Sparks fly at legislative hearing on ICE detention facilities

SANTA FE — New Mexico lawmakers sparred Tuesday about the economic benefits, day-to-day conditions and basic morality of three federal immigration detention facilities located in the state.

The testy discussion occurred one day after a group of legislators toured one of the facilities — the Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral — and as Democratic legislators are readying for a new push to effectively shut them down.

Given that high-stakes backdrop, lawmakers questioned county officials from Torrance and Otero counties on Tuesday, while also making arguments that broke down largely along political lines.

One legislator, Rep. Marianna Anaya, D-Albuquerque, likened the migrant detention centers to “concentration camps,” while others cited past reports of raw sewage, no hot water and solitary confinement.

“I don’t think profiting off human suffering and misery is what we want to do in New Mexico,” added Rep. Eleanor Chavez, D-Albuquerque, during Tuesday’s meeting of the Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee in Las Cruces.

In response, Republican legislators argued the federal government will simply move individuals detained at the immigration facilities to other locations if New Mexico moves to shutter them.

They also said closing the facilities will lead to hefty tax revenue decreases and job losses, as the Otero County Processing Center alone employs more than 280 workers.

Rep. John Block, R-Alamogordo, suggested the proposed legislation was specifically directed at GOP legislators’ districts, while saying closing New Mexico’s three immigrant detention facilities would lead to migrants being housed in tent camps in Texas.

He also criticized the “concentration camp” comparison as anti-Semitic, and said the Otero County detention center that houses roughly 1,000 individuals appeared during Monday’s tour to have the same amenities as a “celebrity rehab facility.”

Other GOP legislators questioned the state’s legal authority to bar local governments from entering into contracts with federal agencies to detain immigrants for civil violations.

“The New Mexico Legislature has a history of passing bills that are unconstitutional,” said Sen. Crystal Brantley, R-Elephant Butte, in what appeared to be a reference to a recent federal Court of Appeals ruling striking down the state’s seven-day waiting period for firearm purchases.

The back-and-forth debate over the immigration-related legislation could be a sneak preview of sorts for a special session that Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has signaled she’s likely to call this fall.

The governor has not yet set a date for the special session, but her chief legal counsel told a legislative panel last month she was considering adding such a bill to the special session mix.

A state spending package crafted in response to a federal budget bill signed by President Donald Trump would also likely be on the special session agenda, according to legislators involved in recent discussions with the Governor’s Office.

New Mexico currently has three private detention centers — in Torrance, Cibola and Otero counties — that operate via intergovernmental service agreements between local counties and the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

Critics of the detention centers, which are run by private companies who subcontract with the federal government, say at least three people have died at the New Mexico facilities since 2022.

They also described the tour of the Otero County Processing Center as “sanitized.” The tour was set up by Brantley after a planned full committee tour fell through, and just one Democrat — Rep. Andrea Romero of Santa Fe — joined eight Republicans in participating.

“Regardless of what legislators who participated in the tour observed, mountains of evidence demonstrate how unsafe Otero and other detention facilities truly are,” said Lana Weber, the policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico. “No carefully choreographed visit can erase this documented record of harm.”

Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, the legislative committee’s chairman, said he had opposed legislation targeting the private immigrant detention facilities in past years.

But he said Tuesday he’s reconsidering his stance on the issue, and closed the hearing by quoting former President Ronald Reagan, who said in 1981 that “more than any other country, our strength comes from our own immigrant heritage and our capacity to welcome those from other lands.”