The last time Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva sat down with radio host Bill Buckmaster, it was shortly after she had been pepper-sprayed during a raid at a westside restaurant by federal immigration officials.
On Friday, Grijalva was still talking about ICE — although her concern was for the countless people caught up in federal immigration enforcement.
Congresswoman Grijalva paused and her voice softened when asked about her meeting with Julia Benitez, a 79-year-old woman with dementia, inside the Eloy detention center a few days ago.
The woman was just two years older than her father, whose birthday was on Thursday.
“I was able to have a chat with la abuela and she's just a very kind woman, very sweet, very confused. And from what we understand from her family, she walked in on her own two feet into the institution and now she's in a wheelchair,” Grijalva said.
Buckmaster, Grijalva and Joe talk about national and local politics last Friday on the Buckmaster Show. (Photo courtesy of Nicholas McCullough.)
As a member of Congress, Grijalva is in a rare position to inspect the conditions inside detention centers, and she noted that medical staff are reportedly struggling to care for the increased numbers of elderly detainees.
“We have to continue to look for more humanitarian relief and releases,” Grijalva said. “And I just can't fathom what this 80-year-old grandmother has done (to be this) kind of security risk.”
Benitez became upset at the end of her 30-minute visit with Grijalva because she assumed the visit meant she was going home. She has been in detention since last May.
Grijalva leaving the ICE Detention Center in Eloy on Wednesday. (Image courtesy of Grijalva.)
As the Trump administration begins buying warehouses to turn into detention centers — including the one in Surprise apparently targeted by an arsonist over the weekend — Grijalva said she’s “very concerned” about how people arrested by federal immigration officials will be treated.
These warehouses expose people being detained to unsafe and unsanitary conditions, she argues, saying these facilities lack enough showers, bathrooms and kitchens to house thousands of people for weeks at a time.
Grijalva said she is pressing for answers from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons about the planned ICE Detention Center in Marana. Last Thursday, she and Reps. Greg Stanton and Yassamin Ansari signed onto a letter that gave the administration 15 days to respond to questions about its plans for the 500-bed former state prison.
“We don't think that they should be able to purchase buildings and property without having consultation with the community,” Grijalva said.
And on the topic of the partial government shutdown, Grijalva said Democrats are fighting to keep federal agents from wearing masks, requiring a judicial warrant to search homes and to honor due process. An investigative report from Reuters notes that courts have ruled against ICE 4,400 times for jailing people illegally.
Her second bill
On Friday, Grijalva dropped her second bill since taking office in November. The “Right to Read” Act would create $500 million in grants to improve literacy and another $100 million for a program prioritizing high-need communities.
Grijalva, who is the daughter, sister and wife of librarians, has written into the bill First Amendment protections for school libraries (and librarians) that are being targeted by book bans.
“It will ensure culturally relevant books that make sense for the communities that the grant money goes into for adult literacy for certified librarians and protecting our librarians and teachers,” Grijalva said.
Grijalva reads to students last Friday as she participated in the national “Love of Reading” week. (Image courtesy of Rep. Grijalva.)
At the Capitol, Republican Sen. Jake Hoffman introduced Senate Bill 1435, which would make it a class 5 felony to distribute “sexually explicit” material in school. It has already passed the Senate Government Committee, which Hoffman chairs, and is headed to the full Senate for a vote.
First Amendment experts have suggested similar bans have led to books like William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” being pulled from high school bookshelves.
Grijalva said she is concerned about censorship inside public schools.
We filed a public records request with the Tucson Unified School District asking for records of members of the public lobbying to remove titles from its libraries. The district told us that it has zero records of that happening.
So what’s next?
Grijalva is joining other congressional Democrats who plan on sitting out President Donald Trump’s address to Congress on Tuesday.
“I actually decided not to attend the State of the Union and I will be watching in my office. I don't think my presence there is going to add anything to what we're going to hear,” Grijalva said.
