Mayor Sartor, may we have a word?
The federal environmental review of the proposed ICE facility puts detention on hold. That pause hands the City of Surprise something it did not have before: time, and no excuse to sit still.
Thousands of Surprise residents have shown up at Northwest Valley Indivisible events since early 2025. We organize in this city. We show up to council meetings, we file public comment, we track the industrial safety decisions that land on the people who live here. So we will say plainly what you keep avoiding. “The federal government is in charge” is not a plan. It is a way to change the subject. The City cannot control what Washington decides, but it controls plenty, and right now it is choosing not to use it.
Mr. Mayor, here is what you and the City Council can do starting this week. None of it requires overriding federal law. All of it is ordinary municipal work the City already does for far smaller matters.
Turn the pause into a due-diligence period. Use the halt to assemble independent data on emergency response, HAZMAT implications, traffic routing, Rinchem chemical-release scenarios, and evacuation plans. Bring in outside experts, put their findings in public, and replace the City’s assumptions with hard numbers.
Enforce the safety laws already on the books. Commercial trucks block fire lanes and hydrants on Sweetwater Avenue. No-parking zones go unenforced. The City has the authority to stop all of this today, and it should publish the record (inspections, citations, response times) so residents can see whether it is.
Show up to the NEPA process louder than any else. During the Department of Homeland Security’s environmental review, Surprise should be the most involved municipality in Arizona. Submit every community concern formally. Demand every answer in writing. Build an evidentiary record the City can stand on later.
Publish a plain legal memo. Instead of hiding behind a blanket claim of federal supremacy, the City Attorney should put it in writing: what the City clearly cannot do, what it arguably can do, and which everyday enforcement powers still fully apply. Residents deserve to see the actual line, not a slogan.
Hold a real public information session. Three minutes at a podium is not a briefing. The City should host a structured forum with the City Manager, Fire and HAZMAT officials, outside environmental experts, and you, where verified facts get shared and residents get their questions answered directly.
Run council meetings by neutral rules. Apply content-neutral procedure and let residents connect the dots between routine City business (development decisions, enforcement resources) and the safety of the community, without getting gaveled down for it.
We are not asking you to do the impossible. We are not asking you to override federal law from a council chamber. We are asking you to stop hiding. Every one of these steps comes down to the same thing: be open about what is happening with this facility, and use every lawful tool the City has to demand answers and cut the risk to the people who live here. That is the job. It is past time for you to do it.