The City of Flagstaff has decided not to rent space for ICE to conduct its operations in Northern Arizona. The justification given is a good sign that city officials understand how abusive DHS personnel have been toward the migrant worker community.

"Co-locating this office in the LEAF building would impact some of our day-to-day public safety operations. If victims and witnesses of crimes are not coming to the LEAF building because they know ICE offices in the building, this is a problem. If they are not reporting the crimes to the Flagstaff Police Department because they think we are one-and-the-same due to a co-located office, this impacts our public safety," Burke wrote.

Both Police Chief Brent Cooper and Burke said last week during a presentation by ICE officials at city council meeting that immigration status is not relevant when reporting a crime.

Arizona Daily Sun

It's clear from the article that human rights advocates were successful in putting pressure on the city. Immigration is a federal issue, yet over the past several years D.C. politicos have sat on meaningful reform, causing local and state agencies to be creative in targeting migrant workers. Abuse runs rampant, families are separated because of trigger-happy Deport-Them-All officials, so it's a good feeling to see families and migrant advocates win a battle.

Thanks, Flagstaff.

Labels: Flagstaff