'What the hell?' Battleground state lawmakers rail against ICE violence

Arizona Democrats rail against ICE violence: ‘What the hell is wrong with us?’

by Caitlin Sievers, Arizona Mirror
January 26, 2026

Democratic legislators took to the floor of the Arizona House of Representatives on Monday to express outrage and sorrow, and to decry the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s violence and disregard for the U.S. Constitution following Saturday’s killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

For nearly an hour, 22 Democratic state representatives took turns demanding accountability for the agencies implementing President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda, who have shot and killed two protesters in Minnesota just this month and have violated countless peoples’ constitutional rights across the country over the past year.

The Arizona lawmakers added their voices to growing criticism of the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda and ICE aggression from people across the country, spurred by immigration agents shooting and killing Pretti and Renee Good, both caught on video. (An ICE agent, Jonathan Ross, killed Good. An unidentified Customs and Border Protection agent killed Pretti.)

The vast majority of Republicans, who control the chamber, snubbed their Democratic colleagues and walked off the House floor before or while they were speaking.

The Democrats detailed the fear, anxiety and sorrow that ICE’s tactics have already caused in Arizona communities, where about 40% of the population is Latino.

“People are afraid to go to school, to go to work, to go buy food for their families,” said Rep. Consuelo Hernandez, D-Tucson.

Hernandez said that one of her constituents, a Native American woman, was scared for her grandchildren who work in the Tucson area, especially since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that ICE could use racial profiling when determining who to question.

“She was crying, because she said she didn’t know if they would come home from work, or they would be picked up, thinking that they were here illegally,” Hernandez said.

Rep. Lupe Contreras, D-Avondale, said that his kids are too worried that their friends will be picked up by ICE and suddenly disappear to focus on their schoolwork, and they see classmates crying because their parents have been deported.

“It’s hard for them to see what’s going on in this world today,” he said.

Rep. Lorena Austin was shaken when they saw the aftermath of ICE’s actions in their Mesa district.

“I have this haunting photo in my brain of a truck left in my district, in a Food City parking lot,” Austin said. “Doors wide open. It’s red, and it has fruit in the back of the truck. Someone was simply selling fruit to support their family.”

The lawmaker said they’ve heard of construction workers building homes in Mesa — helping to ease the housing shortage — being detained during their lunch break.

Austin expressed disappointment that they are still fighting discrimination against Latinos, the same thing their father protested for in the 1970s.

“Now, I stand here as an elected legislator, who’s a fifth generation Arizonan who has been told to go back to their country, like this country isn’t mine,” Austin said. “Like my great-great-great-grandparents didn’t fight and die for this country.”

The Democratic lawmakers castigated ICE and the Trump administration for violating due process rights of immigrants who lack legal status in the U.S.

“I know that you’re tired of hearing all of us, but we’re all united together, because we believe that people have a right to seek asylum,” Consuelo Hernandez said. “People have a right to go through the legal process, and they’re still being picked up, and that includes children. Shame on all of us who support that.”

It’s not only immigrants whose rights are being ignored by ICE, said Rep. Patty Contreras, D-Phoenix, but citizens who protest and advocate for them.

“The U.S. Constitution guarantees our right to peacefully protest,” she said. “It guarantees our right to unlawful search and seizure. It also guarantees our right to due process. What we are seeing here, and in cities around the country, on video and with our own eyes, are lawless ICE thugs, hiding behind face covers, flak jackets, guns and tear gas. They are violating the U.S. Constitution and state laws every day.”

Rep. Alma Hernandez, D-Tucson, said that everything she learned in law school about the U.S. Constitution doesn’t seem to apply anymore. Hernandez said she was studying constitutional rights last night to prepare for her Bar Exam and had to shut her book out of frustration.

“What the hell is wrong with us?” she asked, adding that her family members who are U.S. citizens have asked her if they should carry their birth certificates with them at all times to avoid being detained.

The state representatives spoke out against the lies the Trump administration has spread about ICE violence, including that Pretti, who was filming immigration agents and trying to intervene as they assaulted a woman who was observing them when they attacked and shot him, had attacked federal officers.

“We are watching the destruction of our democracy, fueled by racism and hate from our current president and his administration,” said Rep. Nancy Gutierrez, D-Tucson. “They have shown that they are willing to kill law-abiding American citizens in order to promote their horrific agenda against immigrants… They are willing to lie about what we are seeing with our own eyes and purposefully, purposefully stall investigations to cover their terrorism. I beg every person to look at the videos and see for yourself what is actually happening.”

Rep. Kevin Volk, D-Tucson, said that he found Stephen Miller, President Donald Trump’s chief domestic policy advisor’s description of Pretti as a “would-be assassin,” to be disgusting and insulting.

“When this administration had a chance to acknowledge the tragedy, they responded with division, insults, slander, and they lied to our faces about what we all know, we witnessed, happened to Alex Pretti,” he said.

The lawmakers expressed sympathy to the families of all those killed by ICE officers or who have died in their custody.

“Like so many of you, I’m grieving for the lives lost, for the family shattered, and for the community, now carrying pain that no one should have to bear,” said Rep. Junelle Cavero, D-Phoenix. “To those directly affected, we see you, we stand with you, and we owe you more than words. We owe you action. Moments like this test who we are, not as individuals, but as leaders. Violence of this kind is not inevitable. It is not the price of freedom, and it is not something we should ever accept as normal.”

She advised people who were feeling sad and scared about the state of the country to channel those feelings into care for one another.

“We can show up locally by checking on neighbors, supporting families in crisis, volunteering with community organizations and reaching out to those who are struggling or isolated,” Cavero said. “Acts of service are not small, they are stabilizing and they are how communities heal.”

House Minority Leader Oscar De Los Santos said that he knows Arizonans believe in border security, but that can be accomplished without sending ICE to pick up immigrants at hospitals, schools or churches.

“We also believe in human decency and civil rights and the Constitution and the rule of law,” he said.

Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: info@azmirror.com.