This story has been updated with a draft of the county property and mask measures added below.
After more than an hour of emotional testimony from residents invoking history and civil rights, the Pima County Board of Supervisors voted 4–1 Tuesday to draft ordinances aimed at limiting federal immigration enforcement in the county.
Raine Ikagawa said the current climate reminded her of one from 80 years ago under which she, a second-generation Japanese-American, could have been sent to the former federal prison camp on Mt. Lemmon — now the Gordon Hirabayashi Campground.
“I cannot fathom a Tucson in which we allow this,” Ikagawa said of the immigration enforcement actions as well as efforts to expand detention taking place locally.
Majid Kabiri, who lives in Red Rock, compared the plans for an immigration detention center in Marana to concentration camps used in Nazi Germany.
“I would like you to show your courage and say no to a Gestapo concentration camp in Marana,” he said. “I assume that here is the land of the free. I do not want to have a Gestapo concentration camp in my neighborhood.”
Following those impassioned speeches, along with a number of others sharing similar concerns, four out of five Pima County supervisors voted to move ahead on three votes seeking to impact how immigration enforcement takes place in the county.
The first directed county administrators to draft an ordinance protecting county-owned properties from being used for immigration enforcement; the second was to draft an ordinance banning law enforcement officers at city, county, state, and federal levels from wearing masks while on the job, and requiring all law enforcement officers to wear visible identification; and the third was a resolution against the opening of an immigration detention center in nearby Marana.
“We all on the board work really hard to protect the people around us, be it our families, people in health care, students, neighbors, employees. And what we have been witnessing is such an assault on people’s safety and people’s dignity,” said Supervisor Jen Allen. “I have been struggling to figure out what it is that we can do to stand up, because we have to stand up.”
Those votes come as Tucson City Council unanimously directed staff to draft an ordinance barring federal immigration enforcement on city-owned property during its Jan. 21 study session, and as some 6,000 protesters came out on Tucson streets as part of national anti-ICE protests last week.
“Pima County is a property owner. We have the legal authority to set rules on county property,” said Supervisor Andrés Cano. “Our buildings are not traps, our parks are not ambush sites, our health clinics are not places of fear and our libraries are not places people should avoid. They are public spaces, they belong to the public, and everyone.”
While most supervisors voted in favor of moving ahead to draft the ordinances, Supervisor Steve Christy, the only Republican on the board, proposed using a county facility that once housed asylum seekers to facilitate federal immigration enforcement locally and recoup public money spent on asylum support in the past.
There was no second from the other supervisors.
More than 20 people came out to speak at public comment, with most urging board members to move ahead with the ordinances supporting immigrant community members and curtailing how enforcement agents operate locally.
Still, some speakers were in favor of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement.
“For four years we had an open border. The sovereignty of the United States was not enforced, and this precipitates today’s problem,” said former Pima County Republican chairman Dave Smith. “This whole thing is an infantile masturbatory act in an attempt to make you feel good without changing the reality.”
The four supervisors who voted in favor of the three proposals spoke emotionally about the impacts of tactics they see used for immigration enforcement in local communities but also nationally.
When we take a look at what has been happening across the county, perhaps especially in Minneapolis but that is not the only place we are dealing with not just ICE officials,” said Scott, speaking of the fatal shooting of protestor Alex Pretti on a street in Minneapolis by Border Patrol. “Those are folks who are not supposed to be working in the interior of the country… where they are not trained to operate.”
A draft of an ordinance limiting how Pima County-owned properties can be used for federal immigration enforcement will be presented at the Feb. 17 meeting, and will be up for a vote on the March 3 agenda, said supervisors.
On the vote in favor of drafting an ordinance that would ban law enforcement officers from wearing masks while on the job, Supervisor Christy voiced opposition, asking if what the public wanted was for the sheriff’s office and the Tucson Police Department to directly confront immigration enforcement officers.
“Yes,” a number of audience members shouted in response.
The immigration detention center proposed for Marana, similar to the Project Blue data center, meanwhile, raised questions about the limits of local oversight of big projects, and what creative ways localities can slow or stop a project they have concerns about.
“I am going to vote for this resolution because I don’t want an ICE detention facility in Marana, but that is in the boundaries of another jurisdiction,” said Supervisor Rex Scott. “Does Pima County have any regulatory or legal authority that we could bring to bear that would prevent an ICE detention facility from opening in the town of Marana?”
“We don’t have jurisdiction over the zoning within an incorporated jurisdiction,” said Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher.
Chief Civil Deputy County Attorney Sam Brown said the county has been looking into what legal authority exists under public nuisance, among others, that they would explore as a result of the vote.
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