Funding for New Mexico in Focus is provided by viewers like you.

>>Nash: This week on New Mexico in Focus, the ICE agents are here.

Political leaders differ on what roles state and local officials, including city cops, should play in immigration enforcement.

>>Nava: At a time like now, we need them more than ever.

We need cultural competence.

We need respect.

>>Lewis: It's all political theater, by a failed mayor who's done nothing to make this city safer.

>>Nash: And we meet asylum seekers detained at a private immigrant prison here And the group supporting them from in and outside the walls.

New Mexico in Focus starts now.

Thanks for joining us.

I'm Nash Jones.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE arrests have surged across the country as President Trump has moved quickly to follow through on his campaign promise to crack down on immigration.

Many of these agents are masked as they arrest people.

The tactic has sparked concerns over accountability.

Imposters and creating a culture of fear.

ICE director Todd Lyons recently said he'll allow his officers to continue to cover their faces.

This week we wanted to check in on immigration policy and enforcement here in New Mexico.

Home to hundreds of thousands of immigrants, tens of thousands of whom do not have legal status, according to data from the American Immigration Council.

we'll hear the perspective of State Senator Cindy Nava, who is undocumented for much of her life, about how she's using her experience to inform state policy and back Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller's recent executive order reaffirming and expanding the city's sanctuary status.

We'll also sit down with Albuquerque City Councilor Dan Lewis, who's vehemently opposed to Keller's approach and is calling for the city and its police force to cooperate with ICE.

Community advocates also weigh in from the director of immigrant justice organizations, Somos un Pueblo Unido to the Catholic archbishop in Santa Fe.

Some undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers in our state are spending their days in one of New Mexico's three private prisons for ICE detainees.

Just as with anyone behind bars, it can be easy for those of us on the outside to overlook them, to forget that they're here after they're taken away.

So we wanted to start this week's show by meeting a few of the men locked up in Seville, a county, and a group of local volunteers working to make sure they feel seen.

Here's New Mexico in Focus reporter Cailley Chella >>Cailley: In a remote corner of New Mexico, behind layers of barbed wire fences and locked doors, moments of human connection are hard to come by.

This is the Cibola County Correctional Center in Milan, one of three prisons in New Mexico that hold immigrants for ICE or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

On a recent Saturday, a group of volunteers pulled up outside with a unique mission not to investigate or expose, but to connect.

>>Figueroa: It's really cool to see how excited they are just to get out of their routine and see new people talk to people.

They're very thankful for what we're doing and grateful for the time that we spend and just that human connection that they don't get when they're there.

>>Cailley: Nine volunteers from a group called Vida spent about two hours inside the lockup.

The visits are simple talk play games.

Share stories.

But for both the men inside and the volunteers, they're anything but routine.

>>Figueroa: So we do some introductions so that we're not total strangers.

>>Dollmeyer: And we have the maps so that they're able to point out on the map where they're actually from.

>>Figueroa: We just play some games.

You get to know each other.

We talk about our favorite things.

We talk about, you know, good food, things like that.

Just things that kind of try to distract them.

And then we also celebrate birthdays.

We buy them some drinks and candy from the vending machines.

>>Dollymeyer: And we always end with a poem.

It's always a poem that's kind of uplifting and telling them to not give up.

[In Spanish] No te rindas cuando sientas que no puedes seguir Solo respira hondo y continua.

>>Cailley: 11 men from inside the detention center joined them They came from all over Venezuela, Peru, Cuba, Turkey and Cameroon.

Most of the men spoke Spanish, but a few spoke English.

Some told jokes.

Others opened up about their journeys to the US and the isolation they feel behind bars.

>>Salcedo: Significa >>Salcedo: [Speaking Spanish] It means a moment of inspiration, encouragement, strength, things that distract us a lot.

We leave the confines of this prison at that time, and they are very kind, humble, big hearted people who cheer us up, brighten our day, encourage us and give us the strength to keep fighting, to be well.

>>Cailley: I had the opportunity to speak with several men detained in Cibola after Vida's visit.

They told me what it meant to be seen, not as numbers or case files, but as human beings.

>>Victor: [Speaking Spanish] Even though we are not related, they are not our family.

They make arrangements with us.

They care about us.

>>Cailley: Victor, who asked us not to use his last name out of fear for his life, is from Peru.

Cailley: Esto es un poco dificil No >>Victor: Si.

>>Cailley: he traveled by foot for months to reach the U.S. border, where he did what the law requires.

He presented himself to immigration officials to begin the legal process of seeking asylum.

He's been in prison now for eight months, and he hasn't seen his family or his 14 year old son since.

>>Victor: [Speaking Spanish] I feel imprisoned.

I feel like my wings have been clipped because, unfortunately, I haven't done anything to deserve being locked up in here.

He showed me his not particularly appetizing looking lunch plate of bread, rice and beans and shared with me what it was like inside.

>>Victor: [Speaking Spanish] In Cibola, I'm afraid the confinement has already driven me crazy.

God willing.

I'm a healthy person, and right now there would be medication for depression because I can barely sleep.

>>Cailley: Cibola County Correctional Center has faced public scrutiny for years.

In 2020, the facility came under fire for locking people in medical segregation for up to 23 hours a day.

The prison and CoreCivic, one of the nation's largest private prison operators that run Cibola under a contract with local and federal officials, have been the targets of numerous lawsuits over conditions inside.

Last year, the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center asks the Homeland Security Department's Office of Inspector General to investigate allegations of medical neglect.

They never heard back.

>>Kelly: The food is terrible.

They don't get enough medical treatment.

It's not adequate and they're suffering.

And the sewage situation.

And just like plumbing and things like that, basic things like water, the temperature of the water is consistently bad.

