Phoenix Police Dept's Violations of Ops Order 4.48: Puente HRM Report, Study notes of Human Rights

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Phoenix Police Department’s

Violations of Operations Order 4.

A Puente Human Rights Movement Report

January 2021

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Acknowledgements This report is dedicated to the families and community who continue to fight SB1070 and Police & ICE collaboration. May we continue to do what it takes to bring dignity and justice. Special thanks to the 4.48 research team: Chris Bedolla, Victoria Favella, Margaret Kearney, Laura Quinn & Sandra Castro Solis. This report was authored by Sandra Castro Solis & Whitney Meilan Yang, and designed by Orlando Arenas & Whitney Meilan Yang. About puente Puente Human Rights Movement was founded in Arizona in 2007 in response to abuses of power by local law enforcement officials and anti-migratory attacks initiated through state laws and policies. For over 10 years, Puente has led the fight against local and federal anti-immigrant policies while building a political home for Arizona’s most marginalized communities. Our membership and leadership have always been made up of those who are most impacted by adverse policies, laws, and police/ICE joint tactics. Our membership consists of undocumented people, mixed- status families, youth, people directly affected by the criminal justice system, and people of color affected by rampant racial profiling. Since its founding, Puente has transitioned into a broad multi-generational movement for human rights. For more information on how to get involved with us, please visit our website: www.puenteaz.org.

Operations Order 4. Background In October of 2010, Phoenix Police Department drafted and enforced Operations Order 4.48 which guides the Phoenix Police Department’s procedures on enforcing and complying with criminal and civil immigration violations. 4.48 serves as the implementation policy for SB 1070, otherwise known as the “show me your papers” law. The Phoenix Police Department implemented this policy without community insight or town halls. Puente Human Rights Movement launched its first campaign against Operations Order 4.48 policy in 2010 in an effort to expose the racial profiling inherent to both 4.48 and SB 1070 policies. In 2017, Puente and other community partners successfully advocated for changes to Operations Order 4.48 that were aimed at limiting racial profiling and required tracking all Phoenix Police Department (PPD) contact with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

!B1"#" Background

On April 23rd 2010, Arizona governor Jan Brewer signed into law the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act (better known as SB1070). Republican Senator Russel Pearce introduced SB1070 to the Arizona state legislature with the intention of streamlining statewide police state practices, whereby local law enforcement would be allowed the discretion to ask any person to disclose their immigration status based on reasonable suspicion. SB1070 served as the nation's catalyst law to enforce a statewide attrition through enforcement strategy. This meant passing a law so flagrant that it would restrict the rights and liberties of migrants, forcing them to self-deport or end up in the crimmigration pipeline. SB1070 was one of the most adverse immigration laws the United States had seen at the time; it would become the blueprint model for other anti-migrant states to follow. Our community refused to accept the passage and implementation of the law -- we fought back. Puente and countless other organizations and communities came together to create a unique model on how to fight back against 1070 and police/ICE collaboration. One of the ways Puente fought back against racial profiling and criminalization of immigration was to advocate for policy changes to Operations Order 4.48, which served as the enforcement arm of SB1070 for the Phoenix Police Department.

2"1# $olic% changes

Community advocacy against Operations Order 4.48 led to the policy that is currently in use today. Major changes to the original policy that are reflected in today’s policy include:

Limiting racial profiling practices

and other human rights abuses. The

updated policy removed all language referring to the use of the term “border- related,” removed instructions for police officers to stop, question and scrutinize people picking up passengers in their motor vehicles for day-work and those passengers, and removed racist language describing what types of

signifiers should warrant an officer’s “reasonable suspicion” that a person is in in the country unlawfully. Some of those signifiers listed in the first policy version were “dress,” “unusual or unexplained nervousness,” “significant difficulty speaking English,” and “vehicle is overcrowded or rides heavily.” The updated policy also added language that emphasized the “sanctity of life” and encouraged officers to respect all people.

Limiting the ability of police officers

to question people regarding their

immigration status. The updated

policy included and emphasized the mandate that police officers must not be held longer than the intended stop in order to verify a person’s immigration status, and that officers do not ask immigration questions to drivers or passengers during traffic stop unless required by law. The policy update additionally added important victim witness language mandating officers not to ask victims of crimes or witnesses to crimes about their immigration status. It also removed language from the first policy version that encouraged officers to try to determine a person’s immigration status, and removed instructions for police officers to ask all people who are arrested questions including “What country are you a citizen of?” and “What is your place of birth?”

Limiting the ability of police officers

to make contact with or transport

people to ICE. The updated policy

required that any person who is found to have a civil immigration violation must provide consent in order for a police officer to transport them to ICE custody. It also included language that a person may only be transported to ICE custody if ICE verifies that the person is wanted for a criminal immigration violation, and added a mandate that School Resource Officers must not contact ICE for any purposes while a student is on school grounds.

