority for the Republican legislative majority, which has focused its efforts this session on supporting the White House's anti-immigrant agenda. Whether this is the end of the road for the Arizona ICE Act remains to be seen. The last time Hobbs killed a GOP priority bill focused on immigration enforcement, Republicans responded by packaging it into a ballot referral. That referral, titled the Secure Border Act, made it a state crime for migrants to cross the southern border anywhere but at an official port of entry — and nearly 63% of Arizonans cast their ballots in favor of it last year. The veto drew criticism from the Republican Governors Association, which works to ensure GOP candidates are elected to lead states across the country. 'Katie Hobbs' veto is no surprise — her record on the border is pitiful. Hobbs tried to fool Arizonans into thinking she was a border hawk, but this veto shows she is unserious about addressing the border and protecting Arizonans from the violence and drugs coming into the state,' RGA Director Kollin Crompton said in a written statement. Hobbs faces reelection in 2026, and Republicans have sought to frame her as weak on border security to mobilize voters against her. Concern over the southern border ranked at the top of voter priorities in the last election. The Democrat has tried to straddle the line by supporting harsh immigration policies at the federal level and opposing anti-immigrant proposals at the state level. Congress' approval of the Laken Riley Act, which broadened the scope of ICE detainers for even nonviolent crimes, including shoplifting, prompted Hobbs' strong praise via social media. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Axios
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Homan and Kennedy tout Trump admin policies at Arizona Capitol
Two high-profile members of President Trump's administration — border czar Tom Homan and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — visited the Arizona Capitol on Tuesday. The big picture: Homan's trip comes as the administration continues its immigration and border security crackdowns, which he said have drastically reduced the number of people entering the country illegally. State of play: Homan told lawmakers and guests that Trump gave him three priorities — secure the border, carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, and find hundreds of thousands of missing migrant children brought into the country. Homan touted a 94% drop in illegal border crossings under Trump — a statistic reflected in U.S. Customs and Border Protection's reported decrease from February 2024 to February 2025. But "I'm not satisfied … I want more," he said of the administration's immigration arrests from the dais as he addressed the Arizona Legislature. Zoom in: Homan said Trump has prioritized deporting people who are public safety or national security threats, but "if we find a non-criminal illegal alien, they're coming, too." "If you're in the country illegally, you should be looking over your shoulder ... It's a crime," he warned. Homan also praised Trump for designating drug cartels as terrorist organizations, saying the president will "wipe them off the face of the earth in the next couple years." The other side: No Democratic lawmakers stayed for the speech, per House minority spokesperson Robbie Sherwood. 19 lawmakers walked out, and the rest never showed up for Homan's address. Catch up quick: Senate President Warren Petersen (R-Gilbert) sponsored legislation dubbed the "Arizona ICE Act." The bill would ban local governments from preventing cooperation with federal immigration officials, and would require county jails and state prisons to hold people for up to 48 hours at the request of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). If the state House approves the bill, it will go to Gov. Katie Hobbs, who is likely to veto it. The intrigue: Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was also in Phoenix on Tuesday, posting on X that she was accompanying ICE agents and Arizona law enforcement to arrest "human traffickers" and "drug smugglers." "We're going to make America safe," she said in a video from the Valley while holding a gun and donning a bullet-proof vest. Meanwhile, Kennedy held a press conference in the Senate to tout legislation inspired by Kennedy's "Make America Healthy Again" movement. One bill would prohibit schools from serving students "ultraprocessed" foods containing certain chemical additives. "What we're doing to our children is criminal, and we have to stop," Kennedy said. The other would bar food stamp recipients from using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to purchase soda. The ultraprocessed foods bill has bipartisan support and passed the House unanimously, while the SNAP legislation is supported by Republicans and opposed by Democrats. Both bills are headed to Hobbs' desk for signature after the Senate gave final approval Tuesday.