Access to going outside is really difficult.

So they say the same things in every single visit and every single testimonial, every single letter.

It's very, very clear, >Cailley: Vida doesn't just visit detention centers in New Mexico.

Volunteers also write letters to people who are locked up across the country.

>>Kelly: There are letters that come in all the time.

>>Cailley: Reminders that someone, somewhere is paying attention.

>>Kelly: [Speaking Spanish] >>Cailley: The goal, they say is simple, to restore a little dignity and humanity to people in a system not built to offer much of either.

>>Kelly: Vida stands for for volunteers for immigrants in detention, Albuquerque.

And our mission is to end isolation for those who are detained at Torrance County Detention facility and Cibola County Correctional Center while fighting to get those centers shut down and fighting against immigrant detention in general.

The purpose of our program is to give hope, and I don't you know, it's a very hopeless situation.

So we can at least try.

And I feel that we do succeed in doing that during our visits.

It's very emotional and intense.

It's beautiful.

It's beautiful, and it's so hard to leave.

I hate leaving, I feel like we kind of have to rip ourselves away.

>>Cailley: One of the volunteers told me about her interaction with a Guatemalan man named Abel.

I met him the last two times we were there and he revealed to me that his asylum has not been granted.

So he's going back to Guatemala, and he's being separated from his family because he has a daughter who is in Boston.

>>Cailley: I messaged back and forth with Abel on Saturday to arrange an interview on Monday, but when I logged in for the call less than 48 hours later, his profile said released.

In other words, deported.

It's a reality Vida volunteers know well.

Forming a brief but meaningful connection with someone inside, only to lose all contact without warning.

So typical of all the men that we see there, they just don't have any idea, you know.

How long are they going to be there?

Will they be deported?

>>Cailley: Salcedo was recently denied his asylum case as well.

He has until August 22nd to appeal.

>>Salcedo: [Speaking Spanish] I don't even know how to file an appeal to see the documents here.

I don't have a lawyer.

I don't have anything like that available to me.

50/50.

And between sadness and desolation.

>>Cailley: According to the most recent data from Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, which gets its information from ICE records requests, there are currently over 56,000 people about the population of Carson City, Nevada, imprisoned in detention centers across the United States.

That's up from just over 37,000 at this time last year.

I sent multiple requests to the prison, to CourtCivic and eventually to ICE to get access to Cibola.

But ICE never responded.

And cameras, even phones, aren't allowed inside during Vida visits.

Still, stories find their way out through letters, voices and memories of a shared afternoon.

For New Mexico in Focus, I'm Cailley Chella reporting.

>>Wester: This is not right.

This is just not right.

I feel so much for the immigrants in our country today.

Being arrested by masked men with no identification.

I mean, how do you know you're not being kidnaped by a terrorist group?

You know, it's just, families are witnessing this.

The children are being traumatized.

This is not the United States.

There's something grossly wrong with it.

>>Nash: Catch that conversation with Santa Fe Archbishop John C. Wester in a little over half an hour.

Thank you to Cailley Chella for bringing us the perspectives of asylum seekers detained at Cibola.

We contacted CoreCivic for a response.

The company responded in a written statement saying no formal grievances had been filed at Cibola regarding the specific concerns raised in our story.

Last week, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller signed an executive order reaffirming and expanding the city's immigrant friendly ordinance, enacted in 2018.

The new provisions include a requirement that city departments report ICE activity in their facilities, and a path for city police to confirm ICE activity upon request from the public.

conservative City Councilors Dan Lewis, Renee Grout and Dan Champine have come out against the order, while a group of their progressive colleagues have proposed codifying it when the council reconvenes next month.

I sit down with Councilor Lewis this week to get his take on the order and how federal immigration enforcement is showing up in the state's largest city.

City Councilor Dan Lewis, thanks for joining us.

>>Lewis: Thank you for having me >>Nash: In a joint statement with your fellow councilors, Renee Grout and Dan Champine, you characterized Mayor Keller's executive order as political theater.

What did you mean by political theater in this context?

>>Lewis: Well, it's nothing but political theater.

We're a dangerous city right now and this Mayor had had eight years to fix it.

Homelessness is more than ever in the city, and this council is giving him everything.

We give him a blank check The council holds the purse strings, with the city budget.

We give them everything they asked for, and, and they haven't they haven't solved it.

We haven't chipped away at it.

But this is an administration that I don't think is concerned about public safety in Albuquerque.

>>Nash: What about when it comes to immigration, specifically with this executive order?

Is there anything that you see as substantive in there?

>>Lewis: We have an immigration friendly ordinance.

It's been around for 24 years.

That ordinance is not what made us a sanctuary city.

And it really doesn't say a whole lot.

It simply says we welcome all immigrants.

Of course we do.

What made us a sanctuary city is that Tim Keller, when he was elected, he kicked the, federal law enforcement out of our transfer center.

In downtown Albuquerque.

The Obama Justice Department requested that Albuquerque allow them allow ICE agents to be in our transfer center.

Anybody that's arrested in the city of Albuquerque, no matter what crime you've committed or what you're charged with, you go to the transfer center, you get booked, and then you go to jail.

But it's a it's a great way for us to cooperate with all federal law enforcement agencies.

And, Keller made us a sanctuary city by kicking out, federal law enforcement from that transfer center.

>>Nash: And now, well, the executive order reaffirms the immigrant friendly resolution that you're referring to.

It also expands upon it in response to some of the recent raids by masked ICE agents.

What it refers to as secret policing tactics, which it says the city won't support.

Those include city police confirming ICE activity upon request.

Where do you stand on that provision?

>>Lewis: Those are smoke and mirrors.

