Deb Haaland Slams MAGA Lawsuit Against New Mexico and Albuquerque

Albuquerque, N.M. – Today, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a lawsuit against the City of Albuquerque and the State of New Mexico, over efforts to block federal immigration enforcement in New Mexico. In response, Deb Haaland released the following statement:

“As ICE continues threatening communities across the country, the state is the first line of defense against the Trump administration. In New Mexico, we are lucky that the state and localities worked to lawfully pass legislation to protect New Mexicans and their families from ICE. We can’t let the federal government continue to exert their will on New Mexico and we won’t let them intimidate us. We are a multicultural state, we must stand strong with our neighbors. That means as governor, I will do anything in my power to stop ICE from tearing families apart and committing crimes in our streets while advocating for strong, common sense immigration and border security reform.”

As Governor, Haaland plans to keep communities safe by:

  1. Limit ICE coordination with local and state resources.
  2. Ban ICE agents from wearing masks on the job.
  3. Require ICE to self-identify their agency.
  4. Prohibit ICE from operating within 500 yards of a school during the school year, state courthouses or state government buildings, churches or religious institutions, healthcare facilities, public parks, and significant cultural sites.

After Haaland visited an ICE detention center in Cibola County to see conditions firsthand, she reaffirmed her support of HB9. 

As Secretary of the Department of the Interior, Haaland led several law enforcement agencies across the department and stood up a law enforcement task force that implemented the highest standards for protecting the public and providing necessary policy guidance, resources, and training to agency personnel. While in Congress, Deb delivered $350 billion for state and local governments and law enforcement agencies. She also co-sponsored legislation that would reform immigration enforcement and restrict family separations. Haaland has stood up for the rights of immigrants and asylum seekers. She rallied against the mass deportation of DREAMERS and continues to advocate adding more judges and officials to process immigration cases and fix the broken immigration system. 

Haaland’s public safety plan can be found at debhaaland.com/debsplan.