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
GOP bill targets Arizona schools that restrict immigration agents on campus
A protester holds up a sign opposing collaboration between local police and federal immigration officials at the state Capitol in Phoenix on Feb. 10, 2025. Republican leadership has introduced a law, called the Arizona ICE Act, that would increase the spread of official cooperation agreements between ICE and every law enforcement agency in the state. Photo by Gloria Rebecca Gomez | Arizona Mirror Arizona Republicans want to force public schools to open their doors to ICE agents, amid a growing wave of school officials issuing guidance or passing rules against doing so. The state Senate on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to Senate Bill 1164, known as the Arizona ICE Act. The bill has been denounced by immigrant rights advocates and opposed by every Democrat in the legislature because it encourages Arizona's law enforcement agencies to strengthen their relationships with federal immigration authorities, ultimately increasing the degree to which local police officers prioritize the detainment of undocumented people. While originally the bill mandated that police departments and sheriff's offices across the state use their 'best efforts' to support the execution of federal immigration laws — ringing alarm bells for pro-immigrant groups who feared it could pave the way for Trump's mass deportation agenda — that language was removed before the full Senate considered it on Wednesday. But a provision strictly prohibiting any governmental entity from approving any policy that restricts cooperation with ICE was left intact. And that bid to tie the hands of local leaders — including city councils and school boards — who want to protect the populations under their care elicited criticism from Democrats. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Sen. Catherine Miranda, D-Phoenix, noted that some Arizona schools are moving to declare their campuses safe zones in the wake of Trump's executive order rescinding a Biden-era policy that prevented ICE agents from carrying out enforcement actions in schools, churches and hospitals. Days after the executive order was issued, the Phoenix Union High School District governing board unanimously adopted a resolution declaring its campuses were safe zones, and stating that no individual or organization that would create an educational disruption would be allowed on school grounds. Tucson Unified School District also reaffirmed its commitment not to allow ICE agents on campus without a judicial warrant. Legal experts say that ICE agents frequently rely on administrative warrants, which don't permit searches, only arrests and seizures by a designated officer. School officials must comply with judicial warrants, but can develop policies on whether to cooperate with agents who present only administrative warrants or similar documents that are otherwise legally insufficient to allow them entry. Miranda grilled Senate President Warren Petersen, who sponsored the Arizona ICE Act, on whether his proposal would jeopardize such school policies. The bill has the potential to nullify any policies adopted by public school officials, even those like TUSD's guidance that mirrors current law. The Republican from Gilbert said that any official ordinance or rule that interferes with the ability of federal immigration officers to carry out their duties would be unlawful under the bill's provisions. He added that he was unsure about the ability of ICE agents to enter schools without warrants, but said he doesn't expect them to target students. 'I don't contemplate any situation where they would be going into a school. But if a school is passing rules saying that they won't cooperate with ICE, then, yeah, the answer is yeah, they cannot do that,' he said. 'That is kind of unthinkable, really. We want our schools, who are teaching our kids, to be sending a message that they're going to try to break laws?' Petersen sought to redirect the conversation around the bill to focus on its mandate for law enforcement agencies to comply with ICE detainers. 'What this really deals with here is we're seeing cities that are putting our immigration officials into dangerous situations because, for example, they're not honoring detainers that are issued by ICE,' he said. 'Instead of ICE picking up a criminal who's broken either a state or federal law, they're being released back into the community.' Also known as an immigration hold, ICE detainers are written requests to law enforcement agencies to keep people suspected of being in the country illegally in custody for an additional 48 hours after they are supposed to be released to give immigration officials time to determine whether they are eligible for removal — even if that person hasn't been convicted of a crime. Currently, law enforcement agencies have the option to obey those requests or follow only those issued with judicial approval. ICE detainers, and local compliance with them, have become a common talking point among border hawk politicians following last year's murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley. The man convicted in her murder, Venezuelan immigrant Jose Ibarra, was previously arrested for traffic violations in New York and apprehended and cited for shoplifting in Atlanta. Despite no ICE detainer ever being issued for Ibarra, the case has prompted a nationwide push from Republican lawmakers for increased cooperation between ICE and local law enforcement agencies, and punishments for those who don't comply with detainers. Petersen's bill authorizes the Arizona attorney general to take any law enforcement agency found to be in violation of its directives to court, and even gives everyday Arizonans the ability to trigger investigations into local police departments. The Arizona ICE Act will move forward in the GOP majority legislature and is expected to earn the full support of the state Senate when it is next put up for a vote. But Democrats are unanimously opposed to it. Miranda said that she's concerned about its potential to negatively impact students who are undocumented. 'I'm worried about how this will affect attendance at our public schools,' she said. 'As a former educator, I believe no children should be deterred from receiving an education, especially not out of fear of deportation. Schools should be safe spaces where families can unify and foster a sense of community, they should not be tainted by mass deportation plans that prey on Arizona's vulnerable immigrant population.' Schools in other states are already shouldering the effects of hostile immigration policies. School districts in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Denver have reported drops in attendance and students staying home out of fear of being deported. And in Texas, 11-year-old Jocelynn Rojo Carranza, who was bullied at school by classmates who threatened to report her parents to ICE, committed suicide. While the Arizona ICE Act is likely to be approved by both chambers of the state legislature — which is under Republican control — it's also likely to be vetoed by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, who has been critical of anti-immigrant proposals in the past. 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