An ICE enforcement and removal operation in 2020. (Photo Courtesy U.S. DHS)
Rumors have swirled about unannounced raids by federal law enforcement agencies seeking to arrest and deport undocumented immigrants in New Mexico, but advocacy groups say no such raids have been confirmed here.
But they could happen soon, said Sophia Genovese, spokesperson for the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center.
“We’ve been told by the local (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) field office that it’s going to take them several weeks to work through the many executive orders that have been handed down,” she said. “And for now, we should expect business as usual.
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“With that being said, I think communities need to remain vigilant and know their rights, because even before these executive orders came out, ICE would conduct enforcement operations, so that’s part of ‘business as usual.’”
The ICE field office in El Paso did not respond to a list of questions from Source New Mexico on Friday. A spokesperson for the Mexican Consulate in Albuquerque also did not respond.
President Donald Trump’s threat to deport people en masse and a flurry of executive orders in the first few days of his presidency have shot fear through communities of color in New Mexico. Tribal leaders here have also reported at least two instances of federal law enforcement questioning or detaining tribal members.
Mescalero Apache President Thora Walsh Padilla published a statement Thursday evening on Facebook, saying that an ICE agent approached a tribal member in public and spoke Spanish. The tribal member responded in English and produced a New Mexico driver’s license and a tribal identification card, and the ICE agent left, according to Padilla’s statement.
Navajo Nation Council members met Thursday night after getting numerous reports of Navajo citizens being harassed or held by ICE. In a statement, the council said one Navajo citizen was detained for nine hours.
Navajo Council Delegate Carlito Slater told Source New Mexico he has not verified rumors from his constituents that ICE has caught tribal members up in immigration dragnets. But he is particularly worried about Navajo elders who may not have adequate documentation, like a birth certificate, traveling off the reservation and getting caught up in a sweep.
“Those are narrow circumstances,” he said. “Those people traveling by themselves is generally infrequent, but it’s something to remain vigilant about.”
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Immigrant advocacy organizations have been responding in-person to reported raids or other immigration operations, Genovese said, to try to confirm rumors. A widely circulated report of a raid at the University of New Mexico Hospital, for example, was overblown and involved a different law enforcement agency.
“Community coalitions are working really hard to dispel these rumors, investigate rumors of ICE activity,” she said. “And we’re asking community members to take photos, to take videos, to ask questions of those that they believe might be ICE officers, particularly people with privilege, so that immigrants aren’t aren’t put in harm’s way.”
While the groups are unaware of public immigration round-ups in New Mexico, Genovese said, Trump’s election appears to have affected the usual course of business in immigration court. Even before Trump was sworn in, judges started canceling hundreds of scheduling conferences or other preliminary hearings for the center’s clients.
Then lawyers for the center, which helps 5,000 clients throughout the year, received notice that the court would instead issue scheduling orders and handle other court processes on paper. That denies lawyers and their clients the opportunity for a hearing or to challenge the validity of the proceeding.
It’s an effort, she said, to expedite more trials.
“We’re concerned that these cases are going to move so rapidly that legal service providers aren’t going to be able to keep up,” she said. “We already can’t keep up, and it’s just going to make the situation even harder.”