Protest puts ICE plan on ice

Dozens of community activists attended the Jan. 8 Pima County Board of Supervisors meeting to oppose an intergovernmental agreement between the County Sheriff’s Department and the U.S. Border Patrol. The agreement would have deputized Border Patrol agents, making them part of the Sheriff’s Department.

The agents would have been permitted to wear sheriff’s uniforms and enforce local and state law, as well as federal immigration law. This is yet another attempt to extend the reach of Immigration and Customs Enforcement into the already oppressed Latin@/Mexican@ communities.

Disguised as local law enforcement, ICE agents would be free to roam and terrorize. Southern Arizona is already teeming with ICE agents and the racist Minutemen. The border wall that forces thousands of people into the death trap of the Arizona desert is only 90 miles south of Tucson. So-called “border enforcement” has steadily moved inwards; high-tech, mobile surveillance towers are now located 40 miles north of the border and a permanent checkpoint has been set up on Interstate 10, halfway between Tucson and the international border.

The agreement had been placed on the board’s consent agenda, meaning it would not receive a public hearing or any public input. Derechos Humanos, a Tucson immigrant rights group and member of the Tucson May 1st Coalition, discovered the agenda item on the board’s Web site and issued a call for the community to attend the Jan. 8 meeting and oppose the measure. After hearing hours of opposition from the community, the county sheriff withdrew the item from the agenda. Because it was withdrawn and not voted upon, the possibility remains that a similar measure could be introduced in the future.

However, the outrage of the community did force the sheriff to back down. Activists are now focused on organizing to resist the raids and deportations and get the Border Patrol out of the community.