Nothing like a surprise trip to a government facility to uncover all the broken rules, compromised regulations, and appalling conditions being allowed there.
That is what happened yesterday evening when Arizona's three Democratic Representatives, Yassamin Ansari, Adelita Grijalva, and Greg Stanton made an unannounced late evening visit to the DHS-ICE Administered Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center, Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport in Mesa.
According to Representative Stanton, no one let them through the front door, and they had to go around the side of the facility, where planes were being loaded and unloaded.
What they saw confirmed what they had been hearing from ICE detainees through announced visits where government officials attempted to cover up how bad the conditions were.
Appearing with reporters after their visit, the three Representatives told of seeing massive overcrowding of 40 to 50 people packed in hot cells with signs above the entrance saying 'Maximum Allowed 27.'
The detainees they spoke with also confirmed, in the brief time the government officials did not notice that happening, that many of them had been in this crowded facility for days rather than the one day maximum the government had claimed.
Representative Grijalva described seeing what she saw as the people in these crowded cells "Lying like sardines" and "frightening" with one detainee asking her for "sanitary napkins" while others showed her food that was "disgusting, and another asking "Why aren't they treating us like human beings? This is inhumane."
Grijalva also observed medical neglect where some people who were ill still being cramped in with the healthy people.
Representative Ansari called what she saw "Shameful," "Horrifying," and "Unacceptable. ICE is breaking every possible, any possible standard of human dignity that we should have in the United States of America, breaking laws left and right. No accountability, no oversight whatsoever."
Representative Stanton called it "Shocking," and reported "Overcrowding to a level that is completely unacceptable. People lying on the floor next to each other side by side by side on a concrete floor. This is a facility that was meant for short term stays as people await their flights for deportation. We now know that detainees were staying here for multiple days. Unfortunately, they could not tell us for the detainees that were there how long each of them had been there. But it was clear that many of them have been there for a long period of time in these conditions in which each of the holding cells were significantly overcrowded, significantly beyond the capacity."
Please click here to watch the full news briefing below.
After the news briefing, Representative Ansari released a social media video, detailing her observations.
Representatives Ansari and Grijalva are right when they say this should not be happening in the United States and no human being should be treated this way.
The people who are committing these crimes need to be replaced and charged.
The people who allowed this to happen in the Trump Government need to be fired and charged.
In their quest to pay for their tax cuts for billionaires in the Big Billionaires First Bill, Mr. Trump and his Congressional Republican allies cut vital social services for millions of vulnerable Americans.
Food Stamps or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) was one of them.
With onerous new work requirements, the removal of work exemptions, and a mandate to reduce the payment error rate, the resulting cuts, according to reporting from ProPublica, have moved almost half the people (over 400,000) enrolled in the SNAP program off the Arizona rolls.
180,000 of those people are children who now face potential starvation because Donald Trump and Republicans chose to deny them food security so billionaires can afford to get more caviar for parties on their yachtsand Donald Trump can build ballrooms and monuments to himself.
Arizona is currently the leader among the 50 states in people being thrown off the food stamp rolls.
Donald Trump, in his Orwellian speak, boasts that "3.3 million people have been lifted off food stamps."
Probably a safe bet that most of those 3.3 million do not share the Liar in Chief's sentiment.
In a statement to ProPublica and the Blog for Arizona, Liliana Soto, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs's Press Secretary, wrote:
"Washington Republicans took food out of the mouths of 400,000 Arizonans, including 180,000 children with their reckless and partisan Washington budget. The chaos and confusion forced on states by the reckless legislation has increased bureaucracy and red tape on states across the country, and forced DES to take difficult steps to reduce the state’s Payment Error Rate. If these actions weren’t taken, Arizona would put hundreds of millions of dollars in food assistance at risk, forcing even more families to lose access to their benefits.
Growing up, Governor Hobbs’ family sometimes relied on food stamps to get by. She will continue fighting to protect Arizona families from the devastating policies forced on our state by Washington, DC. Governor Hobbs is committed to minimizing the harm caused by these federal mandates. That’s why she immediately invested $7.5 million to add staff and resources to improve SNAP payment accuracy, streamline processes, and ensure families and workers receive assistance more quickly."
Arizona Democratic Senate Leader Priya Sundareshan condemned what is happening to Arizona's most vulnerable, commenting to Blog for Arizona:
“Taking millions of people off SNAP isn’t a success if they’re still hungry; it’s a crisis. What we’re seeing in Arizona is families losing access, not because they don’t qualify, but because the system is being made harder to navigate. Senate Democrats are fighting for an Arizona we can afford, where no child goes without food.”
