A Surprise Zone of Interest
We are All Responsible for What Happens in our Community
A dispatch from Surprise, Arizona where residents gathered this week to pushback against plans for a massive warehouse concentration camp in their community. A bunch more after that from me down below. Help support our work with a subscription. Corporate media isn't going to save us.
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We are All Responsible for What Happens in our Community
by Arizona Right Watch
On Tuesday over a thousand community members showed up to the Surprise City Council meeting to voice opposition to a recently purchased 418,400 square-foot industrial warehouse that the Department of Homeland Security intends to convert into a concentration camp.
It had been less than two weeks since the completion of the $70 million deal between DHS and RG Surprise AZ LLC, a company affiliated with the NYC real estate giant the Rockefeller Group. The money was “cash in hand paid,” reads the warranty deed.
According to a spokesperson with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the warehouse located at 13290 W Sweetwater Ave will hold 1,500 beds and serve as a “processing center” while migrants are awaiting hearings or deportation. It’s an estimate residents are rightfully suspicious of, especially given the size of the facility and the agency’s pattern of bullshit. During public comment this week, people further expressed concern over the facility’s absence of basic housing necessities and lack of proper air conditioning, a particularly deadly recipe for Arizona summers where temperatures consistently stay in the triple digits.
The Rockefeller Group first purchased the land for almost $12 million in April 2023 claiming the warehouse project would “target tenants in the e-commerce, manufacturing and semiconductor supply industries.” It’s zoned for “light industrial use,” which would normally forbid people from living in the warehouse, but since it’s a federal project, DHS and ICE claim to be exempt from regulation. The purchase is also part of a larger Trump administration project that seeks to convert about two dozen warehouses nationwide into engines in their ethnic cleansing machine.
“We need to get better at treating this like a business,” ICE Director Todd Lyons said of the deportation industrial complex at a Border Security Expo in Phoenix, AZ last year. “Like [Amazon] Prime, but with human beings.”
The looming concentration camp sits among a series of industrial warehouse buildings, including an actual Amazon facility, that spread throughout a large suburban neighborhood. A high school, a middle school, and a preschool are directly across the warehouse park and several more schools are within a mile radius. Rather ominously, for obvious historical reasons, a train track cuts through the back of the plot of land, in between the proposed concentration camp and a shopping center featuring a bowling alley, an IMAX movie theater, chain restaurants, and a church. Four miles away, the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers baseball teams use the city stadium for spring training.
Surprise residents quickly filled the City Hall chambers on Tuesday. The hundreds of community members unable to make it inside the meeting gathered outside sharing chants of “ICE out” and “Nazi fucks.” Sounds of drums and whistles rumbled through the overflow room, which had also reached its 500-capacity limit. Throughout the night attendees exchanged details on how to get involved in ICE rapid response training.
“Be a neighbor, not a Nazi,” one woman’s DIY sign read.
“No death camps,” read another.
The meeting began with a prayer. Reverend Andrew Moore opened the nearly six-hour meeting giving thanks to the community’s diversity.
“May we each be reminded this evening of the responsibility which is ours to bear, that this city be a place where goodness is nurtured and love is made visible in all that we do,” he concluded.
The West Phoenix suburb – in the Trump/Biden/Trump voting Maricopa County – has seen rapid development growth over the last twenty years with miles of rose and cotton fields being replaced by miles of family homes. A fifth of the city’s population is Hispanic/Latin and many of those families descend from the farm workers of the territorial days or the migrant agricultural laborers from the Bracero Program-era and beyond. Over the course of the meeting commenters spoke proudly of the lives their families built in Surprise as the children and grandchildren of these farm workers who faced segregation and harsh conditions.
Ahead of those public comments, the city’s Board of Trustees financial director Sandy Simmons droned on about Surprise’s parks and recreation programs finances, bragging about last year’s high attendance to their Spring Eggstravagance and Fourth of July firework show. Arizona Corporation Commission member Kevin Thompson provided a powerpoint presentation that acknowledged the state’s “antiquated infrastructure” and the increasingly long heatwaves stretching demands while boasting about personally voting to green light a 2.3 million square foot data center in Tucson. The crowd began to boo.
“As a Latina American, immigration is personal for me, but as a parent and a resident, this affects everyone,” said Jackie Gonzales, a longtime resident of Surprise. She went on to tell the Council that these detention camps “impact real people and real families” and warned that the city park and recreational events whose attendance Simmons just bragged about would become empty as fear echoes through their community.
An alumni of Dysart High School, Alexandria Moen, warned the community will “dread the sounds of trucks in and out, day and night, and the sounds of detainees screaming for help like we’ve seen in so many detention centers, including in Eloy, Arizona,” referring to the CoreCivic facility about 90 miles south. Dysart High, which sits directly across from the proposed detention center, has a student body where nearly two-thirds of the 1,400 students have Hispanic/Latin heritage.
