- ICE officers used pepper spray on 47 detainees at an overcrowded Mesa facility on February 27, 2026.
- The Mesa holding site was operating at double capacity, housing 332 people despite a 157-person limit.
- Arizona’s Attorney General filed a lawsuit against federal officials regarding detention standards and environmental reviews.
(MESA, ARIZONA) — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers used pepper spray on 47 detainees at the Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport on February 27, 2026, after officers said detainees kicked a cell door, banged windows and acted aggressively despite commands to stop.
ICE used the spray inside a Mesa holding site that was carrying far more people than its stated limit. The facility held 332 detainees that day at a site with a 157-person maximum.
One detainee went to East Valley Emergency Room for an asthma episode and was released about an hour later. No other injuries or medical issues were detailed in the incident summary.
The episode at the Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center, often shortened to AROC, stands as the clearest documented Arizona case from late February. It does not match a widely circulated description that framed the event as ICE using pepper spray on “up to 30 detainees” in a single incident before deportation.
The documented count was higher. ICE’s account identified 47 detainees in the Mesa incident.
| India | China | ROW | |
|---|---|---|---|
| EB-1 | Dec 15, 2022 ▼107d | Apr 01, 2023 | Current |
| EB-2 | Sep 01, 2013 ▼317d | Sep 01, 2021 | Current |
| EB-3 | Dec 15, 2013 ▲30d | Aug 01, 2021 ▲47d | Jun 01, 2024 |
| F-1 | Sep 01, 2017 | Sep 01, 2017 | Sep 01, 2017 |
| F-2A | Jan 01, 2025 ▲153d | Jan 01, 2025 ▲153d | Jan 01, 2025 ▲153d |
That count also separates the Mesa case from another Arizona encounter weeks later. On April 6, 2026, an ICE agent pepper-sprayed several people in a Walgreens parking lot in South Tucson.
The two incidents unfolded in different places and under different circumstances. One happened inside an overcrowded detention site at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport; the other happened in a retail parking lot in South Tucson.
Mesa’s detention site drew attention not only because officers used pepper spray, but because of the numbers inside the building that day. Holding 332 detainees at a facility with a 157-person maximum put crowding at the center of the account.
ICE described the trigger in behavioral terms. Officers said detainees repeatedly kicked a cell door, banged windows and acted aggressively even after commands to stop.
No direct quotations accompanied the summary. The agency account instead set out a sequence: agitation, officer commands, continued disruption, then pepper spray.
The medical response was limited in the record provided. A detainee with an asthma episode went to East Valley Emergency Room and returned after about an hour.
Arizona’s detention system has come under added legal pressure since then. On April 25, 2026, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes sued DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons, ICE and DHS to block a proposed detention facility in Surprise, Arizona.
Mayes’ lawsuit alleges the federal government failed to complete required NEPA environmental reviews. The state also argues the proposed facility would violate the INA requirement that immigration detainees be held in “appropriate” places of detention.
The lawsuit does not arise from the Mesa pepper spray incident itself, but it lands in the same Arizona debate over detention conditions, federal capacity and how ICE handles people in custody. That debate now spans overcrowded facilities, street-level enforcement encounters and challenges to planned expansion.
The Mesa episode offers one of the clearest factual snapshots in that broader fight. Officers used pepper spray on February 27, 2026; the site was holding more than twice its stated maximum; one detainee went to an emergency room with an asthma episode and returned about an hour later.
South Tucson added another flashpoint less than six weeks later, when an ICE agent used pepper spray in a Walgreens parking lot on April 6, 2026. By month’s end, Arizona’s attorney general had taken the dispute to court, challenging a new detention plan in Surprise and arguing that federal officials had not met environmental review rules or detention standards set by immigration law.
Taken together, the Arizona incidents leave a narrower factual record than some early descriptions suggested, but a sharper one. The documented late-February event in Mesa involved 47 detainees at the Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center, not “up to 30” in a single confirmed incident, and it remains distinct from the separate April pepper spray episode in Tucson.
