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2 days ago
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‘You show up and get deported anyway': Migrants with court hearings face an impossible choice
Protesters gather at the immigration court in downtown Phoenix on May 22, 2025, to guard against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arresting people showing up for their scheduled court hearings. Photo by Gloria Rebecca Gomez | Arizona Mirror Federal immigration officials continued targeting people at the Phoenix Immigration Courthouse on Thursday, surveilling and detaining migrants whose cases were dismissed minutes earlier in ways that appear to be an attempt to minimize attention from both protestors and media. Berta, a soft-spoken 48-year-old woman who was afraid to give her last name, spoke to the Arizona Mirror while she and her lawyer took refuge near protestors. She said that the United States has been her home longer than Mexico ever was. 'It's been 28 years,' she said. 'More than half my life.' Returning to Mexico terrifies her, she said, and she's been working with an immigration lawyer to make sure that never happens. On Thursday, she went to Phoenix Immigration Court to attend a mandatory hearing. ICE agents were waiting. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Berta is one of hundreds of people across the country with tenuous legal protections who have lately been caught in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign. Trump promised on the campaign trail that he would deport millions of people. But doing so has proven more difficult than simply declaring that it would happen, and Trump has reportedly spent months angry that immigration agents haven't rounded up more immigrants. In what legal experts have derided as a bid to boost deportation numbers, the Trump administration has recently launched raids at immigration courthouses in multiple cities, targeting migrants and asylum seekers who show up for scheduled immigration hearings. Last week, more than a dozen people were detained by ICE agents in Phoenix, shortly after federal prosecutors filed to dismiss their cases, effectively leaving them open to deportation. That same pattern played out in Berta's hearing on Thursday afternoon. The federal prosecutor made a motion to dismiss her case, and the judge granted it. The consequences were almost immediate. When she and her lawyer, Erica Sanchez, exited the courtroom, they noticed ICE agents. Thinking quickly, they ducked into the bathroom to wait it out. Later, the pair were able to exit the courthouse building and stood with immigrant rights advocates until Sanchez's husband arrived to pick them up. At the same time that Berta and Sanchez climbed into the black Jeep, a federal agent raced down the stairs from the courthouse's covered carport towards them, but they drove away before he could stop them. On the second floor of that parking structure, which is directly across from the courthouse's entrance, ICE agents could be seen looking through binoculars and speaking into walkie talkies, ostensibly taking note of which cars immigrants were leaving in and relaying that information to other federal officials waiting in white paneled vans and vehicles with out-of-state license plates in the surrounding streets. Thursday was the second day ICE agents employed a new tactic of following migrants outside of the courthouse grounds and pulling them over blocks away. Immigrant rights advocates say the move is intentional: detaining people in the surrounding streets instead of the elevator or courtroom lobby makes it more difficult for advocates to protest or film the arrests. At least one woman was observed by a reporter being detained after being pulled over in her car, but it's unclear how many more people were arrested under the new strategy. But opponents of the raids haven't let that new difficulty deter them from at least trying to monitor ICE activity. Members of pro-immigrant groups, including the Phoenix branch of Indivisible, Common Defense, Fuerte and the Borderlands Resource Initiative, organized themselves via text messages, Signal chats, phone calls and walkie talkies. Some protestors gathered in front of the courthouse entrance and warned migrants entering and exiting the building that ICE agents were watching. Others stood near two white paneled vans with U.S. Department of Homeland Security license plates parked behind the courthouse on 9th Avenue and Van Buren Street. A few jumped into a car to respond to a tip sent to the ICE watch hotline set up by immigrant advocacy groups in January, in anticipation of Trump's hostile agenda. And when an immigrant woman whose case had just been dismissed approached protestors waving posters at oncoming traffic advising them of ICE's presence, a man who would only identify himself as 'P' for fear of repercussions, accompanied her to the McDonald's across the street and ordered her a Lyft home. 'P', who teaches music in the Creighton Elementary School District, said that it was clear the woman was being followed by ICE because the duo had cut through a construction area, crisscrossed streets and turned down corners only to consistently find ICE vans nearby. He said it was 'surreal' to watch federal agents try to arrest a person simply attending a scheduled immigration hearing — going through the same legal process border hawks have for years advocated for. Artie, who also teaches at Creighton Elementary School District, said he was inspired to join the handful of protestors because of his own history with the immigration system. In 1979, at just 14-years-old, Artie left Guadalajara, Mexico, with his parents to immigrate to the United States. He's since become a citizen, but that experience helps him empathize with the fear that people attending immigration hearings on Thursday felt. 