Federal agents searched more than a dozen Zipps Sports Grill locations on Monday, setting off a wave of protests and pissing off more than a few people who were just walking by.
Meanwhile, Democratic state lawmakers took to the House floor to denounce ICE raids and Republican lawmakers pushed Sen. Wendy Rogers’ SB1055, which would require state and local officers to report undocumented immigrants to federal agents.
The country has been on edge about ICE and Border Patrol agents laying siege to various Democratic-run cities for the past year, including 3,000 agents in Minneapolis who shot and killed two people on the street. On Tuesday, Border Patrol shot a person in Arivaca, near the U.S.-Mexico border. Law enforcement officials have been tight-lipped about what happened, other than saying that the case involved “an alleged assault on a federal officer.”
Meanwhile, all signs pointed to Phoenix being the next city in the Trump administration’s crosshairs.
Federal officials in Arizona didn’t explain whether the raids were part of the ICE sweeps that have riled up the country. Instead, they offered only a few details, basically saying the raids were the result of a months-long investigation of some kind.
They did say that a judge signed off on the warrants, as opposed to the administrative warrants ICE agents often use to arrest immigrants.
If you read this news release, you know about as much as everybody else.
Unsurprisingly, that paltry explanation wasn’t enough to satisfy Valley residents, and several lawmakers, who gathered around the Zipps locations as they were raided.
Despite the harrumphing from federal officials that the raids were above board, the agents involved in the raids bore the hallmarks of the agents who’ve rampaged through other cities.
Some agents wore masks, including some who wore gas masks.
At least one of them did a drive-by pepper spraying of people standing on a sidewalk.
On the other side of the coin, the raids brought out hundreds of people ready to advocate for immigrants — and jeer at the agents — as regular people have done in other cities targeted by the Trump administration.
That included people who walked out of a gym near one Zipps location and instantly became protesters.
News outlets throughout the Valley rushed to the scenes of the raids, leading to dozens of news stories.
We plowed through that coverage and found a ton of illuminating words from officials and regular people. Today feels like a moment worth dwelling on those words and reactions.
After all, regular people in other cities were the protagonists of the drama, setting up ICE watches, delivering food to immigrants who were too scared to leave their houses, and filming countless encounters with ICE to preserve a record.
What your neighbors had to say
“Some sweet grandmas who have more balls than most people I've seen,” Sam Palumbo, 51, told the Republic about the elderly protesters he saw when he walked out of gym near a Zipps location.
“Midtown is a pretty tight-knit community. We pretty much stick together,” Elizabeth Grigg, a 77-year-old protester carrying a sign that read “ICE = American Gestapo,” told the New Times. “What’s happening in Minneapolis could happen here. It’s horrible.”
“If I cough or sneeze, I apologize. Just a couple minutes ago, myself and my photographer, Phillip, were really right in the middle of a man getting pepper balled by federal agents,” 12News reporter Sean Rice said as he stood outside a Zipps location in Tempe. The man who was pepper balled sat in front of an ICE van to stop agents from taking Zipps employees away.
“There is no reason to do this. They are persecuting cooks and busboys. They are not finding criminals. They are not after rapists. They are after anybody brown,” Bill Andres told KJZZ in the parking lot of a Zipps location in Phoenix.
“It's all over, like, my social media, you know? I see it like every day, and I'm like, damn, that sucks, you know? I think it hits different whenever it's, of course, on a screen. But whenever you see it right in person, it's like, damn, this is really happening,” Anahi Lucero, a 27-year-old student in Phoenix, told the Republic after she walked out of a gym and right into a cloud of chemical irritant used by federal agents. “Right in front of our faces.”
“I'm not afraid of ICE, even if I should be. I'm more afraid of what's happening to families in my neighborhood,” Laurin Godson, 34, told the Republic after she left a protest to see what was happening at a nearby Zipps location.
“And I call upon them to change their hearts. And to change the direction they are going. And realize they’re human beings,” Episcopal priest Rev. Erika von Haaren told KJZZ in the parking lot of a Zipps location in Phoenix.
What officials had to say
“We are in contact with federal officials and still gathering information on the purpose and scope of the raid. I am incredibly frustrated with the Trump administration’s lack of adequate notification when conducting high-profile enforcement activities,” Gov. Katie Hobbs said in a statement on social media.
"People have the right to peaceably assemble and engage in political protests, but that doesn’t mean you can interfere with law enforcement operations,” Maricopa County Sheriff Jerry Sheridan said in a statement. “Had the coordination and cooperation with local law enforcement been effective from the beginning, situations such as Minneapolis may have been prevented.”
