A bill aimed at protecting immigrants and immigrant families in New Mexico. HB9 prohibits local and state governments from entering contracts with ICE.
Last year during a Board of County Commissioners meeting, Chaparral residents and NMCAFé (Communidades en acción y de fe) representatives spoke up during public comments.
NMCAFé does advocacy work in southern New Mexico.
They all described the ICE activity in Chaparral, and the fear many were experiencing. They were requesting protection from ICE to be put in place, such as no trespassing signs, in community centers, the park, and places of worship.
One of these speakers was Susana Medina, a Chaparral resident. The community center is a place where many come together to take art, English, computer classes and to participate in many other activities. It also provides access to washer and dryer, clothing bins, and food pantry, she said in Spanish.
“For this reason, I am insisting that ICE agents be restricted from entering to guarantee the safety in all our community centers. They should be a place of trust, protection, and support, not a place where people feel fear or risk being persecuted,” Medina said.
The Immigrant Safety Act prohibits state and local governments from entering into agreements used to detain individuals for federal civil immigration violations and requiring the termination of any such existing agreements; prohibiting public bodies from otherwise using public property to facilitate detaining individuals for federal civil immigration violations.
The Otero County Processing Center is in Chaparral.
NMCAFé is advocating for this bill; Sylvia Ulloa is the executive director.
“There’s really a sense of like, well, they're just going to open it somewhere else, and it’s still gonna happen, and I feel that really hard, but it doesn't have to happen in New Mexico,” Ulloa said.
Corrections and detention centers in New Mexico are primarily owned by Geo Group, and Management and Training Corporation. We reached out and asked about their views on the bill.
Without contractors, people would be placed in overcrowded local jails, with poor oversight and standards, said Alexandra Wilkes, a spokesperson for the Day 1 Alliance, a trade organization representing the major companies in the contractor-operated corrections and detention space. Wilkes also mentioned that contractors do not make arrests and play no role in determining length of detention or legal status of individuals.
“For more than 30 years, contractors have partnered with both Democratic and Republican administrations to provide vital services at their request, including safe, humane housing, quality medical and mental health care, and respectful, dignified care for individuals navigating the U.S. immigration system. Contractors are required to follow strict federal standards, which were updated under President Obama, and operate under multiple levels of oversight by the U.S. Congress, government agencies, and independent organizations.” This is a statement provided by Day 1 Alliance.
Otero County Representative, John Block expressed that his concern was the negative economic impact that removing ICE would have on Otero, Cibola and Torrance counties.
Representative Patricia Lundstrom of McKinley County expressed similar concerns.
“I'm very very concerned about what I call economic justice and economic injustice,” Lundstrom said.
Rep. Block proposed an amendment that would hold counties harmless by having the state reimburse them for money lost affiliated with the facilities.
The amendment was tabled.
The bill is sponsored by Reps. Eleanor Chávez, Angelica Rubio, Andrea Romero, Marianna Anaya, and Sen. Joseph Cervantes. During closing remarks, Rep. Rubio said that she understands what this bill and its impact means for rural and tribal communities. Many of these communities were told that prisons and detention centers would be a big help to them.
“Our responsibility is bigger than saying no. Our responsibility is to build real investment, real jobs, real opportunity outside of prisons, outside of extraction, outside of industries that exploit our people. New Mexico will not be complicit. It says we will not volunteer our land, our contracts and our public institutions to carry out harm,” Rubio said.
The Immigrant Safety act has passed the Senate floor with a 25-15 vote.
