New Jersey, Virginia, and Illinois have all passed laws regulating immigrant detention centers, and New Mexico has done the same.
On Tuesday, lawmakers in New Mexico filed a measure that would make it illegal for the state or any of its subdivisions to enter into any agreements with federal immigration authorities or private detention facilities to hold immigrants until the outcome of civil lawsuits.
The law has the potential to nullify agreements with three private detention institutions in New Mexico, all of which are located within a day’s drive of the international boundary between the United States and Mexico.
Democratic Albuquerque state senators Jerry Ortiz y Pino and Moe Maestas proposed the measure, which received support from advocacy groups opposed to U.S. policies and practices regarding migrant detention.
Similar legislation to end local detention in civil immigration cases has been passed in New Jersey, Virginia, and Illinois.
It is unclear if Democratic New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham backs the recently introduced legislation.
The New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, the Innovation Law Lab, and the New Mexico Dream Team support the proposed legislation.
Last year, a federal appeals court ruled against California’s restriction on privately held immigration detention centered 2019, citing the state’s interference with the federal government’s power to enforce immigration law.
As part of service agreements with county governments and ICE, private companies manage the Torrance County Detention Facility in Estancia, the Cibola County Correctional Center in Milan, and the Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral.
Following an unannounced visit in early 2022, the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General discovered hazardous and unsanitary conditions at the CoreCivic-operated Torrance County Detention Facility and advised relocating incarcerated migrants.
CoreCivic and ICE both denied the results. Ten of the fourteen recommendations made by the inspector general were followed up on and found to be satisfactory during a subsequent inspection.
Last year, U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján pushed for the federal government to end its contract with CoreCivic in Torrance County.