The top Republican in the Arizona Senate is calling for a federal investigation into a Democratic senator’s social media posts about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Sen. Analise Ortiz, D-Phoenix, represents a Latino-majority district, and has been a fierce critic of the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts. When ICE agents began staking out the Phoenix immigration courthouse earlier this year to detain people showing up for mandatory hearings, Ortiz joined protestors in videotaping the arrests and blasting out social media alerts.
The Democrat has been among the outspoken in her party, frequently sharing posts from local advocacy groups about the presence of federal immigration officials in the Valley via her Instagram page and criticizing due process violations on her X account.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
On Tuesday, that activism put Ortiz in the crosshairs of a far-right social media force and the leader of the Arizona Senate. On X, formerly Twitter, the LibsOfTiktok account accused Ortiz of “actively impeding and doxxing” federal immigration officials by sharing Instagram posts about their locations and called on ICE director Tom Homan and the Department of Homeland Security to “charge” her. Run by former real estate agent Chaya Raichik, LibsOfTiktok frequently posts content intended to spark conservative ire about culture war issues and initially gained notoriety with virulently anti-LGBTQ content.
Ortiz responded to Raichik on X, saying she will continue to keep Valley residents informed about the movements of federal immigration officials.
“Yep. When ICE is around, I will alert my community to stay out of the area, and I’m not f---king scared of you nor Trump’s masked goons,” she wrote.
Just hours after the LibsOfTiktok account’s post about Ortiz went viral, Senate President Warren Petersen announced that he had referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona for investigation. In a press release, the Gilbert Republican criticized Ortiz for failing to act in accordance with her public position.
“Public servants have a duty to uphold the law and respect those who enforce it, not undermine them,” he wrote.
Petersen called Ortiz’s social media posts “deeply troubling” and claimed they likely violated federal law. He did not say which federal law he believes was broken and didn’t respond to follow-up questions seeking clarification.
Esther Winnie, the executive assistant to the United States Attorney, said that her office is aware of Petersen’s request and will refer it to the right investigative agency for review.
Doxxing involves sharing someone’s sensitive personal information online without their permission and with malicious intent. The controversy over when that applies to federal immigration agents, who do their work in public, has reached a fever-pitch amid increased efforts to conceal their identities because of public criticism of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.
DHS officials claim an alleged spike in assaults against ICE agents justifies them hiding their faces behind masks during arrests, while immigrant advocates warn it amounts to the creation of a secret police. Clashes between protestors and federal officials have resulted in an increasingly hostile crackdown on activists.
And at the center of that has been the social media alert strategy of immigrant rights advocates. Last month, federal officials lashed out at ICEBlock, an app that allows users to share ICE sightings, and threatened to prosecute its creator. But legal experts say doing so would violate the First Amendment right to free speech.
Ortiz lambasted the threats to investigate her social media activity as “intimidation tactics” and said she wouldn’t be deterred from continuing to use her accounts to warn people about the presence of ICE agents in the community. She added that the Trump administration has regularly flouted constitutional protections like due process, and said she has a duty to keep her community safe from its “unconstitutional and authoritarian actions.”
“Every individual has the right to know when and where law enforcement activity of any kind is taking place in an effort to protect themselves, in the same way people use popular apps to alert each other about speed traps,” she said in a text message. “The Fifth Amendment guarantees due process rights to any person present in our country and the First Amendment guarantees my right to free speech.”