Arizona House Democratic Leader Oscar De Los Santos blasted Trump and Republicans attack on the poor in a social media post, offering:
"Washington Republicans have kicked off hundreds of thousands of Arizonans — including children and veterans — from food assistance. Many will go hungry and skip meals. All to fund tax cuts for billionaires. Shameful."
Democratic Assistant House Leader Nancy Gutierrez also posted:
"How does this help Arizona? Republicans are proud that AZ is kicking families off of SNAP. They don’t care about affordability; they don’t care about what’s really happening. They only care about Trump."
Arizona Representative Adelita Grijalva issued a statement condemning Trump and Republican cruelty to Arizona and America's most vulnerable, writing:
“The findings of this report are shocking. Because of the Republicans’ Big Ugly Law, more than 400,000 Arizonans – including 180,000 children – have been kicked off vital nutrition assistance. When Republicans say they are going after ‘waste, fraud, and abuse,’ let’s remember what that really means: children going hungry and families being pushed further into financial crisis. We are told there’s no money to feed our children, yet somehow, we can spend billions on another endless war abroad. It’s time to reverse these devastating cuts to food assistance and healthcare, and finally focus on lowering costs.”
DCCC spokesperson Lindsay Reilly blamed Republican Congressmen Eli Crane and Juan Ciscomani, two representatives in battleground districts, for voting for the Big Billionaire's First Bill that took away food from vulnerable Arizonans, saying in a statement:
“Juan Ciscomani and Eli Crane don’t care about hardworking Arizona families. Arizonans are feeling the pain of Crane and Ciscomani’s callous decisions every day. Voters will hold them both accountable at the ballot box.”
Copper State Victory spokesperson Nicholas Simões Machado went after Arizona Republican Gubernatorial Candidates Andy Biggs and David Schweikert, two other Congressmen who also voted for the food stamp cuts, writing:
“This new report shows the cost of Andy Biggs and David Schweikert’s partisan agenda to Arizonans: ripping food out of the hands of 180,000 children all to fund tax breaks for billionaires. From now until November, they owe Arizona families answers for raising costs and ripping away meals to please their party bosses in Washington.”
Ms. Soto is right. Throwing people off food stamp rolls is reckless.
Arizona Democratic Senate Leader Priya Sundareshan is right when she says this is a crisis and no Arizona child should go without food.
Arizona Democratic House Leader De Los Santos is right. Taking away children's food security is shameful.
Arizona Assistant Democratic Leader Nancy Gutierrez is right. Republicans do not care about affordability and the families being kicked off SNAP.
Representative Grijalva is right when she points out Mr. Trump has money to fund a war of choice he seems to be losing rather than put food on the table for working class Americans.
Senator Gallego is right when he calls Trump's policies an Anti-Worker Agenda.
At a time when Donald Trump and Washington and Arizona Republicans put billionaires over poor people, unplanned wars over funding daycare, Medicare, and Medicaid, and ballrooms and monuments to dear leader over an affordability agenda to lift everyone up, it is time for American voters, especially those who actually believed, despite the track record, that Trump was actually for them, to turn to the political party and candidates that do speak for the working and middle class and have a record and agenda to prove it.
The International Global Order that has existed since 1945.
Today, after days of mentally unhinged social media posts and White House Press Room tirades saying that he would bomb Iran back into the Stone Age, destroy Persian Civilization, and God was on his side, Donald Trump agreed to a two week ceasefire with Iran to pursue an end to the war Mr. Trump started 40 days ago with little planning or consideration of what could go wrong.
Please click here to read the New York Times account of how Trump decided to go to war with Iran.
Now, it is a good thing that Mr. Trump came to the decision to not escalate the war he started and agreed to a ceasefire. This war should not have happened in the first place.
Proposal: US must withdraw
However, the Stable Genius agreed to a ceasefire based on Iran's ten-point plan, which includes the following proposals:
Trump has wasted $30 billion to $45 billion in direct military spending, only to get a ceasefire.
Israel stopping its attacks on Iranian client and terrorist group Hezbollah.
The United States withdrawing its troops from the region.
Removal of all sanctions on Iran.
An acknowledgment that Iran has control of the Strait of Hormuz and can charge tolls to vessels seeking to pass through that waterway.
There does not appear to be anything about Iran's nuclear program, which was supposed to be one of the main objectives of this war.
