Last week, Arizona State Sen. Analise Ortiz, vulgarly defended her actions after she admitted to alerting illegal immigrants to ICE presence in her district. The Glendale leftist, who also is accused of doxxing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, shook her fist at “fascists and white supremacists in power in Arizona,” and claimed she had a right to interfere in federal immigration law enforcement activities.
“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,” the lawmaker wrote in response to the conservative social media site Libs of TikTok outing Ortiz for “actively impeding and doxxing” ICE.
But “alerting” her community could very well tip off some very dangerous people who represent a clear and present danger to the community at large.
‘Will be Investigated’
In a statement, Arizona State Senate President Warren Petersen said he has referred the matter to U.S. Attorney, Arizona District for investigation. And Petersen told The Federalist last week that an ethics complaint has been filed in the Senate against Ortiz “and will be investigated through the course of the normal complaint process at the legislature.”
Ortiz has since doubled down on her defiant rhetoric, asserting her speech is protected under the First Amendment.
“I am not intimidated by this because what I did was simply alert my community to stay away from an area where ICE could be to keep themselves safe,” she told ABC15 Arizona in an interview.
That’s a good way to get law enforcement agents and civilians hurt or killed, the Department of Homeland Security has said, as attacks on ICE agents soar by more than 800 percent.
“Notifying the public about ICE law enforcement operations endangers law enforcement and weakens American national security. This certainly looks like obstruction of justice,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to the news outlet.
While Ortiz claims free speech, ICE continues to do its job, what both houses of Congress through legislation have asked them to do: enforce the nation’s immigration laws. Some of the illegal immigrants open-border activists want to alert are turning out to be some very violent people who have done some terrible things.
Transporting Illegals
Late last week, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona reported on federal enforcement operations from Aug. 2 through Aug. 8, which resulted in immigration-related charges against 172 people. This includes 77 cases involving illegal aliens alleged to have reentered the United States illegally.
Josue Sanchez, a U.S. citizen, was among those arrested and charged with a crime he is already familiar with, according to the federal prosecutor’s office. A Pinal County Sheriff’s detective on Aug. 5 attempted to stop Sanchez, who according to law enforcement officials, was driving a vehicle “at a high rate of speed on Interstate 10.”
“The vehicle quickly exited I-10 and abruptly drove off into the desert before coming to a stop. The vehicle’s doors opened, and three subjects fled on foot. Two of the subjects were wearing camouflage clothing,” the press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office states.
The three men were eventually apprehended. Two were determined to be from Mexico and “illegally present in the United States,” according to the U.S. Attorney. At the time of his arrest, Sanchez, 18, was on “federal probation for transporting illegal aliens,” according to the press release. Sanchez has again been charged with transportation of an illegal alien.
In another case, an illegal immigrant from Mexico has been charged with transportation of several illegals in a packed van. According to the attorney’s office, a Payson, Ariz., police officer stopped a minivan for traffic violations and discovered 11 passengers inside. The driver, Luis Alberto Romero Garcia, and his passengers were determined to be foreign nationals from Mexico, illegally in the United States.
“Because the officer did not have federal authority to detain the occupants of the minivan and was unable to prolong the traffic stop, the occupants were released,” the press release states.
The local officer contacted Homeland Security Investigations, and “[a]gents located and conducted a stop on the minivan in Phoenix” on Aug. 5, according to the U.S. Attorney.
“At the time of the vehicle stop, agents observed more subjects in the minivan than seats or seatbelts, with two subjects lying on the vehicle floorboards unrestrained. Two subjects were unaccompanied minors. One minor was lying on the floor of the minivan,” the press release states.
Violence on ICE
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona has been busy this summer, filing hundreds of criminal charges in immigration-related crimes.
Last month, the office charged two men — Santos Mendivil Contreras, Jr. and Emanuel Mendivil Cervantes — with assaulting Homeland Security officers. According to the complaint, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) on July 22 attempted to pull over Contreras, who was traveling with Cervantes. Agents had been investigating Contreras “based on his unlawful presence in the United States and his attempt to purchase firearms” in April. Contreras accelerated the vehicle and attempted to flee from the scene, according to officials, and was eventually stopped at his residence. He got out of the vehicle and started walking to the home.
“An HSI agent drew his firearm and gave commands, at which point Contreras reached for the agent’s weapon, leading to a physical struggle over control of the firearm,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office alleges. “Three other agents arrived at the scene.”
“Cervantes exited the vehicle and began kicking the agents who were attempting to arrest Contreras. During the altercation, Contreras bit and struck multiple agents. Both Contreras and Cervantes were eventually taken into custody. All four agents sustained injuries,” federal officials state.
The charges are part of Operation Take Back America. The nationwide initiative “marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime,” according to the Department of Justice.
War of Words
Where things stand with Ortiz wasn’t clear Monday evening. The leftist ACLU and Democrat Attorney General Kris Mayes have reportedly rallied to the senator’s side. Ortiz has not returned The Federalist’s multiple requests for comment. Department of Homeland Security officials and a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office also did not return requests for comment on Monday.
The controversy has sparked a war of words.
Pinal County Attorney Brad Miller said on a podcast that he wouldn’t mind serving as special prosecutor to investigate Ortiz.
“If our Arizona state legislators would like an investigation into it, into this particular matter, let them know that I’m free,” the Republican told KNST conservative talk show host Garret Lewis.
Mayes fired back that Miller doesn’t have the authority to do so, and accused Petersen of using his leadership position to “intimidate” Ortiz “for exercising her 1st Amendment rights.”
Petersen, who is running for attorney general, did not return The Federalist’s request for comment on Monday, but wrote in an X post last week that “Mayes is wrong on the facts and law again.”
“She investigated @realDonaldTrump for calling Liz Cheney a war hawk (legal) but she defends doxxing ICE agents (illegal) and undermining law enforcement. Totally incompetent!” the Senate president wrote.
“And as far as intimidation goes, she is the queen of weaponizing her office. Hypocrisy at its finest.”
Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.