They're not going to improve public safety in this city.

Again, the better solution, is to look the people in the city agree.

I think the mass, the mass majority of people in this city agree that there's a public safety benefit.

To cooperating with all law enforcement and local law enforcement, cooperating with federal law enforcement.

A year ago, we introduced an amendment to that immigrant friendly resolution that just simply said that there's a public safety benefit, to cooperate when it comes to violent crimes in our city.

Human trafficking to cooperate with other agencies.

That amendment, failed on a 4 to 5 vote.

That would have made a huge difference.

>>Nash: But the existing resolution states that APD shall not inquire about or seek proof of a person's immigration status unless it's pertinent to an investigation underlying a non immigration criminal violation.

So the current resolution doesn't prevent cooperation in the event that a immigrant is engaged in criminal activity.

It's simply if it's solely on a violation of federal.

>>Lewis: Well, a great way to resolve that would be to allow, again, allow ICE agents into our transfer center when people are arrested in the city of Albuquerque.

That would be a practical, way to do that.

Everything else is just smoke and mirrors.

>>Nash: Your colleague, Councilo Clarissa Pinion, says she's concerned that ISIS recent tactics prioritize enforcement over the safety and well-being of the public.

>>Lewis: What was the recent tactic?

It was it was a, an arrest in a Walmart.

That that person, that individual wasn't shopping with his family in Walmart.

That individual, in fact, had been arrested in the city of Albuquerque.

And if federal law enforcement would have had access to our transfer center, then they wouldn't have been able to just simply do their business in that transfer center and not have to go to Walmart.

So so let's talk about what's really going to make the city safer.

It's cooperation, with all federal law, all laws.

>>Nash: Are you concerned with ICE agents not identifying themselves with the masks?

>>Lewis: They don't have the resources to go around and, and do mass deportations in the city of Albuquerque.

And you don't hear about that either.

You hear about someone getting arrested in Walmart, who had already committed crimes, already been arrested in the city of Albuquerque, who, would have been able to be apprehend in that transfer center if they had a warrant to do that.

But there are there are no mass deportations happening in the city of Albuquerque.

This is fear, fear mongering by this mayor who comes up with executive orders that mean absolutely nothing.

There are smoke show.

>>Nash: Do you think additional transparency would, benefit trust with the community?

Your colleague Nicole Rogers, Councilor Nicole Rogers, said the executive order, said of the executive order that the lack of ICE transparency erodes trust, increases fear, and that demanding accountability from federal agents strengthens the bond between local governments and its residents.

>>Lewis: Our cooperation with, with federal agencies would do a much better job of that.

But we're talking about transparency.

We're talking about executive orders.

That don't mean anything.

It really it's using city resources.

People that are in our departments, to be, you know, to tell secrets or to, you know, what, to just tell on, what the federal law enforcement is doing in our city.

Look, we could if we want to be practical about that, let's allow, in our transfer center, you know, let's.

Otherwise, it's just fearmongering.

It's a smoke show.

And these are.

I mean, this is a mayor who has not solved anything I don't think this mayor is interested in public safety in this city.

You know, I mean, I wonder what, Jada Gonzalez's family would think of those executive orders.

You know, Jada Gonzalez was murdered at Albuquerque Academy.

She was murdered.

It was instigated.

That murder was instigated by an illegal immigrant who now is in the custody of ICE.

But he roamed the streets of Albuquerque for a year.

You know, tell me if any of these executive orders are going to give any kind of satisfaction to Jada Gonzalez's family.

That we're serious about crime in this city.

>>Nash: What about those undocumented immigrants who are peacefully contributing to our community, who are looking to provide their family with a better life?

And that's why they're here.

They're not committing crimes.

Do they get caught up in this enforcement?

>>Lewis: Don't listen to the fear mongering that's coming from a mayor, a failed mayor, who refuses, to, to work with, federal agents.

I mean, absolutely ridiculous.

You know, I serve a district that's a majority minority district in the city of Albuquerque.

I don't get elected in the city of Albuquerque without thousands of Democrats and Republicans and independents that vote for me.

I can tell you that the mass majority of the people in my district agree that there's a public safety benefit to law enforcement, local law enforcement cooperating with federal law enforcement.

>>Nash: Is that why you characterize the executive order as dangerous?

How is it dangerous?

>>Lewis: Sure it's dangerous.

I mean, I think it's, it's interfering.

I think it I think it's borderlines on interfering with what?

We live in America, you know, with the people with the people in this country have set up of our laws and ordinances.

And, you have ICE agents that are following those orders.

Certainly instances around the country where a rise in violence on ICE agents by over 800% just in the last year.

>>Nash: How does it interfere if it's not within the city's purview to enforce immigration or to coordinate.

>>Lewis: Well these executive or sound like It's a lot of, coordinating the other way.

Let's coordinate all of our all of our departments and everybody.

If you're a city worker working in a city building, you're required now to if you see anything, having to do with, with, with immigration to report that, I mean, look, none of that-- It's all political theater, by a failed mayor who's done nothing to make the city safer.

>> Nash: Now, when when talking the treatment of immigrants and more specifically, those without legal status, when you're talking about, violent criminals, what would you say to those who are getting caught up in that, who aren't committing crimes, who are our neighbors, who are also here without legal status?

>> Lewis: I would say don't listen to the fear mongering again that's coming from this administration.

And the, again, the smoke and mirrors that are supposed solutions to easing your fears, you know, that are caused by him.

When there are other solutions that this mayor doesn't listen to, this mayor actually did the opposite.

This again, the Obama justice system, Justice Department requested, that the city of Albuquerque allow, immigrant ICE officials to be in our transfer center.

This is a mayor that kicked them out.

