Nov. 16 – New Mexico’s three federal immigration detention centers house a total of 1,820 people and are about 78% full, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data.
It is not yet certain whether the recent election of former President Donald Trump, a Republican, to another term means the agency will need to increase its workforce and expand its capacity in this blue border state to prepare for the rising numbers prisoners.
It would be “premature to speculate about that,” ICE spokesperson Leticia Zamarripa wrote in an email last week.
But the federal agency isn’t waiting to find out whether Trump will make good on his campaign promise for mass deportations.
It began looking for more space for immigrant detainees in the El Paso area even before the Nov. 5 election, publishing a “request for information” in August for “approximately 850 to 950 detention beds … for adult noncitizens” within two hours after the election. its office in El Paso and branches in Las Cruces, Roswell, Chaparral and Albuquerque.
This could lead to an increase of about 30% in the capacity of New Mexico’s detention centers — at least one of which has faced calls for closure in recent years amid reports of poor conditions for detainees, many of whom were seeking asylum. The Torrance County Detention Facility saw hunger strikes over conditions and a high-profile suicide.
Immigrant advocates and U.S. senators urged ICE to terminate its contract with private prison operator CoreCivic to run the facility after the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General issued reports in 2022 that found substandard conditions and lack of access to medical, legal and language services were described. But CoreCivic continues to operate the facility.
Data shows ICE could potentially expand its beds in New Mexico by more than 950, even without the need for new construction.
The detainee data provided by ICE for its facilities in Torrance, Cibola and Otero counties appears to include only the number of beds under existing contracts — and not the space of the buildings, which have room for many more beds.
While an ICE spokesperson wrote in an email that the Torrance County facility has a capacity of 505 beds, a CoreCivic spokesperson said it could accommodate “over 900” beds.
The discrepancy between the federal government’s and CoreCivic’s reported capacity for the Cibola County Correctional Center is even greater: ICE says it is 315; CoreCivic says “over 1,110.”
NM beds available?
At least three applicants responded to ICE’s investigation, according to the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center. The organization has filed a public records request for the requests under the federal Freedom of Information Act, but is still waiting to receive it, senior attorney Sophia Genovese said.
The law center is aware that applications have been filed by parties from Torrance, Cibola and Lea counties, she said; However, it does not know whether private prison operators or government agencies have expressed interest in providing the beds.
“Proponents are somewhat concerned that there will be direct contractual relationships between the federal government and private companies to create this bed space, but we are still trying to figure out that information,” she said.
Torrance County contracts with both the federal government and CoreCivic to operate the county immigrant detention center in Estancia.
The population there has recovered almost to full capacity — the agency says 501 of 505 ICE beds are occupied — after dwindling to just three detainees in December 2022 amid reports of inhumane conditions and the August 2022 suicide of 23 year olds. old Brazilian asylum seeker Kesley Vial.
The one-year contract between Torrance County and CoreCivic was set to expire in May, but has since been extended twice: once in May and again in October. The most recent change extends the contract until the end of December. Under the terms of the extension, the federal government will pay CoreCivic about $2.2 million a month to house inmates there.
Torrance County Manager Jordan Barela said Friday he didn’t know why the recent contract extensions were so short — or if they indicated plans to expand in the coming year. He said the province is essentially just a conduit for the money and is not involved in negotiations between the company and the federal government.
To his knowledge, he said, the county has not responded to ICE’s request for requests for additional beds. But he noted that he has only been working since late September.
“I didn’t expect Torrance County to actually be that candidate,” he said. “My thoughts would be that if there was an applicant… it would have been directly CoreCivic.”
CoreCivic declined to say Friday whether the company had responded to the request for information.
“It is our policy never to comment on any form of open purchasing process,” spokesman Ryan Gustin said in an interview.
Lea County Manager Mike Gallagher said his county has no existing agreements to provide beds for ICE detainees and is not considering one.
GEO Group, the private prison operator that manages the Lea County Correctional Facility – which currently houses state prisoners – did not respond to an email asking if it was one of the applicants.
‘Ready to litigate’
About 46,250 undocumented immigrants living in New Mexico could be in danger of deportation if Trump follows through on his campaign promises, said Genovese, the attorney for the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center.
Given the state’s relatively small population, “that’s quite a lot of people, and it’s nothing to minimize,” she said.
“It’s not just immigrants who are impacted by enforcement operations,” Genovese said. “It’s their entire families and communities.”
She said the deportation rhetoric is dangerous and frightening for people who are undocumented or of mixed status.
“It will make people afraid to go to the police, to go to the doctor, to go to social services, public services, things that they need. The rhetoric will incite fear that will harm everyone in general,” Genovese said. .
The American Civil Liberties Union plans to advocate for a bill during the upcoming state legislative session that would ban New Mexico counties from contracting with ICE for detention operations, said ACLU of New Mexico Senior Staff Attorney Rebecca Sheff .
“New Mexico should not be involved in any way in facilitating Trump’s mass deportation campaign,” she said.
The New Mexico Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights also announced that its next project will be examining civil rights implications at immigration centers in the state, Sheff said. The group’s report is due in 2025.
In the meantime, Sheff said, New Mexico families who fear separation should make safety plans “to ensure their loved ones are as protected as possible” as they face the possibility of racial profiling, separation from families and deportation.
Genovese said the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center has already begun creating “toolkits” of information to help community members understand their “rights and protections,” and stands ready to represent people facing deportation .
“We are ready to litigate,” she said. “We will keep fighting.”
U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich, a New Mexico Democrat, was among several lawmakers calling on ICE to stop contracting with CoreCivic to operate the Torrance County Detention Facility in 2022, citing dire living conditions, critical staff shortages and lack of access to legal assistance. services.
“The opportunities for meaningful oversight will undoubtedly be limited during the next presidential administration” because of Republican control of the U.S. House and Senate, his chief of staff, Rebecca Avitia, said in an interview Thursday.
However, Heinrich spokesman Luis Soriano wrote in an email: “As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Heinrich is committed to doing everything he can to try to put guardrails on how American taxpayers’ money is spent. This also applies to considering conditions in ICE. detention centers.”
Soriano said Heinrich has been familiar with the tactics to combat his policies from the first Trump administration, and “he will work to use them all to achieve New Mexico and the fundamental values and freedoms we seek.”
