Arizona lawmakers demand answers over Phoenix immigration court arrests

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Some Arizona lawmakers are demanding answers on what has been happening outside a Phoenix immigration court recently.

On Wednesday, four Arizona Democrats sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons. It came from Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, as well as Reps. Yassamin Ansari and Greg Stanton.

The letter comes after tense protests last week. For two days straight, ICE agents were at Phoenix immigration court, arresting people there for routine hearings and putting them into vans. That second day turned chaotic with protestors and officers getting physical.

“That pattern of dismissal and detainment kind of slowed down towards the end of the week, but unfortunately, today we did see more people detained at the immigration court,” said state Sen. Analise Ortiz, a Democrat from the West Valley.

She has been showing up to immigration court to support migrants at their hearings, and says ICE was there again on Wednesday, but it was different this time. “People were actually being told they could leave the courthouse, so they were driving off of the property and then being stopped and detained down the street. Someone relayed to me that a toddler was detained. This is just horrible, and this is inhumane,” said Ortiz.

The letter poses three main questions, with the first being how many people has ICE arrested and detained at an immigration court during the week of May 19 and how many have been placed in expedited removal?

The second asks for copies of all guidance and written directives associated with this recent ICE action, and the third asks how ICE is complying with requirements for screening individuals for fear of persecution.

The letter also says the Democratic lawmakers believe tactics like this make the immigration process less fair and efficient and undermine the Trump administration’s goal of targeting criminals who are public safety threats.

“A lot of these individuals who are in deportation proceedings (or) immigration proceedings, they don’t have a criminal history,” said immigration attorney Sheree Wright with IBF Law Group.

She has been volunteering to advise migrants at their hearings. “When it comes to safety, these are not criminals,” said Wright.

Arizona’s Family also spoke to a former Phoenix-based ICE agent who was in the field for 22 years. He wanted to remain anonymous.

The former agent said arrests like the ones at the immigration court are not new. He also said they are safer for the public, the officers, and the detainees because there is a screening process at places like court buildings. According to the former officer, when they detain someone, they often go through what is called “custody redetermination” to see if the migrant should continue with their immigration proceedings or be placed in expedited removal.

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.

Copyright 2025 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.