This is a mayor that's not concerned about fighting violent crime in this city.

Human traffickers, the crazy amount of fentanyl and drugs that's coming into this city.

We're the hub of fentanyl that goes around the country.

Then it comes back to us, and that's why we have one of the highest teen drug users in the in the nation.

So this is a mayor that's done nothing.

>> Nash: If it's if it's fear mongering would you reassure those of your constituents who are worried that they are going to get messed with?

>> Lewis: You know, again, I represent a very large district in our city.

It's a majority minority district.

I don't hear those concerns, you know, from the people in my district.

What I hear is a failed mayor who's done nothing to make the city safe.

And, the idea that it is a public safety benefit to cooperate with local authorities, to cooperate with all, law agencies.

>> Nash: You say that your constituents are concerned about safety.

Are any of them talking to you about the potential economic impact of rounding up undocumented immigrants in Albuquerque?

>> Lewis: Who's rounding up undocumented immigrants in Albuquerque?

>> Nash: Are they concerned about the potential impact?

>> Lewis: Where is it happening?

It's not happening in the city of Albuquerque.

They have orders.

They're carrying out national laws.

But I don't see mass deportations happening in the city of Albuquerque.

This was instigated by one arrest in Walmart.

This was a person that was arrested previously sent to our transfer center in the city of Albuquerque.

If those ICE agents would have had access to that transfer center, that incident would have never happened in Walmart.

This wasn't a person that was shopping with his family in Walmart.

>> Nash: I mean, previously we saw, reports of 48 people disappeared by ICE.

Are you saying that there simply aren't deportations happening within the city?

>> Lewis: Well, you don't know that or not, and I don't either.

What I do know is we are a dangerous city.

I mean, what are you going to tell Jada Gonzalez's family?

I mean, what are you going to tell the families in the city that are struggling with, kids who are hooked on drugs?

The teen, murders that are happening in the city right now, the abuse for children.

And again, you got a mayor who's been given everything.

>> Nash: U.S. citizens are far more likely commit violent crimes than immigrants.

Are you saying immigrants create more crime that you're seeing in the city?

>> Lewis: No, I didn't say that at all.

I mean, you're making some questions up that I'm not sure what you're getting at, but go ahead and say the question again.

>> Nash: I'm saying that, U.S. citizens commit more crime.

So if we're continuing to go back to the question of, folks are concerned with crimes that are being committed.

>>Lewis: There's a solution, there's a solution that the city of Albuquerque can do.

You know, certainly there's room for reform nationwide in, in immigrant laws and the laws, you know, and enforcement.

But what the city of Albuquerque can do is cooperate in some very simple ways that protect the civil rights of everybody that lives in our city.

And at the same time, you know, have a benefit to public safety in our city.

>> Nash: What would you say to, your constituents, immigrants and otherwise, about what they can expect from you moving forward on the city council?

>> Lewis: I'm going to do everything I can as a city council.

Again, we hold the purse strings.

We give this mayor everything he asked for.

We give this mayor a funding for 1100 police officers.

We have a little over 900 sworn police officers right now.

They have funding for 1100.

This mayor gave back.

This mayor said we don't need $5.4 million of that for recruitment and retainment.

We're going to spend it on something else.

This is a mayor who's not concerned about hiring more police officers.

But, you know, people in this city don't feel safe.

The goal is let's hire 1100 police officers.

Let's have a marked police officer, a marked vehicle that's in, you know, every neighborhood doing proactive community policing.

This was a promise that the mayor made eight years ago.

That's never come about.

So you not only have a mayor who's not interested in, in hiring new officers, in retaining good officers, paying them really well so we can keep them.

But you have a mayor who's actually said we're not going to do that.

We're actually going to give this money back and spend it somewhere else.

So what I'm going to do is continue to offer great proposals like this and solutions that actually do produce safety in this city.

And we're going to continue to give this mayor or the next mayor everything that they need when it comes to the resources we need to be able to fight crime in our city.

>> Nash: Councilor Dan Lewis, thanks so much for joining us.

To clarify the research I cited during that interview.

A 2024 study funded by the National Institute of Justice found undocumented immigrants are arrested at less than half the rate of U.S. born citizens for violent and drug crimes.

We also contacted the mayor's office regarding Lewis's accusations that Keller's order is political theater and fear mongering, and that he hasn't taken steps to improve safety in Albuquerque or hire more cops.

A spokesperson for Keller wrote back saying, quote, the only fear mongering is the rhetoric coming from President Trump who's demonizing immigrants and dividing communities.

Mayor Keller is focused on tackling real crime and keeping neighborhoods safe.

In addition to hiring more officers, Mayor Keller created the Albuquerque Community Safety Department to address non-emergency responses and allow APD to engage in proactive policing and respond more quickly to emergencies.

Flanking Keller when he signed the order were to state lawmakers who count themselves among New Mexico's immigrant community.

Speaker of the House Javier Martinez and State Senator Cindy Nava, who became one of the first former DACA recipients in the country to hold elected office when she began her first term this year.

Next, we hear from Nava about what it's like to legislate state immigration policy with the unique perspective of having been undocumented.

State Senator Cindy Nava, thanks so much for joining us.

>> Nava: Thank you for having me >>Nash: So as a state lawmaker who's also previously been undocumented, what has it been like for you to witness the shifts in federal immigration policy and enforcement and how it's showing up here in New Mexico?

>> Nava: Well, thank you for having me.

And I think given the times that we're living, I will tell you the American story and the fabric of this country is an immigrant story, right.

And for me, that carries heavy weight.

And as a former DACA recipient and all the things I am, but having been undocumented for the majority of my life, impacts everything that I do and it impacts how I got here, how I came to be elected into office.

