New Mexico immigrant groups urge Legislature to crack down on local police ‘handoffs’ to ICE agents

New Mexico immigrant advocates on Friday released emails and other evidence they say show that some local law enforcement agencies have widespread practices of referring arrestees and detainees to federal immigration agents for deportation. 

In a news conference held at the state Capitol, the advocates said the practice undermines state laws aimed at prohibiting local resources from aiding President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts, and they urged lawmakers to pass legislation during the upcoming session starting in January that cracks down on the practice.

Since January 2025, according to the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, at least 242 detainees at New Mexico’s immigrant detention facilities arrived there through some form of assistance from local police or sheriffs’ deputies. 

Teague González, the law center’s executive director, told lawmakers during a presentation Friday that local law enforcement agencies conduct “handoffs” of local arrestees to ICE in a variety of ways, including by taking them to parking lots where federal agents are waiting or driving them directly to local U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices. 

One such detainee, Brando Chavez Martinez, was riding in a car southbound on Interstate 25 with two friends on the way to a family wedding on May 22, 2026, when Sandoval County Sheriff’s Office deputies pulled over the vehicle, according to the law center. Even though Chavez Martinez had no criminal history, the deputies transferred him to ICE agents, who took him to the Torrance County Detention Facility in Estancia. 

Lt. John Castañeda, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, told Source NM on Friday he had no immediate additional details about the case advocates outlined, but he said the sheriff’s office does not have a policy prohibiting its deputies from coordinating with federal agents. 

According to advocates, more than two dozen local policies exist statewide that ban, in some form, the use of public resources for federal civil immigration enforcement, but no uniform policy exists. 

New Mexico Corrections head says settlement likely in suit over sending people on probation to ICE

In Albuquerque, for example, police and jail officials are prohibited from coordinating with ICE, but that’s not the case in nextdoor Sandoval County, where Castañeda told Source NM the county has “no specific policy that says we’re not going to help ICE.”

The Legislature earlier this year passed House Bill 9, which prohibits counties from using their local jails for immigrant detention, but that bill is currently tied up in litigation between the U.S. Department of Justice and the state. 

During the 2025 session, lawmakers approved the Nondisclosure of Personal Information Act, which prohibits all state employees from passing personal information, including immigration status, to federal immigration authorities. 

The law center and other groups including Somos Un Pueblo Unido and Contigo Immigrant Justice filed public records requests in September of all 33 New Mexico counties and 13 cities and towns to share “all communications” they’ve exchanged with ICE and other federal immigration entities. 

Of those 48 jurisdictions, 13 produced responsive documents; 12 said no documents exist; eight requested more time and 16 did not respond in potential violation of the Inspection of Public Records Act, according to the law center.

Documents from 10 of the counties showed “some level of communication and/or collaboration” with federal immigration enforcement agencies, according to the law center.

Eddy and Lea counties in southeast New Mexico were among them, according to documents the groups obtained via public records requests. Both counties engage in regular communication with ICE officials, including county jail staff providing them with a “nearly daily list of foreign-born individuals” who are brought to their local jails before they go before a judge and regardless of their reason for arrest, according to the law center.

Officials from both counties did not immediately respond to Source NM’s request for comment Friday.

Two state lawmakers — Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez (D-Albuquerque) and Rep. Cristina Parajón (D-Albuquerque) — said Friday they will carry legislation into the 60-day session beginning Jan. 19 that aims to crack down on the practice of local law enforcement referrals to ICE. 

Previous legislative efforts, beginning in 2005, at prohibiting local resources from being used for federal civil immigration enforcement have failed, but Parajón told Source NM on Friday that she is optimistic the Legislature in 2027 will pass the bill.

“We’re still in the drafting phase, but we are dedicated to doing it,” she said.