Tucson Mayor Regina Romero says she’s committed to protecting Tucson children and families from separation, calling President-elect Donald Trump’s planned mass deportations “cruel and immoral.”
“I will work with our police chief to make sure that our focus remains on protecting and serving Tucsonans,” the Democratic mayor said in a statement published Friday on the mayor’s social media accounts. “Here in Tucson, we know how to stand up and fight against hate and racist laws. Part of our history is coming together with our faith leaders and other organizations to protect children and families from separation. I am unwavering in my commitment to this fight.”
Tucson Mayor Regina Romero
Nationwide about 4.4 million U.S.-born children live with an unauthorized immigrant parent, according to the Pew Research Center. In Arizona, there are about 149,000 children of undocumented immigrants, including U.S.-born children and undocumented children, according to a 2016 analysis of U.S. Census data by the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.
Local officials say it’s still unclear what exactly mass deportations will look like on the ground once Trump takes office and what steps local governments will take in response.
Neither Romero, nor Tucson Police Chief Chad Kasmar, were available for interviews Monday. But a Tucson Police Department spokesman said for now, the agency will continue the current policy of not detaining people solely for suspected immigration violations, nor prolonging a detention, such as a traffic stop, to investigate immigration status.
Tucson police ask about immigration status if there is a “reasonable suspicion” that someone is in the country illegally, but only if that person has been detained for another reason, Sgt. Richard Gradillas told the Arizona Daily Star on Monday.
Gradillas said he could not speculate on how the department would respond to potential new orders from the Trump administration, which he said would have to be reviewed by the city’s legal office.
Local officials may also have to deal with the recent passage of ballot measure Proposition 314, which allows, but does not compel, local police to arrest people for immigration violations. The measure won’t take effect unless a similar Texas law survives a court challenge.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos, a Democrat who faces a recount in his narrow Nov. 5 election victory, told the Star last week that local sheriff’s deputies will not participate in immigration enforcement, which he said is a federal matter, nor will the Pima County jail provide Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, with detention space.
Tucson not officially “sanctuary city”
In 2019, Tucson voters rejected Proposition 205, which would have prohibited Tucson police from asking about immigration status and would have made Tucson the only city in Arizona to formally limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, the Star reported at the time.
Then-Mayor Jonathan Rothschild, a Democrat, and the Democratic City Council opposed the measure, saying it could have resulted in Tucson losing millions in state and federal funding. Opponents also said the measure was unnecessary, as Tucson essentially operates as a sanctuary city.
In 2012, the City Council designated Tucson as an “immigrant welcoming city,” stopping short of the sanctuary city designation, the Associated Press reported.
The Arizona ACLU was among the groups that supported Proposition 205, arguing it was necessary to prevent ongoing racial profiling and discrimination. The group’s executive director said Tucson police officers were, in practice, prolonging traffic stops to investigate individuals’ immigration status under SB1070, in a 2019 submission to the Star.
SB1070 is Arizona’s “show-me-your-papers” law, passed in 2010, that has been largely nullified by the courts. A provision requiring police to ask about immigration status if there’s “reasonable suspicion” someone is in the country illegally remains on the books.
TPD’s Gradillas said a section of the agency’s General Operating Procedures for officers, updated in 2020, states that when investigating a detained person’s immigration status, “The detainee shall not be detained any longer than necessary to complete the officer’s initial reason for the stop or detention.”
Trump’s named “border czar” Tom Homan, former acting director of ICE in Trump’s first term, said the administration will slash federal funding for sanctuary cities and states that don’t cooperate with its mass deportation push.
In a Fox News interview on Sunday, Homan said, “That’s gonna happen. I guarantee Trump will do that,” in response to a question about the funding cuts from host Mark Levin.
Arizona Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs has pushed back on Trump’s mass deportation plans, but pledged to cooperate with the administration on “border security,” such as efforts at the Arizona-Mexico border to interdict fentanyl, which is most commonly smuggled through official ports of entry by U.S. citizens.
“I will not tolerate misguided policies that don’t actually help with the critical work that’s happening here, that you’re seeing here today, that actually keeps our communities safe and secure,” Hobbs said at a Nov. 18 news conference at the border in Nogales. Regarding mass deportations, she said, “I will not tolerate terrorizing communities or threatening Arizonans.”
To the disappointment of Tucson immigrant-rights advocates, Hobbs has declined to join a group of Democratic governors formed to actively oppose some of the incoming Trump administration’s policies.
Border security vs. interior enforcement
About 11 million undocumented immigrants live in the U.S., including 273,000 in Arizona, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Nearly two-thirds of them have lived in the U.S. for more than 10 years.
In Arizona, 30% of undocumented residents have lived in the U.S. for at least 20 years, data compiled by the institute shows.
Trump and his supporters often conflate “interior immigration enforcement,” carried out by ICE, with “border security,” which is carried out by Border Patrol agents and Customs and Border Protection officers at or near the border, said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at immigrant-rights research group American Immigration Council.
Border agents have more discretion to quickly remove recent migrant arrivals through an expedited removal process, he said. Still, it is currently legal under U.S. law to request asylum once on U.S. soil, regardless of how one entered the country.
Last year, a surge in migrant arrivals at the border resulted in border agents releasing large numbers of asylum seekers into the U.S. to await asylum hearings before immigration judges, in what critics call “catch-and-release.”
Those asylum seekers are in the U.S. legally as they await their hearings. But due to a 3.7 million-case backlog in the underfunded and understaffed immigration court system, some have court dates five years from now or longer.
“So when Trump talks about, ‘We’re going to deport all these people who came in under Biden,’ they’re already in the process of potentially being deported,” Reichlin-Melnick said. “But the U.S. government can’t deport them until they get a formal legal order.”
Interior immigration enforcement impacts undocumented residents who are already living here and often are deeply embedded in U.S. communities and the economy, Reichlin-Melnick said.
Undocumented immigrants without a previous deportation order would generally have the right to a hearing in front of a judge before a deportation could happen, and they would join the line of millions of others waiting for their hearing, he said.
“Constitutions protections apply to them more strongly than people who just arrived at the border in the last 24 hours,” he said.