Requiring higher levels of

authorization to approve police

officer contact with ICE and

requiring transparency and

documentation in regards to all

immigration-related contact. The

updated policy shifted responsibility for immigration documentation from police officers to their sergeants, and took away the ability for officers to verify the immigration status of a person themselves. The new policy required all police officer contact with ICE be approved by a Violent Crimes Bureau desk sergeant or a supervisor if a VCB sergeant is unavailable, and required that a Violent Crimes Bureau desk sergeant must document all immigration-related data and grant authority to contact ICE. 2"2" Data Collection and Anal%sis In 2020, Puente Human Rights Movement and the Advancement Project obtained data via a public records request on PPD contact with ICE between 2017 and 2019. The data has shown that PPD is in violation of their own Operations Order 4.48 policy as per 2017 policy revisions.

Phoenix Police Department

regularly collaborated with ICE and

MCSO in a manner that is

inconsistent with the mandate of

Case !tud%' (& migrants deported )rom $hoeni* in +oint D,A, D-!, and CB$ raid On Wednesday, September 19, 2020 Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Phoenix Police Department and City of Phoenix Public Transit collaborated together to abduct 65 migrants during an undercover DEA operation in Phoenix. This operation was reported to be a drug investigation where there were also reports of a possible drop house with immigrants. Customs and Border Patrol arrested and detained 65 migrants during this operation; all migrants arrested, including women and unaccompanied minors, were charged with DHS Title 42 Expulsions and expelled the same day. Federal immigration policies like Title 42 were passed to remove the limited judicial

stops where violations and reasons for ICE contact and arrest were unknown.

There was practice of repeated calls to ICE by PPD officers and supervisors.

Our data analysis found that the same officers repeatedly called supervisors seeking approval to make contact with ICE, and a small number of supervisors were repeatedly contacted by officers to approve contact with ICE. These officers and supervisors form a network of repeat offenders and policy abusers.

Conclusions The analysis of the data shows that Phoenix Police Department officers are in flagrant violation of Operations Order 4.48. Despite revisions to Operations Order 4.48 in an effort to make the policy humane and fair, the legacy of SB1070 continues to lead to civil rights violations and criminalization of migrants and Arizona residents. Anti- migratory policies like SB1070 have contributed to the Phoenix Police Department’s internationally notorious reputation as racist, violent, and abusive of people’s rights. There is no accountability and oversight of officers nor PPD leadership to ensure that policy is followed, the public’s rights and dignity are respected, and racial profiling is avoided. Residents of Phoenix remain vulnerable to racial profiling. To this day, there is no safe mechanism for undocumented people to report police abuse of power or racial profiling in the City of Phoenix.

protections migrants previously had access to if they were arrested and faced deportation proceedings. The Phoenix case serves as an example of what can occur in other states and cities across the country when immigration enforcement policy is grossly misused. This operation exemplifies the dangers of continued police, ICE, and CBP collaboration, especially under an anti- immigrant administration that continually violates the human rights and liberties of migrants. According to Operations Order 4.48, Phoenix Police Department is required to investigate drop houses and human trafficking cases. 4.48 policy as it stands leaves too much room for ambiguity on how federal and local police investigations should operate. Under 4.48 policy, victims of trafficking should have had a right to stay while Phoenix Police Department operated its own investigations through the VCB office.

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Section 8 of Operations Order 4. leaves the question of power in murky water. Section 8 assigns responsibility to duties typically held by PPD to ICE, such as investigating human smuggling in Phoenix. At the same time, Section 8 holds PPD responsible for “state crimes against the victims,” though it does not make a distinction between when human smuggling would constitute a state crime or a federal immigration issue. The result of such ambiguous and contradictory policy is that the enforcement protocol related to human trafficking is left to the discretion of the PPD and ICE.

1. We demand a federal investigation of the Pheonix Police Department and their practices of racial profiling and prolonged stops. Additionally, we demand the Department of Justice investigate PPD’s excessive use of force and violence against black, brown and indigenous peoples.
2. We demand Mayor Kate Gallego and the Phoenix City Council audit police practices under Operations Order 4. in both council meetings and subcommittee meetings. The council must hold Phoenix Police Department staff accountable for aiding and abetting racial profiling practices.
3. Stop racial profiling! End Operations Order 4.48! End collaboration between Phoenix Police and ICE!
4. Track and monitor all contacts Phoenix Police Department has with ICE and make this information available to the public.
5. Stop the practice of prolonging stops to verify immigration status and stop holding people for ICE.
6. We demand a thorough investigation into the unknown reasons for stops between 2017 - 2020 and the status of contacts to ICE for civil criminal violations, consensual stops, and other misuse of policy.
7. End the profiling and questioning of status towards victims and witnesses of crime, minors, human trafficking victims, and consensual contacts.
8. Fire Phoenix Police Officers VCB officials and supervising staff who have an outstanding record of repeated contacts to ICE or have multiple misuse of policy. info@puenteaz.org (602) 252-
9. Repeal SB 1070 and end police and ICE collaboration!