(KVOA/NBC News) Residents of Tucson, Arizona have launched a campaign to designate their hometown a sanctuary city.
"We are a campaign of love and of hope," organizer Zaira Livier says.
Livier is leading the way on the Tucson Families Free and Together Initiative to make a law designating Tucson a sanctuary city.
"Why not now," Livier said at a rally Saturday kicking off the campaign. "We've seen two children die in Border Patrol custody just last month. We've seen children in cages, we've seen families torn apart at the border."
Supporters want to put the initiative on the November ballot and let voters decide.
However, they won't find an advocate in Pat Sexton. Sexton emigrated legally from Guatemala.
"The federal government is in charge of immigration not the city of Tucson, not the state of Arizona, not the state of California or any other city," Sexton says. "they argued against SB-1070 didn't they? Now, they want to come in and say we have the right to make this new immigration law. No we don't, not according to our constitution."
