‘No politician is going to save us’: Phoenix Councilwoman Hernandez remains steel-willed in her fight against fascism

It’s been seven months into President Donald Trump’s second administration and Phoenix’s recently elected District 7 Councilwoman Anna Hernandez’s fight against his predatory policies is just getting started.

Her priorities as a Phoenix native and the daughter of Mexican immigrants haven’t shifted in the almost three years she’s been in public office. Her experience in community organizing since 2019 led to her landing a spot in the Arizona Legislature and a winning bid during the general election to fill the seat vacated by now-U.S. Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ).

Hernandez sat down with CALÓ News to discuss how she intends to protect residents of her district, which includes parts of downtown Phoenix, south Phoenix, Laveen and Maryvale — where a large portion of Phoenix’s Latino population resides — and how in the face of Trump’s extreme agenda, her fight seems more important than ever.

“We are not living in normal times under a normal administration. The very real thing is that we are under a fascist government and very well on our track to authoritarian control,” Hernandez said in reference to the recent surge in detainments and deportations carried out by the Department of Homeland Security and the agencies at its command — U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Against the backdrop of over 56,000 migrants in ICE detention— according to an NBC News deportation tracker created using ICE data — and raids fueled by racial profiling taking place across not only the country, including the Valley, Hernandez has had a tumultuous yet rewarding transition from her former position as Arizona’s Democratic state senator for Legislative District 24 to oftentimes being the sole progressive vote on the Phoenix City Council. 

Despite the differences between state and city governments, Hernandez says she’s where she needs to be to work on the issues she’s most passionate about. 

“Not to say that… the Legislature wasn’t a place where I was able to also make an impact. It’s just for the policy that I really envision, there’s such a great opportunity to do so many things at the city level,” Hernandez said. “Especially right now, I feel like there’s no better place to be to fight for the things that I believe in, that the supporters of mine believe in, that the community believes in, than at the City Council level.” 

A staunch advocate of grassroots movements and local community organizations, Hernandez remains one of the only Phoenix City Council members in constant contact with left-leaning groups like Poder in Action, Puente Movement for Migrant Justice, Mass Liberation AZ and a number of the many coalitions, unions and movements that endorsed her, such as Young Democrats of Arizona, Planned Parenthood Arizona, Unite Here Local 11, Organized Power in Numbers, Mijente and more. 

“Unlike many politicians, Anna has lived experience with the issues that hurt our community most,” Poder in Action stated in their public endorsement of Hernandez during her State Senate campaign in 2022. “She is an immigrant daughter whose father, a frontline worker, passed away from COVID and whose brother suffered police violence. Anna is ready to disrupt the status quo and bring our community’s voice to our government.” 

Having been the only council member in favor of Poder’s proposed Resolution for Thriving Communities — which called for the city to end Phoenix Police Department arrest quotas and racial profiling amid claims that local authorities were collaborating with ICE and DHS agents — and the sole dissenting vote in the police department’s budget increase following the Department of Justice report that highlighted civil rights violations within Phoenix police ranks, Hernandez remains steel-willed and committed to maintaining the same ethics and beliefs that got her involved in politics in the first place. 

“I can’t lie and say that it’s not a little disappointing when I’m the solo vote. But also, I understand that I’m also the only council member that is serving that has been directly impacted by the police violence with the loss of my brother that was killed by a Phoenix police officer,” Hernandez said, referencing the police shooting that tragically took the life of her brother and best friend, Alejandro Hernandez, in 2019. “I look at it as an opportunity to continue to advocate for what I truly believe in, to continue to share my story so that eventually I can build the support to hopefully make some of the changes that I’m hoping to make. But, you know, that doesn’t happen overnight.” 

Having started the initial campaign for her congressional seat and subsequent campaign as District 7 representative, Hernandez ran on the same progressive platform aimed at uplifting communities by fighting for affordable housing, women’s reproductive rights, accessible mental health resources and police accountability. 

Although she won by a landslide in both her Senate and Council bids, in part due to the massive amount of support Hernandez garnered from Democratic voters, she isn’t afraid to recognize areas where her own party has failed, particularly on the issues regarding immigration and Project 2025, Hernandez cited not only the predatory practices of the GOP, but also the complacency of her fellow Democratic colleagues that have allowed policies of the past to get to this point of extreme authoritarianism. 

“I think that we forget that ICE wasn’t always a thing. ICE was a department that was created after the 9/11 attacks and has been funded by both Republican and Democratic lawmakers and administrations... There’s been plenty of opportunities to de-escalate what is happening now, and so this was a failure of both Democratic Party leaders and Republican Party leaders. I don’t differentiate,” she said of the current mass deportation tactics in place.

Countless stories and sightings of ICE and DHS agents disappearing loved ones, family members and friends have been reported in Arizona. Fathers detained at their workplaces, women kept in detention centers without proper medical care and even people being detained at their immigration court hearings — arrests that hit close to home for Hernandez, whose district includes the Phoenix U.S. Immigration Court, only a couple of blocks away from her office at Phoenix City Hall. 

The lack of transparency from the DHS and how they operate Arizona ICE detention facilities also troubles her, she said, signaling to the inhumane conditions that have over the years been reported out of Florence and Eloy detention centers. Detainees are often secluded as they endure unlivable conditions at these facilities, which even federal representatives have difficulty accessing. With paroles being denied, visas revoked and immigration court cases being dismissed, many are left to wonder if this is the new normal. 

“It's not normal, but it’s not surprising from this administration that they don't want people to know what is really happening inside the detention centers. We are hearing horrific stories coming out across the country from different places,” Hernandez explained, mentioning that she was already in touch with Ansari, who recently attempted to visit detained constituents at the Eloy Detention Center to no avail. “If (she), as a congresswoman and my congressional representative, can’t get in to do her job, that’s not a normal thing. But, again, we’re not in normal times, and so we’re gonna have to think of what happens next. How do we really assert our power and our positional power to make sure that we can, that she can get inside and talk to her constituents?” 

Using her city and state connections, Hernandez keeps in constant contact with her allies in the legal community that help people better understand their rights while courts work out birthright citizenship issues, ensuring the local authorities aren’t involved with ICE arrests at the courthouse and referring constituents who may not know what they can do to help to local organizations and coalitions fighting against this regime. 

“It's very scary for people, but we have to lean into our community... There are more of us than there are of them, and so we have to build our people power to combat and to resist this. We have to think of revolutionary ideas that are going to literally combat this fascist government,” Hernandez said. “Find the community groups that are doing the work on the ground, find the people that are showing up for us and continue to build and bring more people into that.” 

Hernandez said that while she may not have all of the answers, she understands that now is not the time to remain silent and complacent. 

“My call to us and my colleagues at every level is that we have to be the first line of defense for our people. The day, the moment is going to come where we're going to have to put our bodies on the line for our folks, and we're going to have to be ready for that. If the Trump administration keeps on the trajectory they're on, they're not going to stop. They're coming for all of us,” Hernandez said. “It's a very scary thing, but I have hope, and so that gets me by. And I hope other people have hope, and we have to have hope, hope in each other... Because no politician is going to save us, no government's going to save us, but we can save ourselves.”

Analisa Valdez (she/her) is a freelance journalist based in Phoenix. Her reporting includes community & culture, social justice, arts, business, and politics.