Highlights

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said this week that border czar Tom Homan's threat to deploy additional federal immigration agents into cities that refuse to cooperate with ICE could produce the same deadly outcomes that followed aggressive enforcement operations in Minneapolis earlier this year.

Homan, speaking at the Border Security Expo in Arizona last week, told attendees that cities declining to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement would see increased agent presence in their neighborhoods. Hobbs said she does not believe Arizona has sanctuary cities as formally defined, jurisdictions that actively interfere with federal immigration enforcement in violation of state law, but conceded Homan is taking a broad approach that may not account for the distinctions between individual cities and counties.

"What I hope this doesn't signal is a return to the kind of enforcement practices that ended up getting two people in Minnesota killed because they were more focused on indiscriminately rounding people up and not on keeping us safe," Hobbs told Capitol Media Services. "Because those kinds of tactics, they undermine the safety of the communities and law enforcement."

Hobbs said the better path is coordination, pointing to the Surprise warehouse facility as an example of what happens when the federal government bypasses local input. Homeland Security purchased a vacant 418,400-square-foot industrial warehouse there to house up to 1,500 people detained on immigration violations without consulting city officials, who said they had no authority over zoning or land use of federal facilities. Hobbs said the federal government should be working with communities on both how it houses migrants and how it conducts enforcement operations, arguing that unilateral action undermines safety across the board.

Attorney General Kris Mayes moved on a parallel track this week, issuing a formal legal opinion that gives city councils and county boards of supervisors legal cover to adopt policies barring cooperation with ICE, particularly for civil immigration enforcement not involving criminal activity. Mayes said local governments can make their buildings off limits to civil immigration enforcement and bar ICE agents from using city property, including parking lots, as staging areas. The basis, she said, is the Tenth Amendment: the federal government cannot compel state cooperation without running afoul of it.

Mayes also bristled at Homan's threats, saying Pima County and the city of Phoenix have enacted measures that reflect their communities' views and that Arizona would not be intimidated. She separately filed suit in federal court challenging Homeland Security's compliance with immigration and environmental laws in connection with the Surprise warehouse conversion. That case is pending; the warehouse plans appear to have stalled, at least temporarily.

Why does this matter for Arizona cities?

Homan's broad definition of non-cooperation could sweep in Arizona jurisdictions that have not formally declared themselves sanctuary cities but have adopted limited cooperation policies. Mayes' legal opinion provides a legal framework for those communities to defend their policies, but Hobbs acknowledged the question of where federal enforcement authority ends is ultimately one for the courts.

The Surprise warehouse vote is the most concrete local flashpoint. City officials said they had no zoning authority over the federal purchase, leaving the lawsuit filed by Mayes as the primary check on the project. A hearing date has not been publicly announced.

Sources

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  1. azcapitoltimes.com retrieved 11/05/2026 21:06

Authored by The Scottsdale Signal. Drafted by AI from primary-source material under our beat-specific editorial guides; reviewed by humans before publish under our five-gate process. Sources retrieved at 11/05/2026 21:06. Every claim traces to a source.