PHOENIX — An Arizona state senator is facing death threats and calls for her expulsion from the Legislature over her social media posts about immigration enforcement sightings.
State Sen. Analise Ortiz, a Democrat whose district includes Maryvale and parts of Glendale, has posted on Instagram about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement efforts, drawing attention from the right-wing influencer X account “Libs of TikTok.”
“I am not intimidated by this, because what I did was simply alert my community to stay away from an area where ICE could be, to keep themselves safe,” Ortiz told ABC15. “That is First Amendment-protected speech.”
A First Amendment expert at the Freedom Forum said Ortiz is right.
"She has a First Amendment right to talk about, to share publicly available, publicly viewable information on an issue that is clearly a major public concern up for debate right now, not just in Arizona, but across the country," Alex Morey said.
Morey, a First Amendment specialist at the nonpartisan nonprofit, said it's not a crime to share data that publicly available, even if it makes law enforcement's life a little more complicated.
Darrell Hill, policy director at the ACLU of Arizona, agreed.
"This is just normal part of being a member of society, being a member of the public, and a normal expression of First Amendment rights and activities," he said.
In a statement, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Ortiz is siding with criminals over American citizens.
"Notifying the public about ICE law enforcement operations endangers law enforcement and weakens American national security," she wrote. "This certainly looks like obstruction of justice."
However, both experts ABC15 talked to said Ortiz's posts are not criminal.
"The posting of public information on social media is well protected and should not be construed or portrayed as any form of obstruction of justice," Hill said.
Ortiz faces call for removal from office
Ortiz said many of her constituents are afraid of ICE raids, noting that U.S. citizens and legal residents have been detained. She compared her posts to apps that let people know about speed traps in the area.
“Everyone has a right to know where this public activity is going on, so they can choose to protect themselves,” she said.
About six hours after the Libs of TikTok account tweeted about Ortiz on Tuesday, saying she was “actively impeding and doxxing ICE by posting their live locations,” Senate President Warren Petersen issued a statement saying he had asked the U.S. attorney for Arizona to launch an investigation into potential violations of federal law.
“Public servants have a duty to uphold the law and respect those who enforce it, not undermine them,” he wrote.
State Sen. Jake Hoffman called on X for her ouster from the Arizona Senate, saying he would be filing an ethics complaint.
“She’s doxxing ICE agents & openly putting the lives of American law enforcement at risk,” he tweeted.
Morey, of the Freedom Forum, said elected officials shouldn't try to silence their political opponents, saying talking about divisive political issues is part of the marketplace of ideas.
"Whatever your politics, if the First Amendment stands for anything, it's for the idea that we should be able to talk openly in this country about issues that are of importance to us, up to and including criticizing government officials," she said.
'This is serious stuff'
Ortiz said the statements from Petersen and Hoffman have inflamed the situation.
“I have received death threats, calls for my arrest, calls for my deportation, even though I am a United States citizen, born and raised in Arizona,” Ortiz said. “It's disgusting.”
Gov. Katie Hobbs on Wednesday said elected officials shouldn’t be policing each other’s social media posts.
“I don't think that we should prosecute people over posts on social media, and I think we should all be working to help make our community safer,” she said. “I don't think this does that.”
But Hobbs also said she has concerns about Ortiz’s posts and the safety of law enforcement.
“Certainly have concerns where I've seen officers conducting a raid and being targeted, and we want to make sure that's not a situation that's being created here,” she said, adding that Ortiz’s posts don’t rise to the level of doxxing.
Doxxing generally refers to the online publishing of private, personal identifying information, such as a person’s name, address or employer.
It’s something Ortiz said she’s now experiencing.
“I'm getting death threats,” she said. “I'm getting people telling me that I need to be arrested, that they're going to find me, that they have my address. This is serious stuff.”
The Libs of TikTok post had been viewed more than 13 million times as of Wednesday night, according to the statistics on X. On Tuesday, the post had a note saying, “This post violated the X rules,” but the notation was gone on Wednesday.
The post included a screenshot of one of Ortiz's Instagram stories about ICE agents seen near a school.
"It is our duty as elected officials to alert our community when masked agents are lurking outside of places that should be safe," Ortiz said. "In this instance, they were outside of a school. They are targeting school children and their parents."
