A protester holds up a sign opposing collaboration between local police and federal immigration officials at the state Capitol in Phoenix on Feb. 10, 2025. Republican leadership has introduced a law, called the Arizona ICE Act, that would increase the spread of official cooperation agreements between ICE and every law enforcement agency in the state. Photo by Gloria Rebecca Gomez | Arizona Mirror
Arizona Republicans want to force public schools to open their doors to ICE agents, amid a growing wave of school officials issuing guidance or passing rules against doing so.
The state Senate on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to Senate Bill 1164, known as the Arizona ICE Act. The bill has been denounced by immigrant rights advocates and opposed by every Democrat in the legislature because it encourages Arizona’s law enforcement agencies to strengthen their relationships with federal immigration authorities, ultimately increasing the degree to which local police officers prioritize the detainment of undocumented people.
While originally the bill mandated that police departments and sheriff’s offices across the state use their “best efforts” to support the execution of federal immigration laws — ringing alarm bells for pro-immigrant groups who feared it could pave the way for Trump’s mass deportation agenda — that language was removed before the full Senate considered it on Wednesday.
But a provision strictly prohibiting any governmental entity from approving any policy that restricts cooperation with ICE was left intact. And that bid to tie the hands of local leaders — including city councils and school boards — who want to protect the populations under their care elicited criticism from Democrats.
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Sen. Catherine Miranda, D-Phoenix, noted that some Arizona schools are moving to declare their campuses safe zones in the wake of Trump’s executive order rescinding a Biden-era policy that prevented ICE agents from carrying out enforcement actions in schools, churches and hospitals.
Days after the executive order was issued, the Phoenix Union High School District governing board unanimously adopted a resolution declaring its campuses were safe zones, and stating that no individual or organization that would create an educational disruption would be allowed on school grounds. Tucson Unified School District also reaffirmed its commitment not to allow ICE agents on campus without a judicial warrant.
Legal experts say that ICE agents frequently rely on administrative warrants, which don’t permit searches, only arrests and seizures by a designated officer. School officials must comply with judicial warrants, but can develop policies on whether to cooperate with agents who present only administrative warrants or similar documents that are otherwise legally insufficient to allow them entry.
Miranda grilled Senate President Warren Petersen, who sponsored the Arizona ICE Act, on whether his proposal would jeopardize such school policies. The bill has the potential to nullify any policies adopted by public school officials, even those like TUSD’s guidance that mirrors current law.
The Republican from Gilbert said that any official ordinance or rule that interferes with the ability of federal immigration officers to carry out their duties would be unlawful under the bill’s provisions. He added that he was unsure about the ability of ICE agents to enter schools without warrants, but said he doesn’t expect them to target students.
“I don’t contemplate any situation where they would be going into a school. But if a school is passing rules saying that they won’t cooperate with ICE, then, yeah, the answer is yeah, they cannot do that,” he said. “That is kind of unthinkable, really. We want our schools, who are teaching our kids, to be sending a message that they’re going to try to break laws?”
Petersen sought to redirect the conversation around the bill to focus on its mandate for law enforcement agencies to comply with ICE detainers.
“What this really deals with here is we’re seeing cities that are putting our immigration officials into dangerous situations because, for example, they’re not honoring detainers that are issued by ICE,” he said. “Instead of ICE picking up a criminal who’s broken either a state or federal law, they’re being released back into the community.”
Also known as an immigration hold, ICE detainers are written requests to law enforcement agencies to keep people suspected of being in the country illegally in custody for an additional 48 hours after they are supposed to be released to give immigration officials time to determine whether they are eligible for removal — even if that person hasn’t been convicted of a crime.
Currently, law enforcement agencies have the option to obey those requests or follow only those issued with judicial approval.
ICE detainers, and local compliance with them, have become a common talking point among border hawk politicians following last year’s murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley. The man convicted in her murder, Venezuelan immigrant Jose Ibarra, was previously arrested for traffic violations in New York and apprehended and cited for shoplifting in Atlanta. Despite no ICE detainer ever being issued for Ibarra, the case has prompted a nationwide push from Republican lawmakers for increased cooperation between ICE and local law enforcement agencies, and punishments for those who don’t comply with detainers.
Petersen’s bill authorizes the Arizona attorney general to take any law enforcement agency found to be in violation of its directives to court, and even gives everyday Arizonans the ability to trigger investigations into local police departments.
The Arizona ICE Act will move forward in the GOP majority legislature and is expected to earn the full support of the state Senate when it is next put up for a vote. But Democrats are unanimously opposed to it. Miranda said that she’s concerned about its potential to negatively impact students who are undocumented.
“I’m worried about how this will affect attendance at our public schools,” she said. “As a former educator, I believe no children should be deterred from receiving an education, especially not out of fear of deportation. Schools should be safe spaces where families can unify and foster a sense of community, they should not be tainted by mass deportation plans that prey on Arizona’s vulnerable immigrant population.”
Schools in other states are already shouldering the effects of hostile immigration policies. School districts in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Denver have reported drops in attendance and students staying home out of fear of being deported. And in Texas, 11-year-old Jocelynn Rojo Carranza, who was bullied at school by classmates who threatened to report her parents to ICE, committed suicide.
While the Arizona ICE Act is likely to be approved by both chambers of the state legislature — which is under Republican control — it’s also likely to be vetoed by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, who has been critical of anti-immigrant proposals in the past.
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