(The Center Square) – A large number of Arizonans have voiced their displeasure to the Surprise City Council about the incoming federal immigration detention center.
People who spoke at the council meeting Tuesday night criticized the planned U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and expressed their frustrations with the city. During the public comments portion of the meeting, 74 speakers signed up. Only two spoke about issues unrelated to ICE, and Mayor Kevin Sartor limited comments to one hour to prevent the meeting from going too long.
The city council did not take any action on the detention facility because the topic was labeled as strictly a discussion item on the agenda. But City Councilmember Chris Judd said he would bring the facility as an action item at the next meeting.
The federal government awarded GardaWorld a $313 million contract to renovate a Surprise warehouse as the new ICE facility. Some of the concerns speakers expressed to the city council about the ICE facility included its location near schools, skepticism about the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s trustworthiness and objections to Sartor’s press conference on the facility.
The mayor held a press conference last week to give Surprise residents information about the incoming detention facility. He said the detention facility will house a maximum of 542 people, with only single adults temporarily housed.
According to Sartor, the DHS said during their meeting with him and other city leaders in Washington, D.C., that federal law enforcement officers would not conduct operations in “sensitive areas,” such as schools, churches or senior living facilities.
Two Democratic legislators – state Sens. Analise Ortiz of Glendale and Catherine Miranda of Phoenix – spoke at the city council meeting.
Ortiz told council members that “there is no compromise that should be made with DHS to open this facility.” “The only acceptable option is to stop it from opening at all costs.” She noted the council’s decision is “about human beings who will be traumatized, hurt and killed if [DHS is] allowed to hold people” at the facility, which is nearly 420,000 square feet and can hold up to 1,500 beds.
Council members have a “state delegation who will have [their] back” to oppose the ICE facility, Ortiz said, referencing Arizona Democrats.
“ People from all over the state are watching,” Ortiz told the council. “History is watching. Please do the right thing.”
Miranda said it brought “sadness” to her heart that the city council was “having a discussion about detaining people.”
The city council “has the power to say no,” the senator told the council. She encouraged council members to file a lawsuit against the federal government with the help of Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes.
The Center Square reached out Wednesday to the Department of Homeland Security and the White House for comment. The White House declined to comment, referring The Center Square to DHS, which did comment for this story.
“As with any transition, we are reviewing agency policies and proposals,” a department spokesperson said, answering The Center Square’s questions by email. “As Secretary [Markwayne] Mullin said in his confirmation hearing: ‘I will work with the community leaders and make sure that we are delivering for the American people what the President set out … We want to work with community leaders. We want to be good partners.’ ”
Before Tuesday’s meeting, four of the six city council members had expressed frustrations with the incoming detention facility: Patrick Duffy, Judd, Earle Greenberg and Johnny Melton.
At the meeting, Judd said he has “a lot of concerns about” the federal government’s plan for the new detention facility, specifically that the DHS would not “put anything in writing.”
He said it is easy for the DHS to say it will do certain things when the department lacks a boss. When Surprise city leaders met with the DHS in Washington, D.C., in March, the federal agency’s leadership was in transition. At the time, President Donald Trump had fired Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and a Senate confirmation hearing was underway for U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Oklahoma, who took Noem’s position. The Senate later confirmed Mullin, and Mullin was sworn in as the new secretary on March 24.
Another concern Judd brought up was water usage for the detention facility. Judd said the Surprise City Council passed a high-water-use ordinance that says if people use more than 100,000 gallons of water per day, they must get the council’s approval.
City Manager Andrea Davis estimated that at full build-out, the detention facility could use almost 270,000 gallons per day.
Judd said the city’s highest water user currently consumes 80,000 gallons per day.
At his previous press conference, Sartor said he was not concerned about the increase in water usage that would come from this facility.
Judd, meanwhile, said the facility’s location was “terrible.” He noted Surprise has zoning laws that are meant to protect the city’s community, the city’s interest and its “smart, orderly growth.”
The city council would talk about whether the city had any legal options to protect its zoning from the federal government, Judd said.
The council member also raised concerns about the facility being close to the Luke Air Force Base. He said the base was at risk of closure in the 1990s, when the federal government was closing military bases.
To keep the base active, the state passed laws to “protect the mission at Luke,” according to Judd. The base trains fighter pilots.
Judd added that a state law outlawed overnight stays in departure areas near the base.
If Surprise started allowing people to stay overnight in departure areas around the Air Force base, it “would be jeopardizing the mission at Luke” and could lead to the base’s closure, he said.
Judd also noted the federal government could spend up to an estimated $750 million of taxpayers’ money on the detention facility.
Brent Peak, the co-chair of Northwest Valley Indivisible, spoke to The Center Square before Tuesday night’s meeting. His organization has been trying to stop the detention center from operating in Surprise.
Peak said the group’s primary concern since the mayor’s press conference is that Arizona and Surprise emergency response plans “are based on risk management plans” that are outdated for Rinchem, the chemical storage plant across the street from the new detention center location.
Peak said Rinchem has six months to update its plan because when the company first designed it, Rinchem did not factor in that there would be a large detention facility housing “hundreds to thousands of people who cannot self-evacuate” during an emergency such as a tank explosion or chemical spill.
He said Rinchem will have until June to update its risk management plan.
According to Peak, without the company’s updated plan, the facility should not developed.