And now the extremes that are taking place across the country to me, you know, now it's bluntly in our faces, but it's been something that I've seen my entire life through a very diverse lens.

I think we're now at a place where everyone sees this hatred, where everyone feels the fear.

But some of us have always felt that.

Some of us understand this from a very different lens, from a lived experience lens.

And I think as humans, it's really important that we're empathetic.

But I think it's also important that we are conscious enough to know that you can't claim to understand something in the manner that someone who has lived that life can.

And to me, that's a sense of respect.

That's a sense of responsibility that we have.

Because even though we and as lawmakers, right, you have to really be knowledgeable about the issues and things that you're advocating for.

>>Nash: As someone with that lived experience, I wonder if it also provides you a more nuanced perspective.

>> Nava: I'm not saying that all people who have been undocumented think the way that I think, or the way that my family thinks.

But I will tell you that we are not all the same, that undocumented communities are not all the same.

And when you have extremes on all sides, you know, things can get more complicated to actually get done.

And the whole purpose and the whole really sort of background behind my aspiration to one day be able to serve was to do things that I never saw being done by folks who were there to serve all people.

And it's easy to talk.

It's easy to get a microphone and to stand up on a podium and to say and promise things.

It's a very different thing to actually get things done and do the thing, accomplish things that will be tangible for people who are being impacted.

You reminded me of, you know, when they were attempting to pass immigration reform, you know, several years ago, and there was no compromise that was brought to the table, because it wasn't perfect.

And I remember asking my own father, you know, “Dad, what do you think about this bill?

It's going to take a whole lot of time to get to, you know, to a citizenship status.

And there's a whole pathway to it.” And my dad, who's worked construction his entire life, said “And what?

That's fine.

We've been doing the work our whole lives.

Why wouldn't we want a path even if it's long?

We just want something that is tangible and in order to do that, we all have to come to the table.

And we all have to be able to compromise on behalf of the people who are actually suffering.” But unfortunately, I don't think that the people who have actually suffered have sat at the table where they can cast a vote.

>> Nash: What are the people who are sitting at the table who are at those extremes?

Get wrong about this issue?

>> Nava: I mean, I think it's a lot of things.

When you talk about immigrant communities, you know, immigrant communities are incredibly diverse, right?

But you can talk about religion, right?

And how they're majority avid Catholics.

A really sort of the cultural ideology versus the reality that these folks live is very different.

And for me, I hear it not only directly from family, I hear it from the communities that I grew up within right?

And these folks, are very sort of middle of the line.

They don't want they don't want the entire cake without having to work for it.

And they've been working hard their entire lives.

So work is not what they're afraid of.

It is access and a pathway and a pathway that recognizes their value, their work, their contributions, which is common sense, you would think.

But sometimes when we get too political with things, the reality gets lost in the middle.

>> Nash: Is that what you're hearing from your constituents who are immigrants here in New Mexico?

What are they asking for from you as a state lawmaker?

>> Nava: So I represent a very interesting district, right.

Diverse perspectives all around.

I am not going to claim that I have the largest population of immigrants in the entire state, right, either.

But what I have heard from the ones that I have spoken to that live within the district, is literally we just need an opportunity.

We just need an opportunity to have that pathway to have access.

And we, this is not about getting things for free.

This is not about just demanding things, demanding that you give me something because I deserve it.

It's not that, those are not the people.

They are, they know that their contributions, their work is a value.

It's a value to the state.

It's a value to this country.

And they're not afraid to show you that.

But they just need a pathway of access.

So it reminds me of this whole notion of the American dream, right?

I argue with a lot of folks because they say that the American dream is not real.

It is, you know, it's absolutely irrelevant and that it is no longer real.

And I argue because I will tell you as the most, probably the most immigrant person in that legislative body in New Mexico.

And I joke with the speaker, you know, because we go back and forth about it.

But I tell him, Javier, you know, having been undocumented doesn't make things easier right?

And he knows and to me, that is my biggest learning lesson throughout my entire life because I've never been able to just sit there and demand for things to be given to me.

I've worked really hard, step by step, respecting people, building coalitions, building and working across the aisle intentionally, even when folks, maybe were going to immediately judge me because I was undocumented.

But, you know, sometimes they didn't find out until later, once they had built a relationship with me.

And that was, there was power in that because as a young student, it taught me that I am more than that nine digit number that I missed my entire life.

And I built relationships in ways that folks didn't think were possible.

And now it's playing out in the exact same manner as a lawmaker and having the ability to cast that vote to come into collaborative effort with my colleagues, to me is extremely important, because at a time where I sat there being undocumented, and I saw politicians argue about the fact that they couldn't pass immigration reform because they could not come to an agreement that was perfect enough for them.

I remember sitting there in agony with my family saying, goodness, okay, so they're not thinking about the people who are actually suffering, who actually need a social security to be able to go and just work decently, to be able to have, health care access and all these things that we sometimes take for granted.

>> Nash: And so you're now bringing that experience to the Round House.

And I want to talk a little bit about your work.

Recently you were by Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller's side when he signed an executive order.

Reaffirming and expanding the city's immigrant friendly resolution.

What works about that order and what falls short?

>> Nava: I mean look, the we're at difficult times.

And, the reality here is we know that immigration pertains to the federal government, right.

And the ability to do something pertaining to immigration is limited at the state level.

And when you get to local levels, you know, equally as complicated.

So seeing him carry this executive order out to me, it's much more than for just if folks want to claim it as a show, I think that's incorrect.

I think it is standing up at a time where our communities feel not only threatened.

They feel like they don't have an avenue of communication, of trust, and now much less if you can't even communicate in the English language.