Also ahead of public comment, Surprise Mayor Kevin Sartor reiterated a public statement issued by the City days beforehand that alleges leaders were unaware of the plans to purchase the warehouse and that it’s out of their hands as a federal project.
Community members were not happy. The mayor and the council were repeatedly called “failures” throughout the night.
“Our city found its best course of action was to have no course at all. To simply fold its hands and say ‘How could we have known?’ But it was your job to know and it was your job to plan. Our community will be forever altered by this course,” said a Surprise resident living in the neighborhood across from the proposed camp.
“Despite this evidence of authoritarian power, it is possible for even the most local form of government to take a stand in the name of the people.”
Speaker after speaker begged the city leaders to look towards other communities who are seeing success in stalling or completely stopping these warehouse detention centers.
“The Kansas City Council passed an ordinance banning non-municipal detention centers for five years to protect their city from this exact situation,” one woman suggested.
“Even if you did have the ability, I don’t believe you’d do anything if you could,” a resident named Ian said to the conservative-heavy council. “The same methods and tactics of terror and AI tracking that ICE and DHS are using were all perfected in Palestine.”
Resident Jon Mannella challenged the lie that immigration agents target the “worst of the worse” and questioned why DHS and the City of Surprise would place them next to multiple schools if this smear was true.
“I imagine if this was a homeless shelter or a mental health center, you would find a way to stop it. You would pull out all the stops. You would pull out the tomes of English common law, dust them off, and try to find some appendix in there to make sure you didn’t have to build this building. Well just pretend that it’s that and put a stop to it.”
Towards the end of the night, a resident named Walter calmly took the mic and recounted an April 9, 1945 newspaper clipping about the liberation of the Ohrdruf concentration camp – a sight so depraved that it was described as "one of the most appalling sights that I have ever seen” by U.S. Army General George Patton.
“The U.S. Army brought the leading citizens of Ohrdruf to tour the facility, which turned out to be part of the Buchenwald network of concentration camps. A U.S Army colonel told the German civilians who viewed the scenes that they were to blame. One of the Germans replied that what happened in the camp was 'done by a few people,’ and ‘you cannot blame us all.’ And the American, who could have been any one of our grandfathers, said 'This was done by those that the German people chose to lead them, and all are responsible.'"
"The morning after the tour, the Mayor of Ohrdruf killed himself. And maybe he did not know the full extent of the outrages that were committed in his community, but he knew enough. And we don't know exactly how ICE will use this warehouse. But we know enough. I ask you to consider what the Mayor of Ordruf might have thought before he died. Maybe he felt like a victim. He might have thought 'How is this my fault? I have no jurisdiction over this.' Maybe he would have said, 'This site was not subject to local zoning, what could I do?' But I think, when he reflected on the suffering that occurred at this camp, just outside of town, that those words would have sounded hollow even to him. Because in his heart he knew, as we do, that we are all responsible for what happens in our community.”
Outside a protester used a megaphone to project the public comments to the crowd, who were repeatedly brought to tears over the impassioned statements of their community.
“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 hurts me to know my peers are undoubtedly going to be hurt,” said a teenage student from Dysart High School. She went on to tell the council, at 11:15 PM, that the warehouse was clearly visible from her neighborhood.
By the end of the night, 160 residents had signed up to speak about the possible ICE facility. The two that offered support for the warehouse being constructed into a concentration camp were met with loud boos. When the Surprise mayor attempted to silence the crowd in the name of “decorum,” they booed him too.
Arizona Right Watch is an independent researcher covering all things far-right extremism in their home state. Follow them or support their work here.
Please also consider reading this thread about a Congressional hearing on the violent tactics and disproportionate use of force by DHS agents from earlier this week. I'm particularly in awe of the bravery and righteous anger of Marimar Martinez the Chicago resident who was shot five times by federal agents back in October and lived to read them for filth.
“On Friday, I was teaching the young children at the Montessori School, and we were singing and dancing and getting ready for spooky season, preparing fall activities to do the following week,” Martinez said. “On Saturday, my own government was calling me a domestic terrorist, and I was in federal detention centers with the bullet holes all over my body.”
“I am Renee Good. I am Alex Pretti. I am Silverio Villegas Gonzalez. I am Keith Porter,” Martinez said. “They should all be here today.”
Capitol News Illinois has more.
While the body camera footage hasn’t been released publicly, lawyers for Martinez have said in court that it shows an officer shouting “do something b—-.”
The agent who shot her allegedly said in a group text to friends: “I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book, boys.”
“The physical scars will always be there in the mornings and evenings, when I get dressed and I stare at my body, now permanently disfigured by the five lead bullets,” Martinez said. “They will be there this summer when I head to the beach with my dogs and family. They will be there when I get down on the floor with my students.
“Perhaps even worse, the mental scars will always be there as a reminder of the time my own government attempted to execute me, and when they failed, they chose to vilify me.”
This is pretty satisfying to watch:
A classic tweet:
I was gonna make all this shit for paid-subscribers only but fuck it. Just do the right thing if you can buddy.
