{"id":23075,"date":"2025-03-18T16:22:38","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T22:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ice-disappeared-48-new-mexico-residents-attorneys-say\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:25:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:25:15","slug":"ice-disappeared-48-new-mexico-residents-attorneys-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ice-disappeared-48-new-mexico-residents-attorneys-say\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE \u2018disappeared\u2019 48 New Mexico residents, attorneys say"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\u201cWhat
\u201cWhat we know is people in our community are gone, workers are gone, family members are gone, our neighbors are gone,\u201d said Marcela D\u00edaz, founding executive director of Somos un Pueblo Unido, during a news conference on March 17 at the New Mexico Legislature. Austin Fisher\/Source NM<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

In the first week of March, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it arrested four dozen New Mexico residents as part of immigration raids in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Roswell.<\/p>\n

Now those people are unaccounted for, according to an American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico civil rights complaint filed Sunday, which alleges all 48 \u201chave been forcibly disappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we know is people in our community are gone, workers are gone, family members are gone, our neighbors are gone,\u201d said Marcela D\u00edaz, founding executive director of Somos un Pueblo Unido.<\/p>\n

According to ICE\u2019s own announcement, it arrested most of those people not for criminal convictions, but for violations of civil immigration law, such as illegal entry or re-entry after deportation. D\u00edaz said Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Roswell\u2019s mayors told members of her organization that they didn\u2019t know the arrests would happen, and that ICE had assured them they would only be going after people with criminal convictions.<\/p>\n

According to the complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security\u2019s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, ICE hasn\u2019t identified any of the 48 people they arrested, nor indicated where or in what conditions they\u2019re being detained, whether they have access to attorneys or which agency is holding them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know what\u2019s happened to these four dozen New Mexicans. They\u2019ve effectively disappeared. They\u2019re gone,\u201d said Becca Sheff, senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, during a Monday news conference at the New Mexico Legislature.<\/p>\n

The complaint states that neither ACLU-NM nor any other legal service providers have made contact with any of the people arrested. ICE\u2019s online detainee locator only allows people to be located by their names, dates of birth, countries of origin or numbers assigned to them by DHS, it states.<\/p>\n

Attorneys who help people held New Mexico\u2019s three ICE detention facilities \u2013 the Otero County Processing Center, the Cibola County Correctional Center and the Torrance County Detention Facility \u2013 are typically only able to conduct pre-representation or representation legal visits with detainees if they are able to identify them beforehand, the complaint states.<\/p>\n

The complaint also notes that arbitrary and enforced disappearance is unlawful under the U.S. Constitution and international human rights law.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one here in New Mexico should have to live with this kind of fear that they or their loved ones could be picked up and effectively disappeared,\u201d Sheff said.<\/p>\n

The complaint calls on the civil rights and detention ombudsman offices to investigate, ensure the disappeared people\u2019s physical and psychological well-being, ensure no retaliation occurs against them for the complaint\u2019s submission and \u201cpursue accountability for all personnel and contractors\u201d involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are alarmed and disturbed that these four dozen New Mexican individuals remain unidentified and that insufficient transparency, oversight, and accountability has taken place to date regarding their whereabouts and wellbeing,\u201d the complaint states.<\/p>\n

Sheff told reporters on Monday the offices with which the ACLU filed the complaint have their own authority under the law separate from ICE, and she had not yet received confirmation that they have received the complaint.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration is developing Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, into a \u201cdeportation hub\u201d and considering Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque as a possible military detention site for undocumented immigrants, the New York Times <\/em>reported on Feb. 21. New Mexico\u2019s all Democratic congressional delegation on March 5 wrote a letter to Trump and Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth objecting to the plans.<\/p>\n

When Edwin Jesus Garcia Castillo, a fellow with the New Mexico Dream Team, was detained in the Torrance detention center in 2019 and in 2024, he said his family didn\u2019t know where he was or what was happening and the guards denied him access to a phone to call them or a lawyer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw how these places tear you down, physically and mentally,\u201d he said at the news conference. \u201cThese places are inhumane places, they\u2019re really cruel places.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u201cThese
\u201cThese places are inhumane places, they\u2019re really cruel places,\u201d said Edwin Jesus Garcia Castillo, a fellow with the New Mexico Dream Team who was detained in the Torrance detention center in 2019 and in 2024. Austin Fisher\/Source NM<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Two immigration bills still pending<\/div>\n

The arrests and the complaint come as the New Mexico Legislature debates two legislative proposals that would limit state and local collaboration with federal immigration enforcement and detention.<\/p>\n

Garcia Castillo encouraged lawmakers to pass one of them, House Bill 9, saying \u201cit will save lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

For immigrant New Mexicans to feel safe calling and interacting with state or local police, they cannot be perceived to be involved with enforcement of federal immigration law, said Gabriela Iba\u00f1ez Guzm\u00e1n, staff attorney at Somos un Pueblo Unido.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere must be a clear and distinct line between who is enforcing federal immigration law and who is in our community to keep us safe,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Senate Bill 250 would ensure that distinction by prohibiting local and state jurisdictions from using public funds; personnel time; property and office space; or equipment to help federal agencies enforce immigration law, Iba\u00f1ez Guzm\u00e1n said.<\/p>\n

New Mexico Immigrant Law Center Director of Policy and Coalition Building Jessica Martinez said any reduction in the number of ICE detention beds in New Mexico would make communities safer, because research shows ICE is more likely to conduct raids and make arrests closer to where they have existing detention beds.<\/p>\n

With a decrease in border crossings, she said, ICE will fill detention centers by separating immigrants from within the U.S. from their families.<\/p>\n

Martinez said HB9 and SB250 complement each other and are \u201ccritical\u201d to ensure immigrants\u2019 safety in New Mexico.<\/p>\n

Less than one week remains for lawmakers to pass bills and send them to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who would need to sign them into law. D\u00edaz said people need state lawmakers, and state and local agencies, to step up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen a lot of good bills already die,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cOurs are still standing because we are organized and time is of the essence.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the news conference, New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops Executive Director Allen S\u00e1nchez called on the New Mexico Senate to pass both bills, and cited a letter by Pope Francis from last month about the dignity of every human being, and Jesus Christ\u2019s identity as an immigrant.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome votes \u2013 and not all votes, but some votes \u2013 follow you to the gates of heaven, and these are one of them,\u201d S\u00e1nchez said.<\/p>\n

Source NM<\/a> is an independent, nonprofit news organization that shines a light on governments, policies and public officials.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Immigrant families, advocates call for New Mexico Legislature to act<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,904,138],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-immigration","tag-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23075"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77967,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23075\/revisions\/77967"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23075"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}