‘Be brave’: Analise Ortiz on why it’s critical to stand up to ICE and Trump

Despite being targeted by the right for warning her constituents about ICE raids, Ortiz continues to push back against the agency’s violent crackdown on immigrants. 

State Sen. Analise Ortiz (D-Maryvale) is no stranger to standing up for her community.

As the representative of a heavily Latino and Spanish-speaking district, Ortiz understands the fears of her constituents as agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detain and deport longtime Arizona residents and community members as part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

Over the past year, she has been on the frontlines, protesting against ICE at local demonstrations, amplifying community alerts and know-your-rights trainings, and showing up at locations where arrests are occurring. 

She has also consistently opposed legislation at the local level that could make life harder for Arizona’s immigrant communities, including last month’s legislation, backed by the GOP, that would have stationed ICE agents at polling locations across the state.

But she has paid a price for her efforts. 

Last year, Ortiz was targeted by Libs of TikTok—a far-right political account that doxxes and incites harassment of teachers, legislators, activists, and others—for her posts alerting community members about ICE activity in Arizona. Arizona Republicans later filed an ethics complaint against her for social media posts warning about ongoing immigration activity within the state.

“It got to the point that I could not stay in my home for a week because I was not safe,” Ortiz said. “It was horrifying to know that my fellow Senators did not care that their lies about me could incite their followers to violence.” 

Despite the backlash she’s faced from Republicans, Ortiz says she has no choice but to keep speaking out about the horrors under the Trump administration given the suffering of her constituents. 

“I have constituents who are afraid to go to the grocery store, to get gas, to take their kids to school, because they are seeing the way that ICE is completely violating people’s constitutional rights and racial profiling people,” Ortiz said. “They want to keep us silent, and that’s exactly why we can’t be.”

Ortiz pointed to a recent experience with a constituent who came to her in tears, wondering if her husband—a naturalized citizen—should start carrying his paperwork with him because he speaks with an accent and has brown skin. 

In an investigation last year, ProPublica found that more than 170 US citizens were held by immigration officials, and some have even reported being dragged, tackled, and beaten. 

Fears of racial profiling aren’t unwarranted. The US Supreme Court last year effectively cleared the way for ICE agents to racially profile people based on what language they’re speaking or other characteristics, a policy similar to SB1070, which allowed law enforcement officers to arbitrarily stop Arizonans and demand to see proof of immigration status.

That history haunts Arizonans, and Ortiz understands the fears of her community members who are at risk of being racially profiled, detained, or deported by the Trump administration. 

“We should not be here in the United States of America, and if we stop speaking out about it, the fascism, authoritarianism, is going to get worse.”

Nearly two-thirds of Americans say ICE’s crackdown on immigrants has gone too far, but Arizona Republicans continue to support the federal agency’s tactics. Ortiz says that shows her colleagues’ disregard for the Constitution, particularly the Fourth Amendment, which protects individuals against unreasonable government searches and seizures, and the First Amendment right to free speech.

“It’s clear they don’t have a backbone, that they don’t care about the Constitution. If they did, they would not be accepting the violations of the Fourth Amendment, of the First Amendment, and yet they are gleefully cheering on as Trump and ICE completely shred those amendments to pieces,” she said. 

Ortiz is urging citizens to get involved however they can, whether it be pressuring local leaders to end cooperation with ICE, including by terminating 287g agreements—partnerships with ICE that allow local law enforcement officers to perform some immigration enforcement functions—or volunteering with immigration advocacy groups like LUCHA or Fuente Arts Movement.

“Find what role that you can play and be brave, and know that all of us standing together is so much stronger than the hatred that is coming from the Trump administration.”