I also took this one from the other day out from behind the paywall.
Luke O’Neil
Damn that's crazy man. I was just writing about this very thing in Flaming Hydra recently come to think of it.
The rules 2
I was trying to buy happiness with the power of cold hard cash and just really getting my ass handed to me. A total bloodbath. I figured the bankers would have declared me the winner by now but they were saying they don’t accept bitcoin at the contentment factory. The only other people I knew socially were trying to buy happiness with the power of cold hard cash too and they weren’t having a great go of it either. I kept trying to explain in between haymakers how many homes I had around the world. That the most powerful politicians answered my phone calls promptly. Millions of followers online. A series of beautiful ex-wives and farflung children. And on top of that it was likely to all be sorted out once my lawyers had had a crack at the case. And yet I was in my penthouse bleeding profusely from the mouth and nose. It spilled out of me onto the gorgeous tile of the cavernous bathroom in a pattern that if you sort of squinted at it from the right vantage looked like a heart button on the phone. See that I pointed. I get tens of thousands of those on every post I tried to say through my broken teeth. Alright well now he was laughing with beloved friends. Sharing moments of joy and selfless generosity with one another. I didn’t think we were allowed do that.
Tom Phillips
Damn that's crazy too. You're never gonna believe this but I was also just writing about this very thing...
Paperwork
Ah crap my perceived in-group status didn't shield me from the inevitable violence of fascism. I had been really counting on that. That was my load-bearing identity.
I never caused any kind of fuss to be clear. Kept my head down. All in all it bought me maybe fifteen months tops. Which isn’t so bad all things considered. And come to think of it was I not entitled to that reprieve? A kind of reward for my loyalty if you looked at it a certain way.
Or more likely it’s possible there had been some kind of mistake. A snafu in the filing system. Oh hold on a sec they’re calling my name right now. I’m going to bring it up. I’ve got all my papers in order right here.
Mark my words here. If you don't know what I'm talking about you probably will soon.
I got off my little butt to go to Something in the Way the big emo fest the other day in Boston and I'm really glad I did. The lineup was insane but I pretty much only went to see First Day Back who were so fucking good. Watch a couple videos here:
First Day Back were number 2 on my best of 2025. Here's what I wrote at the time.
2. First Day Back - Gone On / Lines
First Day Back
Long time readers of the music issues of Hell World may note a bit less emo on this year’s playlist compared to every single other year of my life. In large part that’s because, like everyone else, I’ve transferred most of my holdings into alt-country and maudlin girls with acoustic guitars. More than that though I just haven’t been hearing it – and you know it when you hear it – from so many of these younger finger-tapping ass bands reaching back to the 1990s for inspiration in a generationally recursive loop.
It only took about 30 seconds of listening to Forward, the debut record from the Santa Cruz band First Day Back, to remember what it is that I want out of emo in the first place though. They’re named after a Braid song – and there’s plenty of that in here – but more to the point they activate the part of my heart typically occupied by Rainer Maria, who I’ve often said, only half-jokingly, along with The Anniversary, are the only “real emo bands.” Here’s the thing about emo: It kind of has to sound like shit (complimentary) to hit right. The recording has to be a little fucked. The vocalist has to sound uncomfortable being there, even as they’re laying their hearts bare.
That could be me up there is part of punk’s entire deal. I could be you down there as well.
This album, recorded live in a living room, captures all of that. I could have picked almost any song from it as one of my favorites of the year but start with these two before you fall in love too.
Pelican and Pool Kids and all the others were both great too. You can look at shitty videos I took of them here and here.
Both bands were of course prior Hell World contributors. Trevor Shelley de Brauw of Pelican wrote about his favorite The Cure songs here.
Luke O’Neil
Nicolette Alvarez and Andy Anaya of Pool Kids wrote about their favorite Weezer songs here.
Luke O’Neil
This group Anttonias is my next obsession now though. The Chilean indie band's self-titled debut came out in August and it surely would have been toward the top of my best of the year list if I had heard it sooner. It is my exact shit. A cross between The Sundays and The Smiths en español. I am fucking swooning here. Swooning. How do you say swooning in Spanish? Estoy desmayado? I don't think that's right. Estoy enamorado in any case.
Me despierto
Y ya no estás
Lo presiento
Me vuelvo a encontrar
Atado a tu
Sentimiento
Sentimiento
Sentimiento
Atado a tu sentimiento
:(
Luke's Movie Corner!
I coincidentally watched this next day after watching Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter, another "a lady is fucking going through it" film. This one is also a not-a-horror horror that is nevertheless horrifying, in large part because of the sound design. Just relentless. Beautifully shot too. I was not prepared for how natural Conan O'Brien – and A$AP Rocky for that matter – felt in what one might have thought was stunt-casting. Motherhood man.... Seems like a raw fucking deal. Sorry to every mother ever and especially mine. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Couple more things to read for the road. GOODBYE