So him standing up, I think saying and telling folks that his local law enforcement is there to be an ally, to be essentially almost a translator, if you are, you know, questioning if there is, immigration enforcement, you know, in town.

Law enforcement is there to be a support system.

>> Nash: So part of this executive orderis that, upon request from the public, APD will confirm or will attempt to confirm at least whether it is ICE that's operating in the community that they're witnessing.

Do you trust, Albuquerque Police Department to be able to be that liaison to the public?

>> Nava: I do, I do.

And, I think it's important that we have that trust because you're talking about folks who are serving our communities.

Day in and day out.

I am the sister of a police officer who is also a DACA recipient.

And I am very, very proud to tell you that I, that I understand their heart of service deeply.

And I think at a time like now, we need them more than ever.

We need cultural competence, we need respect, and we need respect all around for everyone.

But right now, they should be our allies.

And that's what Mayor Keller, I believe is doing intentionally.

And, even in my conversations with chief of police, you know, I appreciate their willingness to be of support in whatever way they can.

Given the restrictions that we that we obviously have in place.

>> Nash: And let's move to the state level, where you sit in the Round House you proposed a bill this year that would have prohibited state and local agencies from using public resources to enforce federal immigration law.

Do you have a sense of why that proposal failed?

>> Nava: I mean, it was a difficult bill,right?

And Senator Meastas and I, were able to present it together in committee, and we knew that it was important to address the fact that there are some localities that could potentially collaborate directly with immigration enforcement.

But it is not the duty of a state to do that.

And I think that more than anything, was it critically important to start really uplifting?

I think it's critically important, especially as we see how everything has evolved from the moment where we've ended legislative session to where we are now, what we're seeing nationally in terms of the violent, you know, the violent occurrences that have happened with folks showing up in masks and not identifying themselves.

I mean, this is exactly coming into correlation with that piece of legislation.

We didn't know that that was going to take place, but the bill was supposed to be just really sort of a tool to ensure that our law enforcement was not collaborating with federal enforcement of immigration law, which is not what the state is supposed to do.

So we don't know how why you know, why it failed in all reality.

You know, I think there's a lot of fear, to be honest.

>> Nash: New Mexico is also home to three federal immigrant prisons for years.

Government oversight agencies, advocates, researchers have decried conditions in these places.

Proposals to ban local governments from contracting with Ice, for detention failed again this year.

Where do you stand on federal detention in New Mexico?

And what should be done?

>> Nava: Yeah, I definitely don't believe that we should be complicit.

I think it's, I think it is our responsibility to ensure the well-being of folks who are being detained.

And if the situation is for pure financial gain, I think we should have more consciousness on that matter.

And I certainly don't believe that we should have those, those detention centers available and complicit to these actions.

And I am not >> Nash: and these are private prisons >> Nava: they are private prison And to me, and I know that there's a huge concern for my colleagues about also employment.

Right.

So folks who are employed, you know, their lifelines are there.

But I think we could absolutely maneuver to ensure that those folks are not left unemployed, to ensure that, we correlate their ability to work at a, you know, for the state, in a similar capacity, but not under, the regulations that they are doing by these private prisons that are just benefiting themselves.

>> Nash: What other proposals would you like to see in the round House related to immigration?

>> Nava: Well, I mean, in the 2020, given the restrictions of being a budget year, also, I think my primary concern is really addressing the cuts that we're going to be that we're seeing already coming through.

And how we're going to address the needs of our communities.

That is the primary, I think, concern for the majority of us ensuring that our communities are being served, and that we protect as much as we can the ability to for folks to have access to health care, ensuring that those cuts, you know, are addressed in a strategic manner.

And I think and I believe, that our legislative body will be able to do that.

>> Nash: You know, Senator, I want to finish by asking you what your message is to immigrants asylum seekers, international students in New Mexico who are scared right now, who are unsure of what they should do.

>> Nava: That's a tough question I'm going to close with the same notion of that whole American dream that I deeply believe in.

Because I think that American Dream is built by those folks that are here, by their struggles, by their work, by their commitment to build a better life.

And I know that what we're what we're witnessing right now is not a depiction of that American dream that folks have aspired to or have worked for or have built many of us.

But I believe that this country is greater than that.

And I believe that those of us who sit in elected office have a deep responsibility and hold ourselves accountable to ensure that we continue to uplift those stories, that we continue to bring folks to the table who may not want to or be able to be brought to the table.

And I can assure them a commitment, especially in the state of New Mexico, we are lucky to be in this state.

We have folks who are committed to serving and committed to doing what is right, and that I am grateful for.

And from my end, you know, I am committed to ensuring that I work hard, that I listen to our communities, and especially when I talk about youth ensuring that youth are at the table, that their voices are uplifted and that they know that they have a future in New Mexico because we need them here, and we need to ensure that those opportunities are here.

So even though we're going through a bad time nationally, I think we need to remain optimistic.

Estamos aqui para trabajar juntos.

We are here to work together and to serve this great state that has given us so many opportunities.

>> Nash: Senator Cindy Nava, thank you.

>> Nava: Thank you.

Thank you very much.

>> Nash: You heard Senator Nava talk about a bill that failed in this year's legislative session that would have prohibited New Mexico cities and counties from contracting with Ice and private prison companies to detain immigrants.

Well, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signaled this week that she'd like to see a version of that bill again in a special session that will likely take place later this month or in early September.

So far, we have heard from people on the receiving end of immigration enforcement and local lawmakers looking to reform it in one way or another.

Now we're going to check in with those on the ground, working every day with immigrants who live and work in New Mexico.

Marcela Diaz is the director of Somos un Pueblo Unido, an immigrant led workers rights organization.

She spoke with senior producer Lou Divizio.

