South Tucson, ACLU reach deal over SB 1070

South Tucson reached a settlement over its immigration policies with the American Civil Liberties Union on Monday night.

The city council voted unanimously to approve the agreement and a new immigration policy. Councilwoman Mary Soltero was absent.

The deal was confirmed after a three-hour closed session and months of negotiations set off by a claim the ACLU filed against the city in November.

The claim, a necessary precursor to suing a government, alleged racial profiling and the illegal detention of Alejandro Valenzuela, an immigrant-rights activist with the Southside Worker Center.

Police transported Valenzuela to the Border Patrol after he showed up to the scene of a domestic-violence investigation and did not leave immediately after an officer asked him. He was not charged with a crime and was released by the Border Patrol after presenting paperwork showing that he was eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Valenzuela, who attended Monday’s meeting, received the news of the city’s policy change with a small smile. “It’s a start,” he said. “Hopefully it motivates other cities to follow.”

The agreement calls the policy “a model Immigration Policy … for other cities and towns to follow suit.”

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Revised over the past week, it omits some of the more stringent requirements of the ACLU’s initially proposed terms.

Among the items softened for approval were those related to training, complaint procedures and fingerprinting.

Under the approved terms, officers must receive training within 30 days; the city may contract with another agency for fingerprinting services so long as it agrees to the immigration policy’s contact guidelines; the immigration policy must be widely available and the complaint process must be “clear and consistent and easily accessible to the public.”

“We traded ideas back and forth, and we came up with the best policy that we possibly could,” said Mayor Paul Diaz. “I think it (the policy) will be in place a long time.”

ACLU attorney James Lyall agreed that the outcome was good. “The city has taken a really significant step in implementing this,” he said. “ We really commend this city for recognizing that they are not powerless in the face of SB 1070 to put in place policies that are good for their community.”

Meanwhile, the ACLU continues to litigate the constitutionality of the so-called “show me your papers” provision of SB 1070. That section requires local law-enforcement officers to check the immigration status those they stop if they suspect the person is in the country illegally, though several other parts of the law have been blocked by the courts.

The ACLU has also pledged to file additional lawsuits against agencies it believes are improperly implementing SB 1070. South Tucson was the first municipality to receive a claim. The city of Tucson received one in April.