"The pedophile is in the White House and that’s who needs to be removed,” a protester shot back at Republican Sen. Janae Shamp after Shamp claimed immigrants were pedophiles and rapists during a hearing at the Legislature on Monday.
“People are afraid to go to school, to go to work, to go buy food for their families,” Democratic Rep. Consuelo Hernandez said on the House floor, alongside several other Democrats who spoke about ICE raids, per the Arizona Mirror.
“It’s hard for them to see what’s going on in this world today,” Democratic Rep. Lupe Contreras said about his kids watching classmates cry after their parents are deported.
“I have this haunting photo in my brain of a truck left in my district, in a Food City parking lot,” Democratic Rep. Lorena Austin recalled as she spoke on the House floor. “Doors wide open. It’s red, and it has fruit in the back of the truck. Someone was simply selling fruit to support their family.”
“I saw one man, a worker, taken into ICE custody in a DHS vehicle,” Democratic state Sen. Lauren Kuby told 12News outside a Zipps location. “We heard about a woman who was a line cook or pantry cook that was bloodied and was removed by ambulance. We didn’t see that. Then we saw two more workers carted off and we saw federal agents overreact and tear gas the crowd. We were tear gassed, as well. It was frightening. I watched a Zipps employee who came to witness and observe, who was very deeply concerned and crying. She was reaching out her hand to sort of touch the glass to communicate with an employee inside, with a worker inside.”
“It’s unacceptable that ICE and Border Patrol are shoving, beating, pepper spraying, and shooting people in violation of their constitutional rights,” Sen. Mark Kelly said in a statement on social media. “Yesterday they did a drive-by in Arizona and sprayed a woman in the face with mace. Until there are serious reforms to this out of control agency, I will not be voting for the DHS budget and I'll keep pushing for my bill to stop this obscene use of force against law-abiding Americans. The American people shouldn’t have to fear their own government.”
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Unborn babies on the brain: Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee passed a trio of bills that would treat unborn fetuses more like post-birth people, Capitol Media Services’ Howie Fischer reports. One would include the unborn as murder victims who died during separate crimes, like robberies, another would require fathers to pay child support before birth, and the last would require anyone who witnesses an already illegal “partial-birth” abortion to report it. Democrats opposed the measures on the grounds that giving person-like status to embryos and fetuses could be a sneaky way to establishing fetal personhood. And, of course, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs is likely to veto them all if they make it to her desk.
“I’m pro life, and so is God,” Republican Rep. Lupe Diaz said during the hearing.
Flock off: Concerns over data collection techniques used by the controversial AI-powered Flock Safety surveillance cameras are leading top Cochise County officials to reconsider their dealings with the company, Danyelle Khmara of AZPM reports. Cochise County Supervisor Frank Antenori, who called the company’s practices “a Fourth Amendment violation,” will ask other board members at their next meeting to support an amendment that will allow the county to explore other license plate-reading vendors.
Border money for the mountains: In a 5-1 vote, the Flagstaff City Council accepted $360,000 in funding from the Arizona Department of Public Safety to enforce a range of “border-related crimes” like drug trafficking or illegal immigration, the Daily Sun’s Sam McLaughlin reports. While some councilmembers and members of the public were skeptical about the implications of accepting the money earmarked for illegal immigration enforcement, the city’s police department assuaged the council when its deputy chief insisted that it will not assist ICE and will use the money for detective overtime and vehicle replacement.
A Lytle disruption: Health care entrepreneur and former ASU quarterback Hugh Lytle, announced Monday that he’s running for governor with the backing of the Arizona Independent Party, the Republic’s Stacey Barchenger reports. Lytle hopes to appeal to voters frustrated with both major parties as Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs prepares to square off against the winner of a three-way Republican primary. Calling himself a “disruptor,” Lytle seems to understand that his odds of winning are minuscule. The party, which used to be called the “No Labels Party,” is chaired by former Phoenix Mayor Paul Johnson.
We’ve never quarterbacked a football team, but you can help us disrupt the news industry.
Problem solved!: Republicans in the Arizona Senate Federalism Committee are taking action on what they’d have you believe is a huge problem rocking the nation. The panel voted along party lines to “ban the use of Sharia law in Arizona,” Fischer reports, which doesn’t really mean anything. In the United States, there is no room for the existence of alternate legal systems, making the vote to ban Sharia Law little more than a symbolic gesture. Even Republican Sen. Janae Shamp — who sponsored the bill — noted that there haven’t been any cases in Arizona and had trouble defining it when questioned.
There are many effective forms of nonviolent protests, including song.
But we gotta say, this singing session from Arizona Democratic lawmakers was so cringe that today’s laugh unfortunately goes to Republican operative Brian Anderson, whose tweet really did make us giggle.