Surprise mayor misled about meeting with Gallego, Kelly staff

OPINION — Did you know Mark Kelly’s staff and Ruben Gallego personally came to Surprise to discuss how we stop the ICE “concentration camp” from opening in our city?

That is not the way our mayor made it seem when he issued a misleading press release, showing only himself, one staffer, and Gallego in the room. He made it look like a private meeting for the purpose of discussing “public safety, infrastructure, and the pending proposal for a short-term (ICE) processing center” to quote the mMayor’s press release.

It was not.

I spoke to District 6 Councilmember Chris Judd about that meeting, within hours of it concluding. All seven members of Surprise City Council were there. It was about stopping that facility from opening.

The building is already standing, in the midst of renovation and hiring, paused only thanks to Kris Mayes. The plan to prevent it from ever housing detainees is to provide the same data that residents have been referencing in city council meetings for the past four months, directly to Gallego’s office.

Gallego suggested that Director of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin is likely to abandon Surprise if he is informed about just how problematic this facility will be. The majority of these warehouse conversions in other states have already been abandoned for one reason or another.

The chemicals stored across the street from the Surprise DHS warehouse at Rinchem require unplanned, costly renovations to the DHS warehouse before it can house detainees.

This warehouse does not work as a detention center. Hopefully the conversation plans will soon be formally abandoned.

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