For a nation that Trump said we beat after the first hours of the war and had demanded unconditional surrender from them just days ago, or else he would bomb them back into the Stone Age, Iran's ten-point peace plan is similar to the armistice terms the Allies and Associated Powers demanded of Germany to end the fighting in the First World War.
They are acting like the victors.
This is the peace plan Trump says, in his latest post, "is a good starting point" for negotiations.
For all his bluster and bombastic words in person and on social media, Donald Trump has again made the United States worse off and strengthened America's enemies.
If Iran only gets to keep control of the Strait of Hormuz, which it did not have before the war, military historians will say they won.
TACO Trump has struck again.
Imagine what Republicans would say if Barack Obama or Joe Biden had agreed to a cease-fire based on Iran's ten-point plan. The Articles of Impeachment would already be off the presses.
Meanwhile, the American People are stuck with higher gas, utility, and grocery prices thanks to Trump's reckless decision to start a war with Iran.
"I am momentarily relieved for the 90 million Iranians who just spent the worst 24 hours of their lives thinking they were about to face nothing short of a nuclear catastrophe—not the regime, but innocent civilians who have nothing to do with their government, and long for freedom. I’m also relieved for the American servicemembers who would have been placed in even graver danger and ordered to carry out war crimes.
But this doesn’t change anything. Donald Trump threatened genocide and war crimes against Iranians this morning. His statements that “a whole civilization will die” and that he’ll take Iran “back to the stone ages” confirm that he is mentally unstable, unhinged, and unfit for office or any position of authority.
It’s now day 39 of Trump’s illegal regional war that has had deadly and catastrophic consequences. There has been no clear plan or rationale, no strategy, and no Congressional authorization or input as required by the Constitution.
Thousands of civilians have been tragically killed across the region, American servicemembers have died and suffered unnecessarily, and millions are displaced from Lebanon to the Gulf. Trump and Pete Hegseth have already committed explicit war crimes by bombing schools, hospitals, bridges, and water desalination plants.
Trump is unfit
This isn’t partisan. Republicans, Democrats, and Independents now know that Trump is dangerous and unfit.
Whether through impeachment or by invoking the 25th Amendment, it is far past time Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth are removed from office. Cabinet officials like JD Vance will be forever tied to this war if they do nothing. We need urgent action for the sake of our national security and the safety and security of the rest of the world.
I’m also demanding that Mike Johnson immediately call the House back into session so we can pass the bipartisan War Powers Resolution and ensure that Trump and Hegseth can never again resume this disastrous war.
I pray this ceasefire holds, and I pray for peace and freedom for the Iranian people."
Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy posted, "It appears Trump just agreed to give Iran control of the Strait of Hormuz, a history-changing win for Iran. The level of incompetence is both stunning and heartbreaking. What on earth is happening?"
Democrats also need to draft Articles of Impeachment against Trump.
It probably will not go anywhere until the next Congress, but again, with his vile and maniacal social media posts coupled with agreeing to a ceasefire based on Iran's demands, Donald Trump has shown he is not fit to lead the United States.
The sooner he is retired from his current position, the better for the people of the United States and the rest of the world.
At the same event where Trump was compared to Jesus, the man who robbed from the poor and middle class and gave to himself, his family, and his top one percent cronies in the Big Billionaires First Bill, delivered very un-Christian remarks about the need to provide daycare for America's struggling (thanks to him) families:
"I said to Russell (Budget Director Vought and Project 2025 Mastermind), don't send any money to daycare because the United States can't take care of daycare. That has to be up to a state. We can't take care of daycare. We're a big country. We have 50 states. We have all these other people. We're fighting wars. We can't take care of daycare. You gotta let a state take care of daycare, and they should pay for it too. They should pay. They have to raise their taxes, but they should pay for it. We could lower our taxes a little bit to them to make up for it, but it's not possible for us to take care of daycare. Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. They can do it on a state basis. You can't do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing. Military protection. We have to guard the country. But all these little things, all these little things. All these little scams that have taken place...You have to let states take care of them, Russell..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GFcmIVM3Yc
For those who are still a little unclear on the Trump/Project 2025 Agenda.
They want to do away with every program from the Square Deal, New Deal, Fair Deal, the Great Society, the War on Poverty, and progressive measures signed by Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden.
Pretty sure the American People who are struggling with higher prices at the gas pump, the grocery store, and the doctor's office because of Trump tariffs, wars of choice, and cuts to health care, do not think daycare, Medicare, and Medicaid are little things.
The American People who put all of Trump's character flaws, past transgressions, and crimes aside when they voted for him in the hopes he would reduce the price of the bread they put on their table should be convinced by now that there is no affordability agenda coming from his regime.