'I'm here to support, to try to get ICE to be less effective,' he said, calling their strategies 'crazy'. While the threat of a detainment persists at Phoenix Immigration Court, migrants with scheduled hearings have no other option but to show up. Those who skip a hearing have a deportation order filed against them and their case is closed; getting back into the legal process is much more difficult if that happens. Carlos accompanied his wife to Phoenix Immigration Court on Thursday morning. While she attended her hearing inside, Carlos waited across the street on a public bench. He was nervous and restless, walking back and forth between the bench and the courthouse, then up and down the public sidewalks near both. When Phoenix police officers arrived to keep protestors away from the courthouse entrance, he kept a close eye on them, worrying that they might be ICE agents. He had heard about the arrests of the past two weeks, and said the news scared him and his wife. 'It almost makes you not want to show up,' he said. 'You show up and you get deported anyway.' But, he added, they went to the hearing despite the risk because the alternative only guarantees a deportation order. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
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3 days ago
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ICE resumes courthouse arrests in Phoenix, but with new tactics amid opposition
A woman holds up a large banner that reads: 'ICE is here! Take precautions,' in Spanish at the Phoenix Immigration Court in Phoenix on May 28, 2025. After several days of no arrests, ICE agents have resumed detaining people at the court, where migrants are caught between the risk of a potential arrest if they show up and the certainty of a deportation order being issued against them if they don't. Photo by Gloria Rebecca Gomez | Arizona Mirror Immigration agents have resumed arresting people who show up to immigration hearings, pulling over and detaining a mother and her children on Wednesday morning. Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested more than a dozen people over two days in hallways, elevators and the parking lot after federal prosecutors filed to dismiss their immigration cases, leaving them vulnerable to deportation. Similar scenes played out across the country, in Seattle, Miami and Los Angeles, in what legal experts say is a bid by the Trump administration to boost deportation numbers by targeting a population that is easy to access. Migrants with scheduled hearings must show up to court or risk a deportation order. Federal immigration agents appear to be focusing on people who have recently arrived in the country. In January, President Donald Trump expanded the scope of expedited removal, a policy that speeds up deportations while at the same time sidestepping the right to a court hearing, from a limited application under the Biden administration that was enforced close to the border to the entire country instead. That expansion means that federal officials can arrest anyone who has lived in the U.S. for less than two years. According to the Arizona Republic, the people whose cases were dismissed last week fell in that category. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX In Phoenix, the two days of raids were followed by several days of reprieve — until Wednesday morning, when immigrant rights advocates say federal immigration officials pulled a mother and her children over and arrested them after driving away from court. In a video posted by 50501 Arizona, a group that opposes Trump's policies, masked federal agents can be seen escorting a woman out of a white mid-sized suv into a van. The woman is carrying an infant's car seat and holding the hand of a young girl walking behind her. Ratt, a member of 50501 who was unwilling to give her last name, denounced the raids as 'human trafficking,' and lamented to the Arizona Mirror that people who are complying with the legal process are being targeted. 'It's bullsh—. These people are doing everything right, they're doing everything legally only to be followed and taken,' she said. 'And it's wrong, it's so enraging.' It's bullsh—. These people are doing everything right, they're doing everything legally only to be followed and taken. – Ratt Beth Strano, the executive director of the Borderlands Resource Initiative, an immigrant rights organization that has helped organize multiple volunteer trainings and protests in response to the detainments, said that ICE agents are changing their tactics, likely due to opposition from advocates. Last week, agents in plain clothes waited in the courtroom and coordinated with other officers outside. But, according to protestors, Wednesday's actions appeared to be the result of officers trying to minimize their visibility by surveilling from the parking structure across the courthouse, identifying the vehicle of the person whose case was dismissed and then stopping them down the road. Strano said that the presence of observers and protestors at the courthouse and other buildings where arrests happen, including Phoenix's ICE field office, is vital to be able to learn how federal immigration officials are conducting raids and keep vulnerable community members informed about their rights. 