A new report from Somos Un Pueblo Unido and other advocacy groups released Jan. 30, 2025 details how federal immigration agents can use public data to apprehend people.
A report released Thursday by several immigration and civil rights advocacy groups details ways in which the U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement agency may use New Mexico motor vehicle, jail records and other data to apprehend people.
The report, from Somos Un Pueblo Unido, Just Futures Law, Empower and Mijente, describes how ICE uses third-party data companies, such as LexisNexis, to access information such as property, financial and criminal records.
Representatives from most of the organizations, during a briefing on the report, also outlined legislative efforts they are supporting in the 2025 New Mexico legislative session to protect residents’ privacy on the internet and within the health care sector.
“As many know, these are terribly difficult times for the most vulnerable communities, and we count on New Mexico’s long history of protecting those who face persecution: immigrants, transgender people, those asserting their reproductive rights,” Somos Un Pueblo Unido Staff Attorney Gabriela Ibañez Guzmán said. “We already have a target on our back.”
As related to MVD data, Guzmán emphasized that “we know it is not the intention of our state’s MVD to assist enforcement of federal immigration law…it is happening in an indirect fashion. This is not MVD directly handing over information.”
A spokesperson for the state Taxation and Revenue Department, under whose purview MVD lies, told Source the agency was aware of the report and would provide comment, but had not done so by press time.
One bill the groups back is Senate Bill 36, the Sensitive Personal Information Nondisclosure Act, sponsored by state Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez (D-Albuquerque), which would place more limits on the disclosure of personal information and create violations for disclosures not permitted under the law. The bill is currently in the Senate Tax, Business and Transportation Committee.
“New Mexico has taken important steps to integrate New Mexicans, regardless of our status, into the state’s various public safety measures: making sure immigrant drivers have driver’s licenses; that we’ve taken the test; that we have car insurance; that our cars are registered,” Ibañez Guzmán said, “and immigrants have done the right thing and complied. But when New Mexicans approach state agencies, we have the expectation that our personal, sensitive information will be protected and at minimum not shared widely without strong safeguards.”
Organizers noted that disclosure of state data to ICE agents had “been going on for years as part of the Biden administration.” However, the Trump administration’s heightened emphasis on deportation changes the stakes.
“As we see the unfolding reports of an escalation of raids and of ICE using more invasive surveillance tactics to carry out these raids, the availability of driver and vehicle data of New Mexico residents is more of a concern than ever to immigrant community members that are exposed to criminalization,” Futures Law Just Futures Law Senior Staff Attorney Laura Rivera said.
Ibañez Guzmán also noted that while under the Biden administration, ICE “certainly did have access and was…using data brokers and this information to…target folks, there was a priority list. And so members of our community, who are immigrants and have committed no criminal offense, were not a priority for enforcement, for removal or deportation. As we see now, with the slew of executive orders that were released… the first day of this administration, everybody is a target.”
Representatives from the ACLU-NM and Bold Futures said they also would be advocating for forthcoming legislation to enhance internet and medical data privacy, respectively.
The internet, Deanna Warren, ACLU of New Mexico Reproductive Rights and Gender Equity attorney said, “is full of collections and data. Brokers are constantly scraping all of this information online and selling it to data brokers, and all of this information is fed into AI and used to make really consequential decisions about our jobs, our housing, our finances. And this information can also lead to bias and discrimination in those areas.”
Thus, “We are sorely in need of privacy protections and by extension, greater safety for our communities,” she noted, but “we need to do so in a way that also preserves access to crucial internet access and other online services. We know that information is very critical specifically in the areas of reproductive rights, mental health services and for LGBTQ+ communities.”
Kat Sanchez, policy director of reproductive justice organization Bold Futures New Mexico, said her group would be backing proposed health data safety legislation
“The bill prohibits the sale of health data or its use for targeted advertising without explicit patient consent,” Sanchez said. “Current existing laws don’t comprehensively regulate health data processing and sharing, leaving individuals vulnerable to exploitation. And this bill closes those gaps and enhances protections for all New Mexicans.”