Surprise is west of Phoenix and has significantly grown over the last 20 years. Several speakers tonight have tearfully talked about the life they’ve built in the area as the children and grandchildren of the migrant field workers back when Surprise was just miles and miles of agricultural land.

Nobody is accepting the mayor and council’s weak statement, excuses that the deal is done, and that they had no knowledge of the purchase — They’ve been repeatedly called failures to the community and speakers keep recommending ways the City can take actionable steps to stop this concentration camp.

A Dysart High School student who says she can see the warehouse from her neighborhood: “I get a pit in my stomach when I think about how in a few months I have to go to school knowing humans are screaming for help and not getting the rights they deserve.” It’s 11:15 PM.

The meeting is adjourned. Mayor Kevin Sartor ended the long meeting by saying “We hear you, we have a lot to consider and your voices are impactful and powerful.” Surprise showed tf up. The overflow room filled + hundreds outside. It ended with only 2 speakers in favor of the ICE camp.

Highlighting the speaker who stood in front of the Surprise mayor and told him to consider what the Mayor of Ohrdruf must’ve thought before he died by suicide: “He might have thought ‘how is this my fault I had no jurisdiction over this’ maybe he said ‘this site was not subject to local zoning.’”

This is brilliant. I'm so grateful for this testimony. I've transcribed it to use in letters I'm writing. Sharing the full transcription here (see alt text to copy/paste it):