'The more that we are watching and we're seeing what they're doing, the more we can report back to the community and people can make their plans accordingly,' she said. 'They can know what their rights are, and they can have as much protection within their legal rights as possible.' But while advocates last week were able to disseminate literature to people entering the courthouse about their rights, this week protestors dealt with new opposition from the property manager. A white rope was tied to the trees next to the courthouse, demarcating where the crowd should stand: on the public sidewalk facing Van Buren Street, several feet away from the court's entrance. Attendees set up a large white poster announcing 'Rights & Information' against the rope in hopes of persuading migrants to approach. Other, smaller posters advising migrants in Spanish not to sign anything and to ask for an appeal if the judge dismisses their case, were difficult to read from that far away. Some walked to the intersection of Van Buren Street and 7th Avenue and held up a large banner warning drivers that ICE agents were present. And a group that gathered in front of the entrance to speak to people arriving for their scheduled hearings during the afternoon session was quickly told to disperse by Phoenix police officers or be arrested for trespassing. The group relocated to the courtroom and lobby to observe hearings and ensure migrants leaving their hearings were advised about the danger. While no arrests occurred during the afternoon session, multiple people missed their hearings. It's unclear if a fear of detainment was the reason. Strano said that, while an arrest is possible, migrants should still attend their hearings. The alternative is a closed case, a deportation order in absentia and a much more difficult time restarting the legal process. Instead of skipping their hearings, migrants should try to show up to court with a lawyer or someone else who is either a legal permanent resident or citizen to serve as an observer who can contact family members if an arrest does occur. Strano added that migrants who are pulled over after their hearings shouldn't open their door or leave their vehicle unless ICE agents provide an arrest warrant signed by a judge. As immigrant rights groups sound the alarm over what they view as due process violations, Arizona's Democratic congressional delegation is pushing back at the federal level. On Wednesday, Arizona Sens. Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly and Reps. Yassamin Ansari and Greg Stanton sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons expressing concern over the arrests. The people detained at the courthouse, they wrote, have no criminal records and represent no danger to the community. 'This action targeted those who followed the rules and showed up to their hearing to present their case to an immigration judge as part of the process for claiming asylum or other legal status, where they would be granted or denied status,' the Democrats wrote. They noted that the administration's hyperfocus on immigration enforcement threatens to undermine public safety, and the latest bid to arrest people complying with federal law is just another example of that. 'The administration's use of limited resources and reassignment of law enforcement away from drug trafficking and human trafficking cases to target noncriminal immigrants means that serious criminals may be allowed to continue roaming the streets at large — making Arizonans less safe,' they wrote. 'Instead, finite resources should be focused on removing individuals who pose genuine threats to public safety, such as gang members and violent offenders, not people complying with the law.' The letter requests that the agencies provide, by June 3, the exact number of people arrested at immigration courthouses and their demographic information, including their country of origin and age; the number of people who were already in removal proceedings; how many of them have been placed in expedited removal; a copy of the guidance that was used to carry out the arrests; and information on how ICE is meeting federal requirements to conduct fear screenings for people in custody. 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7 days ago
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Masked ICE agents are showing up at courthouses. Immigrant groups call it ‘flagrant' violation of due process
A gang of nearly two dozen masked federal agents descended on a courthouse in Phoenix, Arizona over several days this week and arrested immigrants moments after they left their immigration court hearings. Issac Ortega, a Phoenix-based immigration attorney, said his client was arrested on Tuesday after a hearing that same morning. His client has no criminal history and entered the United States legally through the CBP One app. Ortega told the Arizona Mirror. The incident in Phoenix was not isolated. Unidentified agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies have made similar arrests inside and outside courthouses across the country in recent days, from Washington state to Virginia, as Donald Trump's administration accelerates his deportation agenda. Inside Seattle Immigration Court, three people were arrested and escorted from the building on Wednesday morning immediately after their cases were dismissed, KUOW reported. One woman was granted permission to apply for asylum, narrowly avoiding another agent who was waiting for her outside the courtroom. And in San Diego, a man was arrested for allegedly obstructing the detention of a Guatemalan man who was attending his immigration court hearing. His lawyer later said his client's case had not yet been dismissed and that he had not violated any of the terms of his release. The American Immigration Lawyers Association says the incidents are a 'flagrant betrayal of basic fairness and due process' for people who are simply following the rules. 