President Donald Trump’s campaign was headlined by promises to carry out the largest deportation operation of immigrants who lack permanent legal status in American history. To carry out the deportations, the Trump administration plans to work with local police, targeting those who have criminal records first, according to the 2024 Republican Party Platform.
Working with state and local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration laws would require a Memorandum of Agreement — or MOA — between the law enforcement agency and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to authorize and train employees on enforcement techniques, according to the American Immigration Council.
Though there was previously an MOA between ICE and the New Mexico Corrections Department, there are no such active MOAs in the state of New Mexico.
Tom Homan, who led ICE under Trump in his first administration, was announced as the new “border czar” by Trump in a Nov. 10, 2024, Truth Social post.
Homan is known for a policy that separated thousands of children from their families at the southern border in 2018 — a practice that was rolled back by Trump the same year after poor public reception, according to NPR.
Homan is expected to set the agenda for how federal agencies carry out immigration-related policies, according to NPR.
In 2005, New Mexico passed Senate Bill 582, which made it illegal for universities to “deny admission to a student on account of the student’s immigration status” and granted in-state tuition to students who meet certain criteria, according to the bill text.
The University of New Mexico will follow existing federal guidelines, according to a statement from UNM President Garnett Stokes on the Undocumented UNM website.
"UNM police will not contact, detain, question or arrest an individual solely on the basis of suspected undocumented immigration status or to discover any individual’s immigration status,” the statement reads.
Hours after Trump was sworn in, he signed an executive order called Protecting The Meaning and Value of American Citizenship, which sought to exclude the children of people who lack permanent legal status from being awarded citizenship upon birth.
On Tuesday, Jan. 21, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez and 17 other states responded by filing lawsuits claiming the order was unconstitutional, according to a statement by Torrez.
In 2018, Albuquerque enacted a bill that reaffirmed the city’s status as an immigrant-friendly city, which Mayor Tim Keller again reaffirmed after Trump’s return to office. The bill prohibited the use of any city resources, including police departments, in federal immigration laws.
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Anna Trillo, a staff attorney at the New Mexico Immigration Law Center, said that much of the negative rhetoric surrounding immigrants that persisted through this year’s election cycle began during Trump’s first administration. This language has led to reports to NMILC of immigrants — with and without permanent legal status — unable to feel safe in their communities because of the fear caused by calls for mass deportations, Trillo said.
“We also know that there might be potential deportations of U.S. citizens and people who do have legal status, because there’s gonna be probably a lot of racial profiling involved in these deportations,” Trillo said.
In an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Nov. 21, 2024, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham called some immigration policies endorsed by Trump “unlawful.”
Lujan Grisham also said that she and other governors from across the political spectrum would not cooperate if the Trump administration put these policies into action.
Sophia Genovese, an NMILC spokesperson, told Source NM on Friday, Jan. 24 that the NMILC was not aware of any raids on workplaces or other locations in New Mexico since Trump’s inauguration, but that “communities need to remain vigilant.”
The NMILC does not foresee any large impacts on state-level protections for immigrants and their families, Trillo said, outside of initiatives regularly proposed in state and local governments.
“I think if anything, (New Mexico is) just gonna keep adding to those protections and continue helping the community,” Trillo said.
Elliott Wood is a freelance reporter and photographer for the Daily Lobo. They can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo
