DA: Warrantless ICE detentions violate NM law

Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman sent a letter Wednesday to a top Immigration and Customs Enforcement official in Albuquerque warning that some practices of federal agents in other states could be prosecuted as a felony offense under New Mexico law.

ICE officials who detain someone without a warrant signed by a judge can be charged under New Mexico's felony false imprisonment law, which contains no exceptions for law enforcement officers, Bregman wrote.

"I write to express my deep concern about ICE procedures and operations across the country," he said in the letter sent to William Shaw, assistant field office director for ICE in Albuquerque.

"ICE's nationwide pattern of unconstitutional enforcement actions give rise to questions and unease about ICE activity in New Mexico," Bregman wrote. "Specifically, certain activity by ICE agents reported in other states would be criminal under the laws of New Mexico."

Bregman said he received no response to the letter on Wednesday. Shaw is the assistant field director of ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations in Albuquerque.

The Journal did not receive a response Wednesday to a request for comment from Albuquerque officials at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE.

Bregman said he wrote the letter in response to videos and news reports about ICE activities in other states and was not prompted by any specific incidents in New Mexico.

"I'm trying to get ahead of this so that it's very clear," Bregman said in a phone interview. "I'm not going to sit by and watch anybody violate the law and turn a blind eye to it. To the contrary, we're going to hold people accountable, and that means everybody."

The Associated Press reported Wednesday that ICE officers are asserting sweeping power to forcibly enter people's homes without a judge's warrant, according to an internal ICE memo and whistleblower complaint.

The memo, signed by acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons, states that administrative warrants signed by an agency official are sufficient for forced entry if there’s a final order of removal. The change reverses previous guidance and raises concerns about constitutional protections against illegal searches.

Bregman's letter highlights New Mexico's statute for false imprisonment, which is defined as "intentionally confining or restraining another person" without lawful authority such as a signed warrant, reasonable suspicion or probable cause. False imprisonment is a fourth-degree felony with a basic sentence of 18 months in prison.

New Mexico law contains no exception for law enforcement officers, Bregman wrote in the letter.

"Therefore, any ICE agent who, without a signed warrant and without reasonable suspicion or probable cause, detains, confines or retrains a person in Bernalillo County may be subject to prosecution," it said.

Bregman said in the interview that videos and news reports from other states show ICE officers engaging in racial profiling by arbitrarily pulling over Hispanic people and demanding to know where they were born.

"We are a majority Hispanic state," he said. "I represent the biggest populated county in the state. I'm laying this down to make sure everybody knows that we're not going to tolerate whoever they are violating our criminal statutes."