'Immigration courts are being weaponized, judges are coordinating with ICE to dismiss cases and immediately funnel individuals into the fast-track deportation pipeline known as expedited removal,' the group said. 'These are not fugitives,' the group added. 'They are individuals, many who are seeking protection from torture in their countries, complying with the law.' After taking office, Trump signed an executive order that greenlights fast-track deportation proceedings for immigrants who cannot prove that they have continuously lived in the United States for more than two years. That 'expedited removal' process — historically used at the U.S.-Mexico border — is now being expanded across the country. The American Civil Liberties Union sued to block the measure, arguing people seeking asylum 'would get less due process contesting their deportation than they would contesting a traffic ticket.' Internal administration documents reviewed by The Washington Post instruct ICE agents in more than 20 states to arrest people immediately after there cases are dismissed by a judge, or if they are given orders for their removal. Following that, immigrants who have been in the country for less than two years are placed into a fast-track removal process — which does not involve a hearing before a judge. One attorney, Khiabett Osuna, told The Post she was was approached by a plainclothes ICE agent who was checking a list of immigration cases while sitting inside a courtroom's public gallery. Roughly six agents gathered outside the courtroom with laptops, reviewing more lists of names, she said. 'It's a whole operation,' she told the outlet. Immigration lawyers describe the tactics as 'cruelty disguised as policy.' They're morally wrong — and self-defeating, they said. 'If the goal is court compliance, these tactics achieve the opposite: they terrify people away from the very process they're supposed to trust, undermining the rule of law at its foundation,' according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association 'This is a corruption of our immigration courts, transforming them from forums of justice into cogs in a mass deportation apparatus,' the group said. 'The expansion of expedited removal strips more people of their right to a hearing before a judge — as our laws promise.'
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23-05-2025
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A Republican calls out rank politics and ‘performative outrage' amid split on animal welfare bill
Photo illustration by Jim Small. Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy | Arizona Mirror One GOP state lawmaker has had it with the 'performative outrage' of some of the far-right members of his own party. During a debate about a proposed bill that would strengthen consequences for people convicted of animal abuse, Rep. Walt Blackman engaged in a heated exchange on May 20 with fellow Republican Rep. Alexander Kolodin on the floor of the Arizona House of Representatives. Kolodin, a Scottsdale Republican and member of the far-right Arizona Freedom Caucus, criticized Senate Bill 1658 for what he described as putting the wellbeing of pets above that of their owners, especially owners who are homeless or living in poverty. Blackman, who comes from Snowflake and describes himself as a traditional Reagan Republican, had just days earlier made a lengthy post on the social media site X calling out his far-right GOP colleagues for 'spend(ing) more energy policing ideological purity than drafting legislation.' 'It's got nothing to do with the bill,' Blackman said on May 20, in response to Kolodin's criticisms. 'It's got to do with politics. I've been down here (at the Capitol) enough.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The proposed legislation at the center of the debate was originally introduced by Republican Sen. Shawnna Bolick via Senate Bill 1234, which passed through the Senate with near-unanimous support but never got a committee hearing in the House. Blackman revived the bill via a strike-everything amendment (an amendment that wholly replaces the text of the original bill) to Bolick's Senate Bill 1658. Numerous animal rights organizations supported the measure, including the Arizona Humane Society and the Maricopa County Attorney's Office. Blackman is a U.S. Army combat veteran who said that he considers his dogs to be family members and that he, like many other veterans, depends on them to help him through the mental and emotional impacts of his time in the military. 'It is making sure that people who have dogs, that they are being responsible, that they are making sure that they are giving them clean water, that they are giving them the proper amount of food to eat,' Blackman said. 'This is a no-brainer piece of legislation.' The proposed law that Blackman was advocating for would add failure to provide suitable and species-appropriate food, water and shelter to the definition of animal neglect in Arizona. It would also expand the definition of animal cruelty to include 'intentionally, knowingly or recklessly' failing to provide medical attention necessary to prevent unreasonable suffering. 