The Tucson City Council directed the city manager and attorney Wednesday to craft an ordinance barring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from staging or carrying out civil immigration enforcement on city property.
Mayor Regina Romero opened up the discussion saying it’s important that residents feel safe on city property, regardless of their immigration status.
“We’ve got to give our residents the certainty that if they go to the park to walk their their dog or take their kids for picnic or if they’re going to go to a recreation center — either their child or themselves — or even go into one of our buildings, say to pay their bills, that they will not be be confronted or attacked or harassed by the federal agencies,” she said.
The proposed ordinance would also establish uniform, citywide rules for how federal immigration agencies can access city property, including staff training, a centralized point of contact, and a requirement to report back to the Mayor and Council within 30 days on implementation and impacts.
Ward 1 council member Lane Santa Cruz, who also led the discussion and proposed the motion asking for the ordinance, said she’s trying to respond to concerns she hears from her constituents.
“We’re trying to respond to this real sense of fear and not having clarity about what’s the role of the city of Tucson and TPD and what’s the role of federal ICE agents,” Santa Cruz said.
Read more
Volunteer records ICE agents smashing car window during Tucson arrest
Steven Davis’ first time volunteering to observe U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s local operations ended with him recording a military-clad agent wearing a black face… Keep reading
She said it’s important to clarify what the city can do in the face of increased immigration action that’s led to protests and public vigilance.
“When there’s fear in our community — the fear creates chaos and people don’t want to come out. They don’t want to use their park. They don’t want to leave their home,” Romero said.
Romero said she isn’t aware of any instances in which federal law enforcement has used city property to stage enforcement but she wants to be prepared.
“I’m working with our emergency manager, our city attorney, our chief of police, our city manager to make sure that when this administration sends eyes or federal deployments to the city of Tucson, we have a plan. We have a strategy,” she said.
Major cities across the country — including Providence and Minneapolis — have already enacted their own policies prohibiting the use of city property for ICE activity.
Romero said every city’s government structure is different but this ordinance proposal is within the realm of what Tucson can actively do to protect residents from immigration enforcement on its property.
Mayor Romero also said she’s in conversation with the police department and nonprofit organizations such as the Defend Tucson Coalition to seek “any type of ordinances, resolutions, or actions that Mayor and Council can take that is within our right to be able to take.”
The city also launched a know-your-rights website on Jan. 13.
The motion was unanimously supported with every council member speaking in favor of the policy.
“It’s important for us to send this message: Let them know not only are we taking legal action because our people don’t feel safe with them running around like a bunch of gestapo in our community,” Ward 2 council member Paul Cunningham said. “I don’t know what the intent is, but the perception is bad. And if it was so good then you wouldn’t have what’s going on in Minneapolis, you wouldn’t have protests every single time they’re trying to do an operation.”
This new policy and the website follow months of escalating tension in Tucson around immigration enforcement.
Less than two months ago, federal law enforcement agents pepper sprayed Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva during a protest of an immigration raid at a taco restaurant on Tucson’s west side in a historic Latino neighborhood. Several videos of the incident taken by journalists, protesters and Grijalva herself were shared on social media.
Grijalva released a statement following the incident in which she called out ICE’s “abusive tactics” and said “communities across the country are being terrorized by a lawless agency.”
More recently, thousands of students walked out on Jan. 20 to protest ICE raids and Trump administration policies.Tucson is also seeing a growth in the Rapid Response Network, a volunteer-based initiative that was created to have people observe ICE arrests for accountability and documentation purposes. Mayor Romero and council members are sharing the rapid response contact information in their communications.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print.
