Immigrant rights groups call for aggressive action from state legislature to prevent mass deportations

SANTA FE — New Mexico immigrant rights groups and Democratic state House Speaker Javier Martinez are advocating for state laws that would protect immigrants from the mass deportations promised by President-elect Donald Trump.

Friday at the Roundhouse, Martinez and representatives from Somos Un Pueblo Unido, El Centro de Igualdad y Derecho, Santa Fe Dreamers Project, New Mexico Immigrant Law Center and the Semilla Project announced policy proposals that include no state resources for enforcing federal immigration laws and restricting state and local governments from contracting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for civil immigration detention.

There are three ICE detention facilities in the state, and there may be an effort to expand those detention facilities by up to 1,000 beds, according to Teague Gonzalez, deputy director of programs, people and advocacy at New Mexico Immigrant Law Center.

Mass deportations would negatively impact New Mexico’s economy by reducing the work force in the oil and gas industry and the agricultural industry, according to Martinez.

“If the incoming president mass-deports millions of us, those industries in New Mexico will not only suffer; they will implode,” Martinez said. He is an immigrant who moved to the U.S. from Mexico at age 7.

There are an estimated 60,000 undocumented immigrants living in New Mexico who pay more than $67.7 million annually in state and local taxes, said Zulema Chavero, citizenship coordinator for Somos Un Pueblo Unido. The immigrant rights movement in the state has grown more robust since the first Trump presidency, she said.

“We have gathered here today to show our strength and intention to work together to ensure state resources and funding we have helped generate through our labor in key industries and through our taxes are not used to increase deportations, separate families and destabilize small business and local economies,” Chavero said.

Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show, Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham reaffirmed her previous statements that New Mexico would resist Trump’s push for mass deportations . The federal government should be investing more in border patrol agents and stopping violent crime, she said.

“Disrupting family status and the economy, inhumane, cruel, unfair, discriminate policies that are illegal on their face — we are not going to cooperate in any way in that effort,” Lujan Grisham said.

Republican Party Chair of New Mexico Steve Pearce said Lujan Grisham needs to cooperate with Trump.

“Too many lives have been taken by violent criminals and fentanyl smugglers who have taken advantage of the open border. This disregard for our citizens must end,” Pearce said in a statement.

The legislative proposals from Martinez and the immigrant rights groups include limiting state employees’ sharing of sensitive information with outside organizations to prevent drivers license data from in turn being shared with ICE through data brokers.

Somos Un Pueblo Unido and Focused Futures will publish a report in December that shows how third-party data brokers are selling information from New Mexico to ICE, said Marcela Diaz, executive director of Somos Un Pueblo Unido. The advocacy group is looking at how other states have tightened protections around their MVD data bases so it can make recommendations to the Legislature in January.

Another policy proposal is to make it easier for undocumented crime victims to get U-visa certifications.

The U-visa is available to certain survivors of crime who are willing to cooperate with local law enforcement in prosecuting the people who perpetrated the crime. It can give someone employment authorization and a pathway to citizenship. It requires a certification, usually from local law enforcement.

The proposed bill would expand the limited number of certifying entities, said Gonzalez. For example, someone staying at a domestic violence shelter could take a statement from the police and the shelter would be able to do the certification.

“There is a difference between border security and mass deportations,” Martinez said. He charged that the majority of fentanyl being brought into the country is coming with U.S. citizens through legal ports of entry.

“I challenge the federal government to maybe start checking more of those big 18-wheelers that come across the border ... because that’s probably where it’s coming from. Yet we have been made the scapegoat,” Martinez said.