Need more proof. See below what he wants to cut from the American People in the budget blueprint he released last week.
For those people who equate Trump with Jesus, pretty sure this budget, with its calling for marked defense increases (that would benefit his sons who are now in the drone construction business) while the American People fight for fiscal crumbs, is not a budget the person who inspired Christianity would embrace.
Commenting on Trump's public stance on not funding Daycare, Medicaid, and Medicare, Arizona Representative Yassamin Ansari wrote:"Oh wow, he actually admitted it."
Representative Adelita Grijalva posted: "Trump doesn’t want you to have childcare or healthcare, but is okay with spending $200 BILLION for another endless foreign war!"
On Trump's comments, Representative Greg Stanton offered: "Trump said the quiet part out loud. He’d rather use your tax dollars to fight a war we didn't ask for than to protect Medicare and Medicaid."
Stanton also reacted to Trump's budget proposals with: "Utility bills are through the roof. Trump's response is exactly the wrong answer. His budget eliminates the program that helps low-income families and seniors keep cool in extreme summer heat. In Arizona, that plan would be deadly."
Arizona Legislative Republicans Are Not Offering an Affordability Agenda Either.
Mr. Trump's assertions that the states should take care of Daycare, Medicaid, and Medicare, and raise taxes to pay for it, probably fell on deaf ears with most Republican state legislators across the country, including the ones in Arizona who have consistently worked to undermine the Affordabilty "Arizona we can Afford' Agenda Legislative Democrats and Governor Katie Hobbs have been promoting since the start of the Legislative Session.
Like Trump, if the measure does not help the rich, like giving them blank check access to working and middle class tax dollars to send their children to the private school- indoctrination center of their choice, Arizona Legislative Republicans are not interested.
They are not even interested in paying public school teachers what they are worth.
In a post by State Democratic Representative Lorena Austin, she highlighted that Republicans refused to advance parts of their affordability agenda, including paid family leave, retirement savings, and the renewal of increased public school funding through Proposition 123.
"What I can tell you is that Democrats are committed to fighting for affordability for Arizonans, because that's what we need. We don't need to be funneling money into crazy conspiracy theories or into flying cars, which, yes, was a bill that we heard this past week. We need to come back to reality and have a relatable budget for our people because they deserve it. They work hard. Most of our constituents are working two, three jobs just to make it by. We have seniors who are being priced out of their homes because they don't have enough money from their pensions. It doesn't have to be this way. And that's what Democrats are fighting for in Arizona. We're fighting for an Arizona that you can afford."
Arizona Senate Democratic Leader Priya Sundareshan also criticized Arizona Legislative Republicans in the below post, accusing them of adopting scare tactics with regard to the filing of state income taxes and for not negotiating seriously on the fiscal year budget.
"...The truth is, the chaos and the confusion around filing taxes was never real.It was created. It was manufactured and it was pushed by Legislative Republicans. While they were creating this confusion, they have failed to do the real work. Their budget started off unbalanced. Now budget negotiations have stalled completely, and they still haven't brought forward a serious plan, one that includes renewing Prop 123 and actually investing in Arizona's future. We've had your back from day one, and we're gonna keep fighting for an Arizona you can afford."
Democratic House Leader Oscar De Los Santos has also led on advancing an affordability agenda, challenging irate Republican Committee Chairpersons to hear bills to make life livable for Arizonans and getting denied. Please see below.
He has also been highly critical of Trump's budget proposals, writing on April 2: "His big plan is to … cut health care to fund another war in the Middle East."
On Trump's proposal to cut utility assistance to low income residents, De Los Santos posted:
"CHAOS vs COMPETENCE: Washington Republicans want to end utility assistance for working families. Meanwhile, @GovernorHobbs just invested millions to help families pay their bills. And @AZAGMayes sued Trump in May 2025 to stop him from single-handedly killing LIHEAP."
On April 4, he wrote: "Donald Trump plans to spend more than $377 million renovating the White House residence -- while eliminating $5 billion in lifesaving medical & health research."
Commenting to Blog for Arizona, Leader De Los Santos said of the Trump and Arizona Republican priority to screw working and middle class Americans while rewarding the millionaire and higher plutocrats:
"Plain and simple, Republicans are killing the Democratic affordability agenda that would take on the corporations that are price gouging us. They're killing legislation to make housing more affordable, to rein in data centers that are increasing our utility bills, and to crack down on health insurance giants that are driving up insurance costs. Instead, Republicans are hell-bent on giving billionaires tax cuts."
