The Senate likely killed a bill on Tuesday that would have ended immigration detention in New Mexico.
The chamber voted to table the bill on an 18-20 vote which means, barring a change of heart from one senator who voted against the bill, it is dead for the session.
SB 145, sponsored by state Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, D-Albuquerque, would have prohibited New Mexico public bodies from entering into intergovernmental agreements with for-profit companies that run detention centers. This would stop counties from housing migrants detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in prisons. Sedillo Lopez has said during committee hearings that these intergovernmental agreements allow the companies to bypass the usual scrutiny that a federally run facility would face.
Several Democrats sided with Republicans to vote against the bill. State Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, said he didn’t trust what advocates have said about the bill, which is that bed closures would mean less U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement detention. Cervantes said he didn’t trust asylum seekers would be treated better in Texas.
Sedillo Lopez said that New Mexico’s three detention centers, located in Otero, Torrance and Cibola counties, are notorious for the deplorable conditions and that immigrant advocates in other states fear ICE transferring their clients to New Mexico.
State Sen. Ron Griggs, R-Portales, said he was concerned about the economic loss to his district if the three facilities should be shut down by the bill.
Sedillo Lopez said the bill would not shut down the facilities and that the few hundreds of asylum seekers held in each of the three New Mexico facilities would not be enough to force a shut down when all three of them currently house thousands, including U.S. Marshals Service detainees and individuals held for criminal complaints.The Democrats who voted to table the bill were state Sen. Pete Campos, of Las Vegas, Joseph Cervantes, of Las Cruces, Bobby Gonzales, of Ranchos de Taos, Martin Hickey, of Albuquerque, George Muñoz, of Gallup, Benny Shendo Jr., of Jemez. All Republicans present voted to table the bill.
