A legislator will introduce a bill that would prohibit New Mexico public entities from entering into contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for immigrant detention.
The Dignity Not Detention bill, which will be sponsored by state Sen. Katy Duhigg, D-Albuquerque, will restrict local governments from entering into intergovernmental agreements with the federal government. Duhigg told NM Political Report that if local governments cannot use intergovernmental agreements, the bill, if enacted, would mean local governments would have to go through a normal procurement process.
“The effect of that is, it wouldn’t be worth their while to do so,” Duhigg said.
Duhigg said she filed the bill and she expects it to be read into the legislature on Monday.
There are three facilities in New Mexico that are owned by three different counties that have agreements in place with the federal government, which allows the facilities to be used as detention centers for those held by ICE. Duhigg mentioned a recent reported incident in which individuals were allegedly sickened after cleaning up raw sewage at the Torrance County facility late last year.
Duhigg said this bill is important because of the myriad reported problems occurring in detention centers in New Mexico.
“Folks come here seeking asylum and ICE can detain them or not. It’s completely discretionary. They’re being detained here in facilities that are, frankly, just awful, there are bug infestations, restricting folks from talking to lawyers. They’re not treating people with the basic human dignity everyone is entitled to. And doing this to people who are seeking asylum is not in keeping with our New Mexico values,” Duhigg said.
Advocates for the bill held a rally at the Roundhouse on Thursday.
Sophia Genovese, an immigration lawyer for New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, told NM Political Report that the bill is necessary because “no amount of advocacy at the federal level has resolved this issue.” Advocates and New Mexico congressional leadership have requested that the federal government close the Torrance County Detention Facility in particular after government reports in 2022 recommended closure of the facility due to the conditions.
Genovese said New Mexico does not have any facility that holds high-risk detainees so the detainment of individuals who lack documentation “is discretionary.”
“It’s truly random who is detained but the outcomes are significantly different,” Genovese said.
She said that for individuals who are not detained, their cases move more slowly through the immigration court system and they have the ability to obtain an attorney. Genovese said that for individuals who are detained in ICE facilities in New Mexico, there are only six attorneys to represent them but there are about 2,000 individuals who need representation.
Duhigg said that the bill will require termination clauses in the counties’ intergovernmental agreements to be exercised by the first opportunity to do so.