>> Lou: Marcella Diaz, thank you much for being here again on New Mexico in Focus.

>> Diaz: Thank you.

>> Lou: I want to start by asking you to give us a little bit of an overview of the on the ground piece of your work right now and how it's changed, if at all, since President Trump took office and took a hard right turn on immigration and border enforcement.

>> Diaz: Well, Somos un Pueblo unido is a statewide organization.

We organize in six seven counties throughout the state, and most of them, with the exception of Santa Fe, are rural communities in northern or southeastern New Mexico.

And what we have seen since Inauguration Day is just a lot more fear and uncertainty about Ice and Homeland Security Investigations being in communities and really wreaking havoc in those communities.

So we've seen this and, you know, via a raid in Lovington where we have a lot of members and people were just in their houses not coming out, not going to work, not sending their kids to school while that happened.

We are seeing this in places like Farmington.

Just a couple of days ago, one of our organizers was sending us pictures that she was getting from other community members.

Homeland security investigation, just being in places and going after individuals and families in those communities.

And of course, we see it in places like Santa Fe and others.

And so there is definitely a, a sense of fear and uncertainty about the immediate and long term futures of families that have been living and working.

And, being members of community in the state for years.

And that is obviously very troubling and very difficult for families to deal with.

And so, I think that what we're hearing most from our members is, are we next?

Who's next?

When will the knock come on our door?

When will Homeland Security Investigations or Ice show up at our workplace looking for specific people?

When will we lose our jobs?

Because of the nine nine audit?

And so that's really, I think, one of the prevailing fears in our communities and senses of uncertainty.

>> Lou: What do you tell folks with those uncertainties?

>> Diaz: Well, we just give as much information as we possibly can.

We're a network of members.

And so, you know, it's it's what we what we find is that, you know, with your church, with churches and schools and other community based organizations and organizations like Somos that are membership based.

We are and families, we are each other's defense system.

So, you know, how do we help each other know when ICE or Homeland Security investigation units are in our communities?

How do we, know what our our basic rights are?

What we always say is tu casa es tu santuario Your home is your sanctuary.

And so stay in there.

When they're, you know, when folks are knocking at your door and, and don't come out, or you have the right not to come out or you have the right not to open your door.

But we're also working with other community groups and immigration attorneys and great legal service, organizations to help folks identify what pathways they might be able to have, to either become U.S. citizens, which really do, which I mean, naturalization, even though we know that folks are being they're threats of being de naturalized in our communities.

And also it doesn't, you know, doesn't seem to matter, the Trump administration to deport lawful permanent residents, or their children.

It is we there are pathways and so what Somos un Pueblo Unido and the Santa Fe Dreamers project or the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, which so many other organizations are doing, not just in Santa Fe but so many other communities, is just hosting Know Your Rights workshops and clinics where folks can do a 10 minute to 15 minute consult with, immigration attorney, like, do I have a pathway?

And knowing if I have a pathway will help me better make decisions if I am interacting with Ice, if I get detained, if I get put into deportation proceedings.

>> Lou: Now, a good chunk of what your organization does is policy and legal work.

In March, Somos joined a lawsuit against the IRS challenging the agency's plan to share taxpayer data with immigration enforcement.

What would some of the consequences be here in New Mexico if the IRS pushed ahead with that?

>> Diaz: Well, the IRS, and the Department of Homeland Security threatened to, and they did create, MOU for data sharing, sort of a backdoor data sharing approach to go out to communities and obtain most recent addresses and, work information from folks who are in the community working and who have been granted an individual tax identification number or the IRS.

The IRS has granted and admitted, just millions of individual tax identification numbers, two mixed status families and undocumented heads of household in order to pay their taxes.

We know that if they are able to, access all of that information, what they are going to be able to do is they're going to be able to go after more than 7 million undocumented immigrants in the country, with their most recent, addresses, to to go after those folks right now, it's a very limited.

And so that's what we hope to keep in mind.

We're going to be challenging it through, our lawsuit.

And so we are, as an ecosystem, doing what we can in our local communities with our cities and counties and at the national level to fight back in all of the different ways litigation is one.

And then there's so many others.

Of course, >> Lou: I know you've spoken before on the show about showing up state law and policy to protect immigrant communities in the face of these big swings at the federal level.

You had some success in this year's past legislative session, including work on a bill that prohibits the state Motor Vehicle Division from sharing information with immigration enforcement.

Also, Senate Bill 36, can you break down why those bills are so urgent and what they're doing right now?

>> Diaz: In 2003, the state of New Mexico started, allowing undocumented immigrants who use with their itin, and pay taxes to obtain driver's licenses, regardless of immigration status.

And that has been a very positive.

It's had a very positive impact on the economy, on insurance rates, on public safety.

But also it gives people an opportunity in mixed status families to have a form of identification and be able to follow the rules of the state.

And so, we what we've come to find out even before the Trump administration or Trump to, came into power, is that the way that MVD was, utilizing a third party data broker or that a lot of that information, unfortunately, would be able to get into the hands of ice.

And so at the beginning of this year, during the 2025 legislative session, we moved forward with so many allies in the state legislature and across the state, and so many different institutions promoting this, non-disclosure of sensitive personal information, including immigration status, national origin, gender identity.

A lot of the, particular groups that are being challenged and threatened by the Trump administration and ensuring that state agency employees would not be sharing that information and ensuring that MVD would not be selling the information to data brokers who would be using that information, or to to enforce civil immigration laws, or to sell that information to Ice for the purposes of enforcing, many of the immigration laws on the books.

And so that is a really important piece of legislation, because when immigrants, again, coming to the Department of Taxation and Revenue or the IRS or MVD, following the rules, saying, here I am, I want to get a driver's license, I want to do everything that I need to do, get insurance, registration.

