Albuquerque City Council approves ordinance to limit federal immigration enforcement

The Albuquerque City Council voted to reinstate Joe Biden-era immigration protections Monday night, declaring that hospitals, schools, construction zones, courthouses and the use of city resources are off-limits to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents without warrants.

The proposal, called the “Safer Community Spaces Ordinance,” was approved on a 5-4 vote.

“They’re literally killing people on the streets and not just minorities — white people,” Councilor Joaquín Baca said of ICE. “Five years ago this would have been unimaginable.”

Conservative-leaning councilors Brook Bassan, Dan Champine, Renée Grout and Dan Lewis voted against the ordinance.

“I feel like there's a public safety benefit to cooperation,” Lewis said. “The challenge with this bill is that it's not just a not cooperating with federal law enforcement — it goes further to obstruct law enforcement from doing their job, which I think many people in this community find disturbing.”

Before the vote, Lewis moved an amendment asking councilors to be held liable for any death or injury caused by the law’s passage. The amendment was sharply rebuked, even by his allies, on a vote of 8-1.

In November, the Bernalillo County Commission approved a nearly identical policy that applies within county limits, including in Albuquerque.

What are ‘safer spaces’?

This ordinance reestablishes a Biden-era policy that banned Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, from making arrests at sensitive locations like schools, courthouses or houses of worship.

Within days of entering office in 2025, President Donald Trump revoked that policy, with officials in the Department of Homeland Security stating that “criminals” were taking advantage of it.

The city’s policy does not impede federal law enforcement from entering these locations if they have a valid judicial warrant or if there is an “imminent threat to bodily harm.”

The city’s policy also requires businesses to inform staff if their employment paperwork, such as I-9 forms, is audited. Business owners must also warn employees if they are notified that an immigration enforcement agent will be present on-site.

Businesses applying for a license in Albuquerque will now be required to clearly mark the public and private areas of their businesses with signage to discourage ICE agents from entering break rooms or employee areas without warrants.

This ordinance also forbids ICE from using city property, including parking lots and parks, as staging areas for operations.

This ordinance builds on a 2018 council resolution that declared Albuquerque an “immigrant-friendly city” and several previous executive orders by Mayor Tim Keller. 

Support and criticism

Far and away, the majority of public speakers Monday supported the ordinance, saying that ICE actions across the country, particularly in cities like Minneapolis, had caused widespread chaos and fear.

Supporters included clergy, civil rights lawyers, members of the immigrant community and their children and teachers.

Longtime educator and vice president of the Albuquerque Teachers Federation Sonya Romero-Autrey said that students are feeling the impacts of Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Some children are struggling to learn, she said, while others have stopped coming to school entirely due to fear of being separated from their families by ICE.

“When a child walks into a classroom, they carry their whole world with them — their curiosity, their dreams, their worries and, yes, their fears,” Romero-Autry said. “As educators, our very first responsibility is to ensure that our students feel safe, to create spaces where children feel secure enough to learn, to grow and to imagine their futures.”

Romero-Autrey urged councilors to support the ordinance.

However, some speakers opposed the ordinance, saying it undermined law and order.

Geraldo Cionelo, a naturalized citizen, said some immigrants are cheating the legal system.

“I'm all for a safer community and immigration, as long as it's done constitutionally, like I did from the Philippines,” Cionelo said.

Solidarity from afar

The ordinance also received support from Minneapolis City Council President Elliott Payne.

Councilor Stephanie Telles read out his letter of support, which evoked scenes of chaos as ICE agents flooded the streets of Minneapolis during Operation Metro Surge in December.

Payne named Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both U.S. citizens shot and killed by ICE agents during the operation. As dire as the situation was, Payne wrote that it could have been worse if the city did not have its own safer spaces ordinance in place.

“What this ordinance does is affirm clearly and on the record that our local officers, our local budget and our local institutions exist to serve this community,” Telles said, reading Payne’s letter aloud. “It ensures that local government will not be conscripted as an arm of federal civil immigration enforcement. It tells every resident of this city, documented or not, that our schools are safe, our hospitals are safe and our police are here for them.”

Gillian Barkhurst is the local government reporter for the Journal. She can be reached at gbarkhurst@abqjournal.com.