'I don't know why this body would want to be so cruel as to make it a serious crime for poor people to own pets,' Kolodin said of the proposal. The bill includes carve-outs to the shelter requirement for working dogs, including livestock herding and guardian dogs, as well as for the pets of people who don't have a permanent residence themselves. A clearly frustrated Blackman reminded Kolodin of those exceptions, to which Kolodin countered that there was not an exception for the medical care requirement. 'If you can't afford to give (medical care) to yourself or your kids, you're not breaking the law. But if you can't afford to give it to the family dog, now you're a criminal,' Kolodin said. 'That is cruel.' Kolodin called the proposal 'inhumane.' Blackman responded by pointing out that 'some of his colleagues' might want to think back on some of the cruel and inhumane votes or comments they've previously made on the House floor. A lot of things that I did as a Republican, I am not proud of. – Rep. Walt Blackman, R-Snowflake Members of the Arizona Freedom Caucus were some of the only legislators who voted against the final version of an emergency funding bill last month to ensure that Arizonans with disabilities didn't lose access to vital caregiving and health services. 'We would love for every person in this state to get proper medical attention,' Kolodin said. 'We would love for every person in this state to have nourishing food and water. We would love that. And we would love for every dog in this state to have those things too. But guess what? That is not reality.' Blackman told the Arizona Mirror in a May 22 phone interview that he was surprised that Kolodin said that on the House floor — not because Blackman thinks it was disingenuous, but because it doesn't align with the Arizona Freedom Caucus agenda. Kolodin, along with other Freedom Caucus members, have voted in favor of strengthening rules and restrictions on the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides assistance to low income people to purchase food. They've also supported cuts to Medicaid, and the services it provides, including when they voted against the emergency funding bill for the Division of Developmental Disabilities last month. They have also supported legislation to criminalize homelessness. Blackman said that, as he sees it, members of the Freedom Caucus seem to always be voting against bipartisan legislation not based on the merits of the proposals, but based on a political scorecard. And statements from the group's leader, Sen. Jake Hoffman, at the start of the 2025 legislative session seem to back that up. During a January press conference, Hoffman said that the Freedom Caucus' top priority over the next two years would be to make sure that the Democrats who head statewide offices, including Gov. Katie Hobbs, lose their 2026 reelection campaigns. Blackman clashed earlier this year with Arizona Freedom Caucus member Sen. Wendy Rogers, of Flagstaff, when she blocked a bill that he sponsored which criminalized acts of stolen valor at the state level. Stolen valor means lying about or embellishing one's military service. Rogers and Blackman represent the same legislative district, but are political opponents, and she endorsed Steve Slaton over Blackman in the 2024 GOP primary election. Slaton, who owns The Trumped Store in Show Low, is a Trump loyalist like Rogers. But during his campaign, Slaton was found to have falsely claimed that he saw combat in Vietnam during his time in the U.S. Army. Blackman and Kolodin engaged in another heated exchange in April, after Blackman reintroduced his stolen valor bill as a strike-everything amendment to another bill originally sponsored by Bolick, circumventing Rogers' power to block it. Kolodin supported the original version of the stolen valor bill when it passed through the House, but was the single dissenting vote when it was revived. Kolodin said that the new version of Blackman's proposal included a provision that greatly expanded its scope: It says that any person convicted of the offense outlined in the bill would be disqualified from public office. 'We cannot open the door to allowing our courts to judge political speech within the context of criminal law,' Kolodin said. Blackman, in a fiery response to Kolodin, said that the bill has nothing to do with politics or political speech. 'This has nothing to do with political speech. This has to do with blood, sweat and tears men and women left on the battlefield,' Blackman said, at times yelling. 'The next time we have a conflict, I'd like to see whoever says 'no' on this board or in the Senate to jump in a Humvee and get shot at and tell me the service didn't matter.' Blackman told the Mirror that the first person he was criticizing in his May 18 social media post was himself. It was during a two-year reprieve from the state Capitol after serving as a state representative from 2019-2023 that he said he realized that he had gotten away from the values he believed in when he first joined the Republican Party in the 1980s. 