Lujan Grisham to push immigrant detention ban in next legislative session

Although it will not be on her agenda for the upcoming special legislative session, an advisor to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM) said she will make passage of a bill banning immigrant detention in New Mexico a top priority next year. 

“The governor intends to include this legislation in the January regular session call in hopes that lawmakers will pass the strongest bill possible,” Michael Coleman, communications director for Lujan Grisham, said Friday in an email to New Mexico Political Report. 

He added that the special session, scheduled for Oct. 1, will concentrate on preparing the state for reductions in federal funding as a result of the cuts included in the nearly $4 trillion tax and spending package that President Donald Trump signed in July, as well as the administration’s withholding of grant funds. 

Coleman stated that Lujan Grisham decided to exclude the immigrant detention measure from the special session at the request of leading Democratic lawmakers who said they wanted a narrower focus for the special session that did not include the bill. However, Coleman said the governor remains committed to curtailing immigrant detention in New Mexico. 

“Gov. Lujan Grisham wants to ensure New Mexico will not be complicit in discriminatory mass immigration enforcement or unconstitutional federal overreach. Recent federal court decisions show judges are pushing back, and New Mexico should make its position equally clear,” he said. 

Democratic lawmakers and immigrant activists for years have pushed legislation that would prohibit local governing bodies — such as counties, municipalities, and school districts — from entering into agreements with the federal government and private contractors to detain people on federal civil immigration violations, which include being in the country without lawful status. 

Three New Mexico counties, Cibola, Otero and Torrance counties, have such agreements, which critics say allow private companies to avoid the disclosure requirements that come from having to take part in the bidding process for federal contracts. Immigration advocates and federal government watchdogs have also cited the facilities for human rights abuses, withholding due process rights, understaffing and poor sanitation. 

In the regular 60-day session earlier this year, lawmakers introduced House Bill 9, also known as the Immigrant Safety Act, which would have prohibited local governing bodies from entering into such agreements, forced those who already had to exit those contracts, and prevented those bodies from selling or otherwise transferring resources to be used for immigrant detention. It passed the New Mexico House of Representatives but stalled in the Senate. 

One of the sponsors of House Bill 9, state Rep. Christine Chandler (D-Los Alamos), said she agreed with the move to delay action on the issue.

“The 30-day (session) is coming up relatively soon, and it’s my expectation that the governor will put the bill on the call, and we can deal with it at that point. And really, three months or so is not that much of a difference in terms of timing,” she said. 

Jessica Martinez, an attorney and the director of policy and coalition building at the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, also indicated that while she and her group would have loved to see a proposal about immigrant detention taken up, she feels that goal will ultimately become a reality. 

Martinez said that while attending a recent meeting of the Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee, she noticed that opposition from some opponents of past efforts, such as Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Joe Cervantez (D-Las Cruces), has begun to soften. 

She referenced emotional remarks Cervantes made at the meeting, saying that while he is not at a place where he feels he can back legislation such as House Bill 9, aggressive moves by the Trump administration could soon change that. 

“That makes me believe that even if we can’t get this done in the special (session) we’re going to get this done, and we have to get this done,” she said. Until then, Martinez said her organization and backers of banning immigrant detention in New Mexico. 

However, Martinez added, there remains a fierce urgency to act as the Trump administration’s roundups of individuals without lawful status. She cites the example of Paulo Cesar Gamez-Lira, a 28-year-old DACA recipient and father of four U.S.-born children, whose case was recently highlighted by the ACLU.

“Every day someone’s detained is another day that they’re away from their family, from their job, and their basic human dignity,” she said.