PHOENIX — Republican lawmakers are moving to force state and local police into a more active role in reporting those not in the country legally.
Legislation approved earlier this week by the Senate on a party-line vote would require any agency making an arrest to notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And that would be “immediately,” before any adjudication of guilt and, more to the point, calling ICE to come to the location where the arrest is being made.
But Democrats fear that what’s in Senate Bill 1055 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.”