'A lot of things that I did as a Republican, I am not proud of,' he said, admitting to his adherence to the 'it's our way or the highway' approach to governing that the GOP employed during his first stint as a lawmaker, when Republicans controlled the state House by a single vote. Since he returned to the legislature in January, Blackman said he's committed to working across the aisle to make changes that help Arizonans instead of scoring political points simply by voting against legislation because Democrats support it. Blackman said that he continues to support closed borders, lower taxes and free enterprise, 'however, I am not for putting my foot on somebody's neck just because they happen to disagree with me,' he said. In the social media post, Blackman accused his party of moving away from what he described as the traditional Republican values of faith, freedom and force to 'focusing almost exclusively on grievance politics and cultural warfare.' Blackman was one of several Republicans who voted for or expressed support for SB1658 during the May 20 debate. Rep. Matt Gress, of Phoenix, described the legislation as 'morally right.' 'How we treat our animals matters a great deal to who we are as a society,' he said. Gress mentioned the impetus for the proposal, a 2023 animal cruelty case in Chandler when 55 special needs dogs were found to be in poor health and living in 'horrible, horrible' conditions. 'We didn't have appropriate laws in place to hold those owners accountable,' he said. Gress, who, like Blackman, has also been chastised by members of his party for voting alongside Democrats, praised bipartisan support for the proposal. The bill will still have to make it past a full vote on the House floor and Senate, as well as a signature from the governor before it becomes law. 'This is a good bill, OK?' Blackman said during the May 20 debate. 'Don't abuse your dog. That's all it's saying. Don't abuse your dog. It doesn't say if a person does not have a place to go — somebody who cannot take care of their dog — they're not going to go to jail.' Kolodin did not respond to a request for comment. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
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23-05-2025
- Politics
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‘Damned if you do, damned if you don't': Activists guard Phoenix immigration court
Protesters gather at the immigration court in downtown Phoenix to guard against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arresting people showing up for their scheduled court hearings. Photo by Gloria Rebecca Gomez | Arizona Mirror Immigrant rights activists kept watch over the Phoenix Immigration Court on Thursday, withstanding 100 degree weather and threats of arrests, ready to protest against a new round of ICE detainments. Federal officials didn't make an appearance, granting migrants who showed up to attend mandatory immigration hearings a reprieve. But organizers of pro-immigrant advocacy groups say they plan to continue gathering at the court, as there is no guarantee there won't be future raids. More than a dozen people so far have been arrested in the past two days by ICE agents. Officers reportedly detained people in elevators, hallways and on their way back to their cars, just minutes after federal prosecutors asked judges to dismiss their immigration cases. That's key, because closing a person's immigration case allows the federal government to refile it under the current legal landscape. And President Donald Trump's administration has vastly changed that landscape, gutting asylum protections and eliminating humanitarian parole programs created by former President Joe Biden for migrants from Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti and Nicaragua. Dismissing immigration cases also leaves the people at the center of those cases vulnerable to expedited removal, a policy that fast-tracks deportations and circumvents the right to a court hearing. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Trump laid the groundwork for this week's arrests shortly after taking office by issuing executive orders that reinstated the ability of immigration officials to carry out enforcement actions near previously protected areas, including courts and expanded the scope of expedited removal to apply to anyone living anywhere in the U.S. without authorization if they are unable to prove their continuous presence in the country for more than two years. The arrests earlier this week appeared to involve people who have been in the country for less than two years, according to the Arizona Republic. Similar arrests at immigration courts in other cities, including Seattle, Los Angeles and Miami, have also happened this week. Legal experts and immigration advocates say it's a bid to boost deportations and fulfill Trump's campaign promise to oversee the highest number of removals in history. No court, no hearing: Trump revives fast-track deportations, expands reach nationwide Ricardo Reyes, a lead organizer for Common Defense, an anti-Trump veterans group that frequently speaks out against anti-immigrant policies, called the targeting of people attending scheduled hearings 'cruel' and said it's an easy way to identify multiple people eligible for deportation. 'They're going for the easiest targets and the softest targets of people trying to do it the right way, because you have their information — you have their address, you have their names,' he said. Reyes added that forcing people to choose between attending their scheduled immigration hearing and risking detention, or skipping the hearing and facing an order of removal as a result, amounts to violating their due process rights, which everyone in the country is entitled to, regardless of their citizenship status. 'This is entrapment, because you're damned if you do, damned if you don't,' he said. 