Sen. Ortiz faces ethics complaint after sharing ICE sightings with Phoenix community

After disclosing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in her community on Instagram, Democratic State Sen. Analise Ortiz is facing backlash from her Republican colleagues who are now calling for her expulsion. 

On Sept. 3, Senator Jake Hoffman filed an ethics complaint against Ortiz in an effort to revoke her position. The head of the right-wing Freedom Caucus said  her actions were disorderly and “embarrassing to the entire Arizona legislature.” Republicans on the Senate Ethics Committee are now calling for a federal investigation into the matter. However, Ortiz remains steadfast that her actions were not only legal but necessary.

“There is a long-established precedent that this is protected speech to observe and report about law enforcement activity that is happening in plain sight,” she told CALÓ News.

The complaint targets an instance that occurred in early August, when she reposted information on her Instagram account about ICE detaining two individuals near Southwest Elementary School in south Phoenix. The post was then reported by the conservative influencer account Libs of TikTok, which called for her arrest.

Ortiz, whose Senate district includes the area, said she is well within her rights to disclose such activity. She noted apps like Waze and Next Door that are often used to report law enforcement and criminal activity in people’s vicinity.

“The accountability and transparency in this moment is hugely important for all people,” Ortiz said. “It is clear that Republicans want us to be terrified from talking to our friends, family and neighbors about what we are seeing with our own eyes in our communities. It’s a huge concern for my constituency.”

This is not anything new for the first-term senator. She has long been a community advocate, previously working as an investigative reporter and with the ACLU of Arizona. When she was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in 2022, she used social media to share information about issues and incidents in her district. Now a member of the Senate, she has continued her advocacy as the Trump administration continues its crackdown on immigrant communities.

The Arizona native serves Legislative District 24, encompassing Maryvale and Glendale. According to Arizona’s Department of Economic Security, 66.6% of the district’s population identifies as Hispanic or Latino. This, combined with an uptick in immigration enforcement around the Valley, she said, gave her even more of a reason to report the activity. 

The kickback has extended past just her fellow legislators, with Ortiz receiving threats to her safety after being accused of doxxing. 

“My life has been threatened. People have sent horrifying voicemails and emails to my Senate office,” Ortiz said. This comes just months after a man shot and killed Minnesota House of Representatives Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband at their home. 

“We can't take these things lightly, and yet my Republican colleagues are willing to put out lies about me knowing full well that my life and safety has been threatened,” she said

James Weinstein, a faculty advisor for the First Amendment Clinic and chair in constitutional law at ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, said claims of doxxing have little legal backing. 

“Citizens and the press have a right to report what is, what is publicly observable,” Weinstein told CALÓ News. He said that there are very few exceptions to this, and simply reporting law enforcement activity is not one of them. “It is certainly interference if you push the policemen out of the way, but to say where the ICE agents are, the First Amendment protects that.”

In a statement to CALÓ News from the ACLU of Arizona, they affirmed his words, saying, “The recent actions taken against Senator Analise Ortiz are in direct conflict with the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. All Arizonans, including elected officials, have the right to speak and share information on public law enforcement activities.”

Still, Hoffman doubled down on his words, saying this is a matter of ethics. “Although Senator Ortiz continues to feign moral superiority in this matter, it should be noted that it is she who is out of touch with reality,” he wrote in his complaint. He went further, saying Ortiz is “unfit to make laws”. 

After receiving the complaint, Ethics Committee Chair Sen. Shawnna Bolick referred it to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, where she hopes federal action will be taken. Her referral is not the first to be submitted. In early August, Senate President Warren Petersen referred the issue to the same office, calling Ortiz’s actions “deeply troubling,” suggesting she may have violated federal law.

Despite her colleagues' reactions, the progressive lawmaker says she will continue to do what she feels is best for her constituents: “I have received a lot of support from the community who agree that this is a fundamental issue of free speech and believe that as a leader in my community, I should be doing what I can to talk about authoritarian tactics that are happening.”

Since President Donald Trump took office in January, immigration arrests have spiked according to Transactional Records Clearing House at Syracuse University, with just over 61,000 people in ICE detention as of Aug. 24. Of those, about 70% have no prior criminal conviction. 

“I think all of this really deflects from the bigger issues,” Ortiz said. “Instead of finding a pathway to citizenship and solutions to this problem, Republicans want to just continue to harshly criminalize people.”