The Department of Homeland Security bought 11 warehouses across the country to turn into ICE detention centers. After local communities fought back, they've abandoned 7 of those 11 warehouses. So why is DHS still continuing forward with their plans to open an ICE detention center here in Surprise in a warehouse that sits right next to several schools, neighborhoods, and a chemical storage company? If seven other towns could change the outcome, why aren't our leaders doing anything?
To Rep. Paul Gosar, Surprise Mayor Kevin Sartor, and Surprise Councilmembers Jack Hastings, Nick Haney, Chris Judd, Patrick Duffy, Vice Mayor Earle Greenberg, and Johnny Melton: this is your home too. The families living nearby are your constituents. The students sitting in classrooms down the street from this warehouse and chemical storage company are your responsibility. The businesses nearby are part of your community too. You have more power than I do. Please use it.
To Dysart School District: these are your students. Protecting them means more than just saying "safety matters" while doing absolutely nothing. It means making sure lockdown drills actually happen, and asking hard questions and demanding real answers from our elected leaders about the ICE detention center and chemical storage company that shares the same road as students. I know Mayor Sartor and the other city council members are your friends. But you vowed to protect children, not a bunch of grown men. Sometimes we have to do the right thing even when our friends won't.
This is exactly why my 3-mile buffer zone proposal needs to be introduced in Congress and passed. DHS is making decisions without any regard or care for the students, families, and businesses nearby. And sometimes local leaders stay silent when their communities need them most.
Please sign and share my 3-mile buffer zone petition to keep ICE detention centers away from K-12 schools at www.3milebuffer.com.
Sincerely,
Cali Overs
________________________________