The United States Department of Justice on Friday filed a motion urging a federal judge to immediately prohibit New Mexico officials from enforcing House Bill 9, the Immigrant Safety Act, saying the new state law is unconstitutional and would irreparably harm a New Mexico county.
The law prohibits public entities like counties from contracting with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to hold immigrant detainees. The law has faced sustained pushback in Otero County, where county officials say the measure will result in the loss of up to 284 jobs and force the county to sell its immigrant detention facility, the Otero County Processing Center, at a loss.
The federal DOJ’s Civil Division and the United State’s Attorney’s Office in New Mexico filed the motion for a preliminary injunction Friday in federal court. The plaintiffs are the State of New Mexico, including Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Attorney General Raúl Torrez.
The 49-page motion alleges that House Bill 9, which goes into effect May 20, amounts to an unconstitutional regulation of the federal government and its responsibility to detain and remove undocumented immigrants.
“State law may not stand as an obstacle to the enforcement of federal law,” the motion reads. “And under intergovernmental immunity principles, state governments may not regulate or discriminate against the Federal Government.”
The lawsuit contains declarations from a federal ICE agent who says the closure of the “mission critical” Otero County Processing Center would immediately impact law enforcement operations in the border region and deprive it of nearly 1,000 detainee beds it needs.
Otero County Manager Pamela Heltner also attested in the lawsuit that the facility’s closure would be “a devastating blow to the local economy of one of New Mexico’s most economically vulnerable rural communities.”
In a news release about the motion Friday, Brett Shumate, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said New Mexico is “attempting to regulate immigration policy, something the federal government is clearly and uniquely empowered by the Constitution to do.”
Torrez, in a statement Friday, defended House Bill 9 as a “constitutional exercise of state authority” and said he is eager to defend it in court.
“This lawsuit asks a federal court to override a democratically enacted state law because the administration disagrees with the policy choice the Legislature made. That is not a constitutional argument. It is an attempt to use federal litigation to reverse an outcome the administration dislikes.”
Leah March, the governor’s deputy communications director, told Source NM on Friday via email that the governor’s office could not yet comment on the lawsuit because it had not yet been served, “but we are confident in the constitutionality of House Bill 9.”
The lawsuit also names the City of Albuquerque and Mayor Tim Keller as plaintiffs, alleging that a recent citywide ordinance, the “Safer Community Places Ordinance” also impinges on the federal government’s ability to enforce immigration laws.
The ordinance prohibits the use of city-owned property as staging areas or processing locations for immigration enforcement, along with other measures.
In a statement Friday, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison for the District of New Mexico said both the state law and ordinance “unlawfully interfere with federal immigration enforcement, illegally discriminate against federal operations, and violate constitutional protections regarding contracts and federal supremacy.”