But she is doing something — giving her State of the Union guest ticket to Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar to distribute as she sees fit.
“Initially, I thought it was going to be Renee Good’s family, but I believe that my ticket is going to another individual, which is totally fine,” Grijalva said.
You can listen to the whole interview with Grijalva here.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee today put Democrat JoAnna Mendoza on their ‘Red to Blue’ program.
It’s fairly unusual for the DCCC to get involved in a race before the primary, although Mendoza’s long list of endorsements and fund-raising last year put her in the lead for the Democratic nomination for Arizona’s Sixth Congressional District.
#AZ06 Democratic candidate JoAnna Mendoza (Photo courtesy of Mendoza for Congress.)
We’ll note it’s still too early to tell whether Mendoza will be the only candidate on the Democratic primary ballot this summer.
“Jo Mendoza has dedicated her career to protecting and serving our country, and she’s exactly the kind of leader Arizonans deserve in Congress to take on tough fights,” DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene said. “Jo is more than ready to defeat Juan Ciscomani and flip Southern Arizona blue.”
As the two-term Republican incumbent, Ciscomani benefitted last year from large donations from GOP leadership political action committees, and support from a deep well of supporters from previous campaign cycles.
The DCCC announcement should help Mendoza stay competitive.
The district is considered a “tossup” by the Cook Political Report.
Data center duel: Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes made good on her threat to file an appeal over an agreement between Tucson Electric Power and the Project Blue developer that the Arizona Corporation Commission approved in December. Mayes says the agreement allows TEP and Beale Infrastructure to “set electricity rate schedules between themselves” when the new data centers come online.
Hosting Iran: The Kino Sports Complex in Tucson is going to host the Iranian soccer team this summer, Pima County officials said on Friday. The Iranian team will start training in Tucson in June, when the team plays first-round (AKA “group”) World Cup matches in Los Angeles and Seattle. County officials say the selection of the Kino Sports Complex as a training site shows the complex is “world-class.”
Not-so-mini-dorms: The UA also is building a $250 million student dormitory on the corner of Speedway and Campbell, the Arizona Daily Star’s Prerana Sannappanavar reports. The 19-story building, which will house more than 1,200 students, comes as the UA will start asking first-year students to live on campus this fall.
RTA kerfuffle: The former executive director of the Regional Transportation Authority, Farhad Moghimi, claims he was unlawfully terminated from his position last June, the Tucson Sentinel’s Jim Nintzel reports. Moghimi is suing the RTA board and the Pima Association of Governments (which is made up of the same officials as the RTA board). Among other claims, Moghimi says Tucson Mayor Regina Romero and Pima County Supervisor Matt Heinz pressured him to increase funding for certain road projects and forced him out when he resisted.
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Mixed bag: Local officials served nearly 6,000 unsheltered people last year, and people are spending fewer days without shelter than they did the previous year, Arizona Public Media’s Laura Holanszky reports. The Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness’ report to the Tucson City Council last week included the welcome news that more people are accepting services. At the same time, more people are returning to homelessness.
Here are the top events this week for those who want a front row seat to local politics.
The City of Tucson will hold a virtual forum today at 5 p.m. to discuss how to set standards and regulate data centers.
The Pima County Republican Club meets on Tuesdays at 11:30 a.m. at The Kettle just west of I-10 on 22nd St.
The Rio Nuevo Board will meet virtually on Tuesday at 1 p.m. A link to the agenda and the live-stream can be found here.
Friday is the last day to request a ballot for the RTA Next election. Instructions can be found here.
The Pima County Democratic Party held a fund-raiser on Saturday night at Club Congress, including a talent show featuring Tucson Mayor Regina Romero and Tucson City Councilmembers Paul Cunningham and Miranda Schubert.
Schubert put on skates and showed off the years she spent in a roller derby league. Her league name was “Pariah Carey.”
Romero took the stage and roasted members of the Trump administration.
And Cunningham? He performed a rap he co-wrote for his 50th birthday party.