A stock photo of a soldier in fatigues.
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Editor’s note: This story has been updated with responses from the U.S. Army and Phoenix City Councilmember Anna Hernandez.
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Starting Wednesday night, the U.S. military will be conducting training exercises in Phoenix, according to an advisory from the Phoenix Police Department posted to Facebook. The exercises will occur primarily in the “evening and night hours,” according to the post, and will continue through Feb. 13.
The department’s post contains few details about the nature of the exercises. It says that the exercises “will occur at select City of Phoenix-owned locations” and that “a limited number of military personnel and equipment will be participating solely for training purposes.” It does not specify the nature of the training or the locations, but does say that the training “will not impact city services, park or facility access, or facility operations” and that “visibility to the public is expected to be minimal.”
The post goes on to stress that the training in question “is NOT related to immigration enforcement and does NOT involve any federal immigration operations.” The department said Phoenix police officers will not be participating in the training but “will be on-site solely to ensure community safety during the exercises.”
One police spokesperson deferred questions on the military exercises to the city of Phoenix, while another referred questions to the Department of Defense. A spokesperson for the U.S. Army — which Phoenix City Councilmember Kevin Robinson suggested to Phoenix New Times would be conducting the exercises — referred questions back to Phoenix police.
Robinson, who is a former Phoenix police officer, said such exercises by the military are not uncommon in Phoenix and are rarely noticed by the public. He added that Phoenix is the setting for such exercises pretty much “every year” and “people are just unaware of it.” But, he added, “because of what’s been going on recently with the federal government,” the police department worried that “these exercises would get more attention.” He said the department wanted to address speculation about immigration enforcement before it bubbled up. Phoenix is reportedly the next target for a surge by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“We recognize where we are as a nation,” Robinson said. “The police department really wanted folks to truly understand that it has absolutely nothing to do with immigration.”
One of Robinson’s council colleagues isn’t happy about the exercises, however. In a statement provided to New Times after this story first published. Councilmember Anna Hernandez said she has “serious concerns about these exercises occurring in Phoenix, particularly given the current national climate and repeated statements from the Trump administration threatening expanded use of military force, ICE, and the National Guard in U.S. cities.” She said the city council was not given much information about the specifics of the exercises and was asked “to approve the use of city-owned property for military training without full transparency or advance, site-specific notice to affected communities.”
The city has to approve the use of city-owned sites for the exercises, which Hernandez said she voted against.
“At a moment when federal leadership has openly signaled a willingness to deploy force domestically, I do not believe it is responsible to normalize military presence in our neighborhoods without strong guardrails, clear public communication, and meaningful local oversight,” she wrote.
A spokesperson for the city manager’s office did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.