Key Points: 

• ICE would be alerted as an arrest is taking place

• Democrats express concerns the measure could trigger violence

• Republicans say SB1055 will make Arizona streets safer

Republican lawmakers are moving to force state and local police to take a more active role in reporting people who are not in the country legally.

Legislation approved earlier this week by the Senate on a party-line vote would require any agency arresting a possible illegal immigrant to notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And that would be “immediately,” before any adjudication of guilt. That amounts to ICE being called to come to the location where an arrest is being made.

But Democrats fear that what’s in SB1055 would not just sweep up others but actually result in dangerous confrontations on the street with what Sen. Analise Ortiz, D-Phoenix, calls “a murderous force” of agents and what Sen. Lauren Kuby, D-Tempe, called a “lawless agency.”

That, in turn, brought a sharp retort from Sen. Jake Hoffman. The Queen Creek Republican read off a list of people killed by those not here legally, calling them “the actual murderous force.”

“Democrats in this chamber are arguing that those illegal alien criminals should be allowed to roam free on our streets,” Hoffman said. “Anyone who stands up for those people, you’re disgusting.”

Senate Majority Leader John Kavanagh said the concerns of foes are overblown.

“All it does is require cooperation between different levels of government, something that makes government effective,” said the Fountain Hills Republican. “People who are accused of being here illegally need to be brought to justice.”

That, he said, means bringing people before a hearing officer, saying they will receive “due process.”

“And whatever the result is, that’s what we do,” Kavanagh said. “And this facilitates it.”

Senate Minority Leader Priya Sundareshan said her problems with SB1055 begin with the fact that it is just the arrest that triggers a call to ICE.

“So there has been no evidence provided, jury trial provided, or anything that proves that anyone that might have been arrested is, in fact, guilty,” said the Tucson Democrat.

Ortiz said it’s also important to remember that any “arrest” would trigger that call to ICE to show up. And that, she said, even could include a citation for jaywalking, with cities like Phoenix now issuing them to offenders.

Hoffman said he sees it from a different perspective.

“This is once someone has been arrested, then, yes, we do want our law enforcement in Arizona to coordinate with ICE if they’re an illegal alien,” he said. “Even if you support illegal immigration, it’s absurd that you would not want the criminals who come over illegally removed from this country.”

But it’s the mechanics of how the measure would work, Ortiz said, that could create a hazardous situation.

It starts, she said, with that requirement for immediate notification of ICE. That, she said, means agents showing up at the arrest scene.

“Anyone in the surrounding community is then put in danger by masked, armed, Call of Duty ‘cosplayers’ who are eager to use their weapons,” she said. “We have seen that happen, whether it’s a gun, whether it is chemical irritants, whether it’s beating somebody to a pulp on the concrete.”

Hoffman, however, insisted that the legislation would create safer communities.

“The safest place for a transfer to occur is, statistically, when they’re already in custody,” he said.

“It’s Looney Tunes for anyone to think otherwise,” Hoffman said. “It poses the least risk to the rioters, activists who are protesting and getting in the way of and trying to run over ICE agents.”

He also said nothing in the legislation would overturn “longstanding professional practices of law enforcement” which say that transfers of arrested people should occur “at the time most safe to the public.”

And Hoffman lashed out at Ortiz and her description of federal immigration agents as a “murderous force.”

“The actual ‘murderous force’ are the dangerous illegal criminal aliens coming into the country,” he said.

But Kuby said the record suggests otherwise.

“They’re using illegal, excessive use of force, often against U.S. citizens who are denied due process,” she said, citing what she called were the “murders” of Alex Pretti and Renee Goode in Minneapolis.

“Killing people in the streets, this is what we are seeing,” Kuby said. “So, by empowering a lawless agency such as ICE this bill … would make our public less safe, not more, safe.”

She also cited the decision last month by the Tucson City Council which voted to limit immigration enforcement on city-owned and city-controlled property and buildings, to prevent agents from using them as a staging area for mass arrests. That decision, said Kuby, was “due to the glut of untrained, undisciplined federal agents who are terrorizing communities across our country.” 

Hoffman responded by saying that Kuby cited only two people in her complaints against ICE. And he argued that even in those cases their killings were justified.

He said Pretti “was armed and attempting to obstruct ICE operations,” though the multiple videos of his killing appear to tell a different story, with Pretti, licensed to carry a concealed weapon holding only a cell phone in his hand. And Hoffman said that Goode “was attempting to run over an ICE agent with their vehicle.”

“In the real world, that’s called attempted murder with a vehicle,” Hoffman said.

Then he listed a series of names of individuals who were killed by people not here legally, people he called “the actual murderous force.”

“And yet we’ve got people over here arguing that they should stay on our streets,” Hoffman said.

Ortiz said there’s another problem with the bill, saying it might deter some crime victims who are not here legally from calling police.

Consider, she said, a restaurant owner who was robbed but then sees the suspect. And if the suspect turns out to lack legal status, then it would trigger SB1055.

“ICE is then going to show up, which then puts the business owner in danger and anybody eating at the establishment in danger, people who are innocent and have nothing to do with the crime,” Ortiz said.

Ditto, she said, of domestic violence survivors.

“Oftentimes, what we’re seeing is that abusers will use your status as a way to scare you out of calling the police,” Ortiz said.

“This bill will only lead to increased instances of ICE either showing up at somebody’s home because they called the police needing help or a business in our community,” she said. “We know no one patronizing that business is going to be safe if ICE is called to deal with a potential crime.”

In some ways, what is in SB1055 is an extension of what lawmakers approved in 2010 as part of the controversial SB1070 from that year.

That measure was designed to give state and local police more power to detain those who are not in this country legally.

Many provisions were voided in a historic 2012 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The high court said the state lacks the authority to prosecute those seeking work in Arizona without being in this country legally and those failing to carry federally issued registration cards.

It also ruled that Arizona cannot allow warrantless arrests if there is “probable cause” that a person committed an offense that makes them removable from the country under federal law. The justices said all three provisions illegally conflict with – and are preempted by federal law.

However, the court said there was nothing inherently wrong with SB1070’s requirement that police make a reasonable attempt, “when practicable,” to check the immigration status of those they have stopped. That part of the law remains on the books.