Protesters force Phoenix City Council session to adjourn early over ICE concerns

Activists criticized the council for failing to hold public comment or create more robust policy to protect Arizonans from ICE.

Tuesday’s Phoenix City Council study session lasted less than 20 minutes before a riled up crowd disrupted the meeting, criticizing city leaders for failing to seek community input on new policies regarding the presence of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the city.

The city of Phoenix, which is home to a large immigrant population, has been bracing for ICE agents to ramp up their presence in the city as part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda. 

On Tuesday, the City Council convened in a study session, which is closed to public comment, to discuss drafting an ordinance regarding how to respond if federal immigration agents target Phoenix the same way they’ve previously descended on Los Angeles, Chicago, and Minneapolis. 

The proposed “community transparency initiative” would document immigration enforcement that may violate the law, collect data on how ICE activity could affect city services, and implement training for city employees on how to handle an interaction with ICE.

Local immigrant groups, including Organized Power in Numbers, Phoenix Metro DSA, Poder in Action, and Progress Arizona criticized the council for failing to hold public comment or create more robust policy to protect Arizonans from ICE. The groups held a demonstration outside before packing the chambers to make a showing to the council.

Just 17 minutes in, the protest was disrupted by Rebecca Denis, a concerned resident, who criticized council members for the city’s haphazard measures. After Denis’ interruption, more protesters joined in to voice their concerns, leading to the council calling for a 10 minute recess. Protesters continued chanting for the duration of the break, including chants such as “Si Se Puede,” “No justice, no peace, no ICE on our streets,” and “No fear, no hate, no ICE in our state.”

Once the council reconvened, the council promptly voted 8-1 in favor of drafting the ordinance before adjourning the meeting. 

In a statement, councilman Kevin Robinson called ICE’s actions concerning, but said disruptions during the session were unhelpful to the city’s goal of protecting its residents.

“My fellow Councilmembers and I planned to take the opportunity to tackle an important issue, federal immigration and our City’s role in protecting our residents,” he said. “However, demonstrators made that conversation unattainable. And while I understand and empathize with them, I was really looking forward to a healthy and open discussion with staff and colleagues.”

City staff now have 45 days to come up with a plan on investigating allegations of crimes by federal immigration authorities, along with a plan to collect data on how city services are affected by ICE’s presence. The city must also provide training for city employees on how to handle warrants.

In an interview, Denis said the city is doing too little to protect its residents in the face of ICE’s violence across the country.

“It’s too tame. It’s too late. It’s not addressing the level of violence that comes with ICE, and it’s not really addressing the main issue which is ‘how are you as a city going to do the most you can to protect us?’” Denis said. 

Four council members—Anna Hernandez, Laura Pastor, Debra Stark, and Vice Mayor Kesha Hodge Washington—stayed behind to listen to the concerns of dozens of protesters who lined up to speak their thoughts regarding what the city should do to stand up to the federal government.

Isabel Garcia, co-director at Poder in Action, pointed to five steps the city should take instead: creating a publicly funded deportation defense; a ban on ICE using city property; prohibiting protest suppression; ending the arrest-to-deportation pipeline; and ending city collaboration with corporations that profit from ICE.

“Phoenix is the fifth largest city in the country. What happens here sets a precedent across the country,” Garcia said. “We have an opportunity here to be courageous, creative and imaginative, and stand up for immigrant rights, for the rights of all people of color and [the] poor working class, people who are being directly impacted and who have always been directly impacted by state violence.”