Red Alert: Yavapai County
NON-SANCTUARY PROPOSAL
Wednesday, April 3, 9 am
County Building on Fair Street
Please attend!
A proclamation declaring Yavapai County a Non-Sanctuary City is up for APPROVAL by the YC Board of Supervisors this Weds, April 3. Please come to the meeting to support those who will speak against it.
The item is on the agenda (#4 under Awards and Proclamations) .This is being done under the radar, w/out hearings or public input.
Anyone can sign up to speak by filling out a form before the meeting starts.
AGENDA – https://destinyhosted.com/agenda_publish.cfm?id=92827&mt=ALL&vl=true&get_month=3&get_year=2024&dsp=ag&seq=1920
CONSIDER:
1) The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) is an anti-immigrant conservative think tank. They actively advocate to limit and end all forms of immigration, and generally are xenophobic and racist.
2) ICE is a terrible government agency. It regularly violates the rights of immigrants and non-immigrants and has a terrible history of human rights abuses by individual ICE agents and within detention centers.
Currently in the US, ICE (the police/enforcement arm of immigration) has free reign to enter all cities, counties, and states to search for, detain, and deport any immigrant that they have deemed deportable. Generally when pro-immigrant organizers and activists use the term “Sanctuary City” they are referring to policies that limit how local law enforcement and other agencies share information and resources with ICE. None of these policies have any impact on the ability of ICE to operate – it is a federal agency and subject only to federal law, not local or state laws. This is a great guide on what sanctuary policies are (and are not): http://paimmigrant.org/
Anti-immigrant activists (like CIS) generally try to claim that these “sanctuary” policies prohibit ICE from detaining or deporting immigrants. This is flat out untrue.
As far as I know, Tucson is the only city in Arizona that could be called a “sanctuary city.” This is because it has a policy that local police will not honor “ICE Detainers.” An ICE detainer is the ICE equivalent of an arrest warrant, but unlike an arrest warrant is not issued or signed by a judge and can be issued by an individual ICE agent for pretty much any reason (including straight up fabricated reasons).
The resolution that the Yavapai County Supervisors are voting on is basically a statement saying that Yavapai County is NOT a sanctuary county and calling on all county officials to actively collaborate with ICE to deport as many people as possible. It also serves the function of being a green light to anti-immigrant individuals to profile people based on their ideas of what undocumented immigrants look like to harass and report people to try and get them deported.
TALKING POINTS:
1) Welcoming immigrants is one of the fundamental tenets of this country
2) County and state officials already cooperate fully with federal agencies on immigration
3) Undocumented immigrants are already prevented from accessing all public benefits programs.
3) The proclamation appears to be based on a series of false claims and misinformation. Multiple studies show that immigrants contribute more in taxes than the cost of the limited public services they are able to access.
2014: https://www.
2022: https://
4) Multiple studies also show that immigrants do not contribute to increases in crime rates, and in fact some studies show that immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than US born US citizens.
2020: https://www.pnas.org/
2023: https://siepr.stanford.
2024 news article: https://www.cnn.com/
And an oldie but goodie: https://www.
5) The only purpose this proclamation serves is to stir up anti-immigrant sentiments and encourage neighbors to profile and scapegoat neighbors based on perceived immigration status.
I also urge any members of PI who are going to submit written comments or speak at the hearing to refrain from using the “we are all immigrants” messaging. It erases the experiences and history of indigenous folks and those brought to this country as slaves. Also, please do not use the term “illegal.” It should be either undocumented or unauthorized immigrants.
https://www.raceforward.org/sites/default/files/DTIW_update_WhyDrop4.
Research and comments from Sundrop Carter, PI Steering Committee member