A False Sense of Security

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents increased targeted arrests against undocumented immigrants in the month of February around Northern New Mexico, according to calls received by US Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich and local immigrant rights group Santa Fe Dreamers Project.

The New Mexico Democratic senators' offices say they've received reports that ICE agents have been using administrative, not judicial warrants, in order to get into people's homes and make arrests, as well as specifically targeting schools, hospitals and churches.

Today, Udall and Heinrich sent a letter to acting Secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security Chad F Wolf, accusing agents of using "false pretense" and "fear and lies" to make arrests, as well as expanding its activities in Albuquerque. They also asked ICE to hand over arrest data for Albuquerque from the beginning of the year until now.

Although the letter does not mention Santa Fe, Allegra Love, the director of the Santa Fe Dreamers Project, tells SFR that she also received calls from Santa Feans about ICE making arrests in the city.

"I think Santa Feans have a false sense of security around ICE because they misunderstand what 'sanctuary city' means," Love says. "It's not a wall that keeps ICE out. We have to be vigilant about standing up for our neighbors. Being a sanctuary city can only go so far."

While Santa Fe's sanctuary policy says that none of its resources should be used to help immigration enforcement authorities, accessing public documents such as employment records is fair game for the government. This is how ICE agents are finding undocumented people, along with other methods, Love says, including using last known addresses of people with removal orders against them and then making collateral arrests if other undocumented people are there as well.

The increased arrests in New Mexico come after the Trump administration announced it would increase the presence of US Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) Border Patrol Tactical Unit agents in other sanctuary cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Atlanta, Houston, Boston, New Orleans, Detroit and Newark and New Jersey. Albuquerque had not been on the list.

Yesterday, a federal court ruled that the Justice Department can also hold back federal funds from sanctuary cities that do not cooperate with immigration agents.

Leticia Zamarripa, a regional spokeswoman for ICE, did not respond to a voicemail from SFR seeking confirmation of recent enforcement actions in Northern New Mexico. Last October, SFR requested reports from ICE of people who were deported from Santa Fe County from 2017 until then.

ICE told SFR that they could not search deportation records by county and the El Paso Field Office claimed that removals are not conducted from Santa Fe County.