If Surprise City Council won’t fight for you now, what makes you think they’ll fight for you later?
Right now, today, laws appear to have been broken in the rushed acquisition and activation of ICE’s human warehouse at 13290 W. Sweetwater Ave. NEPA requires federal environmental review before a major federal action affecting a community. DHS claims they’ve completed it — they just won’t let the public see it. We’re supposed to take their word for it. Federal procurement rules govern how agencies purchase property. Serious questions remain about whether that process was followed. The EPA’s Risk Management Plan regulations require facilities to account for populations who cannot self-evacuate — and the adjacent Rinchem facility stores hydrofluoric acid, chlorine, and fluorine next to people who have no way out. The city’s own PAD zoning doesn’t permit this use.
These aren’t technicalities. They are legal grounds for action that exist right now, without DHS’s cooperation or consent.
And yet what multiple council members say they want is an Intergovernmental Agreement — a deal DHS has to voluntarily sign and honor. We’re told it would memorialize DHS’s verbal promises: an annual payment to the city, cost reimbursement for police and fire, facility tours, site plan sharing, and a community relations board with no defined powers and no named members. That’s what the council is willing to fight for — someday, maybe, if DHS agrees to sign. You don’t ask for a new promise from someone already breaking the old ones. The council won’t move on laws already on the books, but expects us to believe they’ll enforce a gentleman’s agreement with the same federal agency currently bulldozing their authority.
An IGA isn’t leverage. It’s a political cover play. It concedes that DHS belongs here and hands them a negotiating table they were never entitled to.
The residents of Surprise don’t need their council to cut a deal. They need them to do their jobs. The laws already exist. The violations are happening now.
What’s missing isn’t an enforceable agreement. What’s missing is courage.
[Photo credit: City of Surprise]