Heath HaussamenNew Mexico has banned local government agencies from contracting with the feds to detain people for civil immigration violations.
Our state has also stopped local police from transferring immigrants from our jails into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
These are massive wins in the fight against Donald Trump’s heartless and brutal deportation efforts. I want to thank all the lawmakers and advocates who’ve worked on this effort for years — especially Democratic Reps. Angelica Rubio of Las Cruces and Eleanor Chávez of Albuquerque and Sen. Antionette Sedillo Lopez of Albuquerque.
I also want to thank Sen. Joseph Cervantes, a Democrat from Las Cruces. The chairman of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee has in the past singlehandedly blocked this legislation. This year he flipped sides, sponsoring House Bill 9 and helping shepherd it to the governor’s desk.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed the bill into law today. While New Mexico has little power to stop the federal government’s rampage, we can make a righteous and powerful stand by refusing to participate.
The future of three immigration detention centers in New Mexico is now up in the air, and one county has to end cooperation with ICE in its jail.
Oversight blocked
We don’t make it easy for politicians to admit mistakes. So it was remarkable, during the debate in the Senate on Tuesday, to hear Cervantes speak about his past opposition to legislation like HB9.
“I regret that,” Cervantes said. “…Sometimes we have to recognize that we need to change, and we need to grow.”
Cervantes also chairs the interim Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee, which was formed after the 1980 riot at the state penitentiary south of Santa Fe. One of that committee’s main roles is ensuring our prisons are being run properly.
Cervantes tried to gain access last year for the committee to tour the Otero County Processing Center, a prison located in Chaparral that houses federal inmates for both ICE and the U.S. Marshall’s Office. ICE wasn’t cooperative.
Then, at the last minute, Republican lawmakers swept in and secured a tour. Critics decried that as sanitized and political.
On Tuesday, Cervantes said those events taught him a lesson: Officials were making decisions based on politics, not the authority of the state to ensure humane conditions at detention facilities within its borders.
Cervantes had previously argued that it was better to house detained immigrants in our state, because we could enforce standards that might not exist elsewhere. In that moment, he knew he was wrong.
“My heart has changed,” Cervantes said. “My mind has changed.”
Quotas
During a hearing of the Judiciary Committee on Monday, the day before the Senate voted to send HB9 to the governor, Cervantes argued that ICE has also changed. Trump’s efforts to deport huge numbers of people have led to quotas.
“If your goal it to arrest 3,000 people a day, we’re going to go find 3,000 people a day,” he said. “It won’t matter whether they’re guilty of crimes. It won’t matter whether they’re a 5-year-old child. It won’t matter your immigration status.”
The Otero County facility is located just outside the district Cervantes represents. He said it wasn’t easy to change his mind because folks in Chaparral need jobs, “but not that bad.”
On Tuesday, he added a New Testament quote to that defense: “For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”
GOP talking points
Republicans’ heads exploded when they realized Cervantes had switched sides and the bill was likely to pass this year.
Sen. Jim Townsend of Artesia, whose district includes the Otero County facility, accused Democrats of hating Trump “more than they love New Mexicans.” Senate Republican Leader Bill Sharer of Farmington blasted Democrats for “virtue signaling, political theatrics, and childish antics.”
And Rep. John Block of Alamogordo tweeted that Democrats had issued a “DEATH SENTENCE for rural New Mexico communities.”
Block dodged a question during the House debate about how many of the jobs he said would be lost are held by Texans.
But there is a factual answer to that question: The vast majority of people working at the Otero County facility live in Texas. El Paso is a short drive away.
A moral decision
It’s no longer useful to ask what people would have done in Nazi Germany. Fascists control our federal government. They’re violating our rights and harming people every day. We need only to ask what people are doing now.
In the debate over HB9, many Republican state lawmakers defended oppression with glib and sometimes deceptive talking points. All of them — all of them — defended it with their votes.
Cervantes, on the other hand, tried to exercise the state’s watchdog authority. When that failed, he saw the situation for what it was and made a moral decision.
That’s honorable, and we need to celebrate it. We need all the allies we can find in the fight to defeat authoritarianism.
Thank you, Sen. Cervantes.
An ask: When I see reason for hope in these troubling times, I’m trying to share it with you. If you appreciate articles like these, pitch in a few bucks to help me keep doing it. My journalism is funded entirely by people like you. Donate by clicking here. Thank you!
Disclosure: My spouse, Rep. Sarah Silva, voted in favor of House Bill 9. The Otero County Processing Center is located in the district she represents.
Update: The governor signed HB9 into law immediately after I published this article. I’ve updated it to reflect that.
