his parents were killed in a civil war. He’d always felt safe here, but that was changing. He worried he would be picked up by ICE because of his accent and looks. News reports of ICE using violence disturbed him, making him feel like a target. “That’s not the America that I know,” he said. “I’m asking you for protection.” An airport worker referenced ICE’s recent arrival at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. “We’re scared,” the worker said, “and we don’t want to be scared at work.” Francisca Gil, who works in refugee services for Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest, told the council about a group of refugees who’d skipped job interviews at the airport because they feared being detained by ICE. “It is so unfair that they are afraid to be in the community and continue with their lives,” Gil said. Councilmembers who spoke at the session all lauded community members for their input. “That’s helped us end up in a better place,” said Mayor Kate Gallego about the listening sessions born from the outrage. Pastor said the transparency initiative “really came about with not just one person but with a collective.” ICE or any other civil law enforcement agency is now prohibited from using city property to stage operations, for processing or as an operations base, at least without permission from the city manager or police chief. There are exceptions, of course: The city cannot bar ICE from serving judicial warrants or from pursuing a fleeing suspect. Certain city-owned sites, such as the Phoenix Municipal Court or Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport — the latter of which is federally regulated and has already seen an ICE presence — are fair game. Phoenix will also erect signs that state such operations on city property are not allowed and will educate city workers on how to interact with ICE and what to do if ICE attempts to use city property improperly. During the council meeting, Assistant City Manager Lori Bays laid out the measure’s many facets, walking attendees through its six points with a detailed slideshow. There will be a new portal run by the Office of Accountability and Transparency, where people can file complaints about ICE encounters that they think were illegal or violated their civil rights. A new website with Know Your Rights primers and other resources will be available in a multitude of languages. Bayes also clarified which types of city property Phoenix could bar ICE from using, and how city staffers would be trained to respond if they encounter an ICE agent. She was also careful not to overpromise. She stressed that the city has to operate within state laws that prohibit it from obstructing federal immigration efforts. And while the city would investigate inci- dents involving ICE that could rise to the level of criminality, the public shouldn’t hope too hard for a ton of convictions. “What I do want to be transparent about is that investigating these cases will be extremely difficult,” Bays said. “And there- fore the likelihood of prosecution is low.” CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM Despite the disillusioned rancor that led up to the vote, activist groups mostly walked away satisfied, at least for the moment. The community organizing group Poder in Action was among several that collaborated to draft 14 demands for the city leading up to the vote, according to interim co-director Ben Laughlin. In an interview several days before the meeting, Laughlin told Phoenix New Times that the group “wanted to see poli- cies that were about the people.” What Phoenix ultimately adopted incorporated some of the group’s demands, most notably restricting ICE from staging on many city-owned or -run properties and providing outreach and educational material in multiple languages. However, there is still more the city could do, activists feel. Two demands that were left off were the creation of an immigration defense fund and a pledge to issue more citations rather than arrests for nonviolent crimes. The latter would reduce the number of people booked into Maricopa County jails, where ICE agents operate under an agreement with the county sheriff’s office. A large number of people who wind up in immigration detention in Phoenix got there after being arrested by a Phoenix cop and booked into county jail, regardless of whether charges were ultimately brought against them. Andrea Luna Cervantes, the Arizona campaign manager for the grassroots organization Organized Power in Numbers, told New Times after the vote that they want conversations with the city to continue. “This is a great first step for the city to take in terms of a phase one of how are we going to protect our community of Phoenix residents,” she said. “We want them to know this is not just a one-and-done.” That seemed to be the consensus at the meeting. A first step is fine, but it naturally implies the need for several subsequent ones. “I want this to go a lot farther because the people we are dealing with do not believe in the Constitution of the United States,” said one speaker during public comment. Another, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America Phoenix-Metro chapter, warned that the passing of the initiative “does not remove the urgency behind these additional issues. These are critical.” Jose Hernandez, the brother of Councilmember Hernandez, challenged the public officials and their staff to take their oaths to the city and its residents seri- ously. “What we shouldn’t disagree on is reprehensible violence that’s committed by a rogue agency,” he said. Those will be discussions for another day. About four hours after the start of the meeting and after the successful vote, the activists stood outside council chambers in the plaza that now has no name, with a stack of discarded pizza boxes next to them. It was time for their post-mortem of the meeting. The refrain “cautiously opti- mistic” murmured through the circle. They gave themselves a round of applause. For now. Much of Baseline Road in Phoenix also featured ceremonial signs for Cesar Chavez Boulevard. (Google Maps) The statue of Cesar Chavez in Laveen was covered with a tarp after the city voted to begin the process of removing all remembrances of him. (Phoenix New Times) >> p 12