I am going to share my information because it's important for the state of New Mexico and all governments to have certain sensitive information, but we have a reasonable expectation that that information is going to be safeguarded and not used to separate our families, to destroy our local fabric of communities and to, harm our local economies.

And that's exactly.

And local businesses.

And that's exactly what, sharing that information in an, in an unfettered way, would be doing to our families.

And so on July 1st, this law went into effect, and it is on the books.

And so we are working very closely, with different agencies and community to make sure that it is implemented correctly.

And it's very sensible.

And it follows, I think, a really important, tradition in New Mexico of, of common sense policies that integrate immigrant families rather than alienate them.

>> Lou: Marcella Diaz, thank you so much for being here on New Mexico in Focus >> Diaz: Thank you.

>> Nash: Thank you to Marcella Diaz and Lou DiVizio for that conversation.

Last week, we brought you a conversation between correspondent Russell Contreras and Santa Fe Archbishop John C Wester on the production and use of nuclear weapons.

While Lester was here, Contreras asked him to weigh in on another issue.

The Catholic Church has long criticized a lack of compassionate treatment for immigrants and failures to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

Here's part of that conversation.

>> Contreras: Archbishop.

The bishops in San Bernardino, California, and Nashville recently gave dispensation for immigrants to skip Sunday mass if they're scared about getting detained by Ice or, getting caught up in raids.

How should New Mexico respond in this climate?

>> Wester: Yes, I think that was a wonderful thing.

The bishop of San Bernardino did.

I think that, it's sensitive to the people there who are living in fear.

And this is our big our big fear, about this, administration's approach to immigration.

It's, we're pushing people into the shadows, and, they're afraid to go to church.

Afraid to go to the hospital, afraid to go to their doctor.

It's just not right.

We had a parishioner who, we had a, a worker at her home fixing, the plumbing, and he he couldn't go to the store to buy the part he needed because of fear of being deported.

So she had to go and get it and bring it back.

This is not right.

This is just not right.

I feel so much for the immigrants in our country today.

Being arrested by masked men with no identification.

I mean, how do you know you're not being kidnaped by a terrorist group?

You know, it's just, families are witnessing this.

The children are being traumatized.

This is not the United States.

There's something grossly wrong with this.

It's it's very, you know, the our bishops conference has made it clear that over the last decades, we understand there needs to be comprehensive immigration reform.

We all agree with that, that the laws we have today are broken, that they're not working.

We all understand that the border is not working.

We understand that that's as well.

But the way to fix it is not by adopting these draconian policies.

The quote, frankly, reminds me of Germany in 1933.

And people tell me when I said, oh, you shouldn't say that.

You know, you're you're exaggerating.

I said, yeah, that's what they said in 1933, in Germany.

But we've got to be careful of this.

What I see is a rise of authoritarianism.

And now, clearly it's very clearly defined and certain countries in our world.

But, so I'm not claiming the United States is on a par with Russia or those places, but at the same time, there is, I think, clearly, leaning toward this authoritarianism.

And I think the and in this case, the immigrants are suffering from it.

>> Contreras: Is this something you would consider here in New Mexico if it gets out of hand?

>> Wester: I would definitely, most definitely we did.

In the pandemic, people were, at risk.

And so we want to help people.

We don't want people to get sick and die.

And so this is the same kind of a thing.

This is, we want our people to be safe.

We want them to feel secure.

And so if this happened in New Mexico, I would do it in a heartbeat and say, you know, the obligation to mass is rescinded and stay home.

Say your prayers were with you.

>> Nash: Thank you to correspondent Russell Contreras and to Archbishop Wester for sharing his perspective and an update on another segment from last week's show.

As part of a discussion about the merits of federal funding for public media, former opinion editor for the Albuquerque Journal and current contributor Jeff Tucker agreed with Congress's recent move to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and therefore, PBS and local stations like ours.

>> Tucker: I'm all for media, I'm all for all types of media from all across the political spectrum.

But I keep asking the same question, why should taxpayers fund it if they don't support it?

There's a definitely a place for a PBS.

The question is, should it be publicly funded?

Is it so much different than ABC, CBS and NBC?

And does it do so many different things that it actually merits public funding?

And people on my side of the aisle just don't believe it.

Does.

>> Nash: After the segment aired we combed through an April episode of the Rio Grande Foundation's Tipping Point New Mexico podcast with Paul Gessing a conservative commentator and president of the libertarian think tank.

Tucker was Gessings guest as the episode was wrapping up, Tucker seemed to contradict the stance he took on our program.

>> Tucker: At this point, I wonder if the state should, form some sort of grants that could be, awarded to, local communities to put together, newspapers that just don't see the future.

Yeah, of how they're going to survive, >> Nash: given the incongruity of these takes, we called Tucker to clarify where he stands on public funding for media speaking for himself and not the Journal.

Tucker wrote in an email that he's, quote, not fundamentally opposed to taxpayer funding for media outlets, although ideally media should be self-funded to maintain their independence and avoid any interference from the government.

Some state assistance, like editor and reporter salary subsidies, may be the only practical way of saving many of our weekly newspapers across New Mexico, regardless of any political bent.

So while not ideal, I'm open to the concept.

He went on to say that he feels that, quote, NPR, PBS, and NM, PBS, on the other hand, have squandered their public funding in recent years with consistently biased programing.

You can find the full debate on public media funding Tucker took part in on the New Mexico InFocus YouTube channel, and join us next week for another look at important issues facing New Mexicans, including forever chemicals in our soil and water for New Mexico PBS I'm Nash Jones.

Until then, stay focused.

Funding for New Mexico in focus is provided by viewers like you.