New Mexico Governor Might Kick ICE Detention Centers Out of State

New Mexico’s governor is reportedly eyeing legislation to ban federal immigration detention centers in the state, causing both Republicans and Democrats to raise concerns over the possible move.  

“Right now, our president has taken illegal immigration to [the] lowest numbers ever, and it is visible down here on the border,” state Sen. Crystal Diamond Brantley, a Republican, told The Daily Signal. “And yet, here we are, finding a way to use taxpayer dollars once again to fight against this administration for just cheap political points.”  

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, has expressed a strong “appetite” for a special session, telling local news outlet KOB-TV, the NBC affiliate in Albuquerque, that her agenda for such a session would include addressing federal budget cuts that could affect health care benefits for New Mexicans, and legislation pertaining to federal immigration detention centers. If called, the special session is anticipated for early September. 

New Mexico’s 2025 legislative session ran from January to March. During the session, the New Mexico state Legislature considered a bill that would ban state and local governments from entering contracts with the federal government to detain illegal aliens. The proposed legislation also prevented renewal of contracts already in place. The Democrat-controlled New Mexico House passed the bill in March, but it stalled in the Senate.  

Now, Lujan Grisham might seek to renew efforts to pass the legislation, or similar legislation. “I do believe that she is, at this point, ready to put a bill like that on the call,” Holly Agajanian, general counsel for the governor’s office, told a legislative committee on Wednesday.  

State Sen. Joseph Cervantes, a Democrat, expressed concern over such legislation, telling The Daily Signal that New Mexico “can do a better job of assuring human rights and humane conditions here in the state, then having the federal government move [migrants] to ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ or literally Alcatraz Island, or to countries that have no respect for human rights.”  

Concerns over the conditions of migrant detention centers in New Mexico can be addressed, Cervantes continued, “but when we have people being shipped out of New Mexico, potentially to … Central American or other countries, we really have no opportunity to assure that those individuals are being held in inhumane conditions.” 

While the Democrat state senator says he understands the governor’s concern over “the mistreatment of immigrants under this administration,” sending “them out of New Mexico and making them someone else’s problem is not, I think, in anyone’s best interest.” 

While Cervantes has expressed concern over the legislation, Brantley says she does not anticipate broad bipartisan support to block such a bill if it is brought to the floor for a vote.  

New Mexico state Rep. Christine Chandler, a Democrat, contends that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents tend to make more arrests when detention centers are nearby, according to Source New Mexico.  

ICE currently has contracts with three detention centers in New Mexico.   

Closing immigration detention centers in New Mexico would “not only … set us back on our crime-fighting efforts,” Brantley said, but would also lead to a “great loss of well-paying jobs for New Mexicans.”

New Mexico has the worst violent crime rate of any state in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report. In May, the Justice Department announced a fentanyl bust in Albuquerque, New Mexico, that constitutes the largest drug bust in the history of the Drug Enforcement Administration.  

“New Mexico is in a state of crime crisis,” Brantley said.  

Since President Donald Trump returned to the While House, “we have seen great success here,” Brantley said, referring to a decline in the number of illegal aliens and drugs crossing the border. “It’s brought up morale with our Border Patrol, with local sheriffs—we’re really turning the ship, and it’s disappointing to see our Democrat governor doing all she can to prevent these efforts to make New Mexico just a little bit safer.”  

Lujan Grisham’s office did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.  

Since Trump returned to the White House, the number of illegal aliens crossing the border between ports of entry in the El Paso Sector, which includes all of New Mexico, has fallen from 14,511 in June 2024 to just 1,630 this June.  

State Sen. Gabriel Ramos, a former Democrat turned Republican, represents three counties in New Mexico, two of which border Mexico.  

“I’m viewing it as a big problem,” Ramos told The Daily Signal of the governor’s possible action to ban ICE detention centers in the state. “First of all, I am the senator that has the biggest border area in the state of New Mexico, and … one of our county jails actually services federal inmates, and this would really be detrimental to that county,” he said.  

“We’ve done so much to secure our borders,” Ramos said, “and we don’t want to change it back to the way it used to be.”

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