'If you show up for your court hearing, they dismiss your case and then you get picked up. If you don't show up, then you automatically get marked for removal.' And while Thursday appeared to be quiet, Reyes noted that, in the previous days, ICE agents sometimes left the court only to return for the next batch of immigration hearings. The court's hearings are divided into a morning and an afternoon session. Reyes vowed to continue returning to stand vigil beside the courthouse until he was confident the raids would not return, though he didn't say when that might be. 'I will be here until we think they're no longer interested in coming back,' he said. As the heat climbed into the triple digits, Monica Sandschafer pushed the crowd away from the sidewalk in front of the courthouse toward the one facing Van Buren Street, instructing them to stay on city property to avoid problems. During previous demonstrations, the property manager contacted the local police, according to organizers, and she threatened to do so again on Thursday. Advocates huddled under the trees and turned their posters, emblazoned with phrases like 'Bring Kilmar home' and 'No bans, raids, cages,' towards the oncoming traffic, but kept watch over the courthouse and its adjoining parking lot. At the building's entrance, two volunteers waited for people to arrive for their hearings and handed out small red cards with information — in English on one side and Spanish on the other — about their rights when interacting with ICE. Sandschafer, the Arizona State Director for Latino voting rights organization Mi Familia Vota, pointed out that people attending immigration hearings, many of them who are seeking asylum, are following the legal process that Republicans and immigration hawks have long advocated for. 'Opponents of immigration like to say, 'Well, just do it the right way and then you won't have any problems,'' she said. 'These are literally folks doing it exactly the right way that has been laid out for them and then getting tricked into being detained. It's a bait and switch.' These are literally folks doing it exactly the right way that has been laid out for them and then getting tricked into being detained. It's a bait and switch. – Monica Sandschafer, Arizona State Director for Mi Familia Vota Members of Mi Familia Vota have responded by volunteering to accompany people to their court hearings, checking to make sure their case hasn't been closed already — which would mean they don't need to go at all — figuring out how much can be completed online and collecting family contact information in the event of a detainment. The group has also launched 'Know Your Rights' training sessions and citizenship application workshops. For lawful permanent residents, who have also been detained under the current administration's hostile deportation agenda, the best protection is finalizing their citizenship status, Sandschafer said. Sandschafer, too, said she expects to keep adding a visit to the courthouse to her daily calendar. 'We'll be continuing to be a presence as long as ICE is executing these unconstitutional, anti-due process actions,' she said. State and city leaders have lashed out at the move to ensnare people who pose no danger. People with scheduled immigration hearings have already been found by a judge to be willing to comply with the rules of their parole without needing to be put in detention. Gov. Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes, both Democrats and openly critical of Trump's anti-immigrant policies, lambasted the new strategy on social media. 'My office is in contact with DHS to gather more information,' Hobbs wrote, in a post on social media site X, formerly Twitter. 'We need to prioritize efforts to deport criminals and secure the border. Indiscriminately rounding up people following the rules won't make us safer.' 'ICE should be focused on apprehending dangerous criminals, not targeting families outside civil immigration hearings,' echoed Mayes. 'Families and children attempting to navigate the immigration system in good faith deserve dignity and due process, not intimidation or fear.' Phoenix Councilwoman Anna Hernandez, who previously served in the state Senate and has a fiercely pro-immigrant stance, called the arrests 'heartbreaking.' She noted that the hearings on Thursday weren't a series of dismissal motions, like earlier in the week, and posited that the attention from elected officials and immigrant advocates may have deterred a repeat of the ICE detainments. But while elected officials have voiced their concerns with the actions carried out by ICE officials, it's unclear what can be done to prevent it from happening again. Earlier this year, immigrant advocates and city officials alike debated the possibility of passing a citywide ordinance limiting collaboration with federal immigration officials, but nothing came of it. Hernandez said the City of Phoenix likely has little power to stop ICE from arresting people simply attending their immigration hearings. 'Because it is an immigration situation, I think that really is out of our hands, unfortunately,' she said. 'But what we can do, as city electeds, is make sure that we're here to support our people however we can.' Hernandez did say she would support a move to rescind the Maricopa County Jail's involvement in the 287(g) program, though none is currently in the works. The federal agreement allows some officers in the jail enforcement model to help ICE identify people in custody who may be eligible for deportation. Amid the Trump administration's increasingly hostile moves against immigrants, critics have called for scaling back the relationships between local law enforcement agencies and federal immigration officials. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
