New Mexico State Ethics Commission sues state Corrections secretary over probation ICE referrals

Just a week after filing new documentation alleging New Mexico Corrections Department probation officers’ widespread coordination with federal immigration officers, the State Ethics Commission on Friday announced it was proceeding with a lawsuit against Corrections Secretary Alisha Tafoya Lucero.

The new lawsuit, brought under a state law passed in 2025 prohibiting such coordination,  marks a more direct approach to forcing the Corrections Department to cease the practice, SEC Deputy Director Amelia Bierle told Source NM on Friday. 

The Commission has deferred suing Tafoya Lucero directly under the 2025 Nondisclosure of Sensitive Personal Information Act since September of last year while awaiting a ruling from a state district court judge on whether federal immigration law supersedes the state law.

The 2025 Nondisclosure of Sensitive Personal Information Act empowers the Commission to bring civil lawsuits against agencies if it has evidence that state employees provided immigration or other sensitive personal information to anyone outside of the agency, except in limited circumstances.

Even though the judge has not yet issued that determination, the Commission opted to proceed with a lawsuit anyway, Bierle told Source NM on Friday, after acquiring additional evidence that impelled immediate action. 

Source NM detailed that additional evidence in a story Thursday. Emails and other records the Commission included in a July 2 court filing allege that probationer officers referred undocumented probationers to ICE at the behest of supervisors. The court records also show the practice was more widespread than previously known and continued after the state law went into effect July 1, 2025.

The new lawsuit still seeks a judgment regarding the potential federal preemption of the state law, but it also asks a judge to issue an order to Tafoya Lucero to immediately stop facilitating ICE agents’ arrests of New Mexico probationers.  

To accomplish that, the lawsuit asks a judge to order Tafoya Lucero to create a new policy prohibiting the practice and implement new training for probation officers, as well as impose new safeguards in the database state officers use to track probationers. 

New emails allege New Mexico probation officer ICE referrals more widespread than previously known

In an emailed statement Friday to Source NM, Corrections Department spokesperson Brittany Roembach said the department has been conducting regular employee trainings regarding the new law, and has been working with the Commission to reach an agreement. 

“We take these allegations and our responsibilities to those under our supervision seriously,” Roembach said. ”We are committed to following the law, and anyone who is found in violation of the law will be held accountable.”

According to a Source NM review, the probation department referred at least 20 additional probationers to ICE between October 2024 and May 2026, and regularly tipped off ICE agents  when a probationer was scheduled for a probation appointment. Those referrals resulted in at least seven probationers being deported, according to the records. 

In a statement announcing the lawsuit Friday, Bierle said the Legislature enacted the law in 2025 “to ensure that New Mexicans can trust state agencies with their most sensitive

personal information—not fear that it will be used against them.” 

“Using sensitive personal information to facilitate arrests by ICE betrays the Department’s own mission and violates New Mexico law,” she said.