New Mexico immigrant advocates warn of ‘uptick’ in ICE arrests in Albuquerque

Members of New Mexico immigration advocacy groups and local elected officials warned Wednesday that they’ve seen a sharp increase in federal immigration arrests in Albuquerque in recent days.

Within the last week or so, group leaders said they’ve received far more phone calls than usual from relatives of Albuquerque residents arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

At a news conference Wednesday, members of one such organization, El Centro de Igualdad y Derechos, read anonymous testimonials from four Albuquerque residents recounting the impacts of ICE arrests of their family members Aug. 21. 

Leaders of El Centro and New Mexico Immigrant Law Center told Source NM on Wednesday that they do not have an estimate of exactly how many people ICE may have arrested in the city in recent days, but they’re certain ICE has stepped up arrests based on the increase in calls to their respective organizations. 

El Centro’s Fabiola Landeros, an immigrant rights organizer, told Source NM her organization has heard from approximately eight family members in the last week; Immigration attorney Emily Alvarez at the Immigrant Law Center said her organization has heard from approximately six family members recently.  

“It’s a huge uptick,” Alvarez told Source NM. “We’re dealing with fuzzy numbers, like I’m not able to say exactly, but I think it’s probably the biggest surge in enforcement we’ve seen in our state” since President Donald Trump began his second term in January 2025. 

An ICE spokesperson did not immediately respond to Source NM’s request for comment Wednesday. 

ICE periodically releases detention data that gives some insight into its arrest activity, including snapshots of detainee populations at facilities in New Mexico and elsewhere. The agency’s most recent data release regarding its July activities shows the agency detained 51,000 people, the highest monthly total during Trump’s second term. 

Albuquerque resident Marisol Meyer-DrioVínto shared a video of what she said was one such ICE arrest Sunday morning in Albuquerque, in which ICE officers in unmarked vehicles and masks pulled over a man driving a work truck around 8:30 a.m. in a tree-lined neighborhood. 

The reported ICE activity in Albuquerque in recent days follows reports of increased arrests last week in Santa Fe, where advocates said ICE arrested as many as 16 people over the course of several days. Those arrests prompted outcry from local and federal elected officials, as well as a local protest. 

During the news conference Wednesday, Albuquerque City Councilor Stephanie Telles touted the city’s ordinance aimed at protecting immigrants from being arrested in sensitive places like clinics or hospitals and ICE from using city resources to make arrests. She said she has also heard from constituents about an uptick in ICE activity. 

“We’re not seeing big raids throughout the city, but we are hearing again and again about cars with blackened windows following our family members throughout the city, with the intent to intimidate and to strike fear,” she said.