A memorial including the photos of Johana Medina Leon (left) and Roxsana Hernandez Rodriguez (right) transgender women who died while in custody at New Mexico detention centers in 2018 was part of the demonstration against immigrant detention outside of the Roundhouse on Oct. 1, 2025. (Danielle Prokop / Source NM)
Immigrant advocates staged a small demonstration Wednesday morning at the New Mexico Roundhouse, criticizing legislative leaders and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham for not including in the special session legislation banning immigrant detention centers from operating in the state.
Amid President Donald Trump’s mass deportation push, three New Mexico detention centers are facing increasing scrutiny for contracting with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold detainees. The number of detainees has steadily increased in the facilities in Torrance, Cibola and Otero counties since Trump’s second term began, according to the latest data.
A measure to prohibit ICE from holding detainees at New Mexico detention centers failed during the session early this year after passing the state House but not the Senate. Last month, Lujan Grisham excluded it from the agenda for the session beginning Wednesday, saying through a spokesperson that she left it out after Democratic leaders requested a “scaled-back session agenda that did not include the immigration detention center bill.”
That said, the governor’s Communications Director Michael Coleman said in prior statements the governor is “committed” to legislation banning ICE detention centers in the state, and “hopes that lawmakers will pass the strongest bill possible.”
Fernanda Banda, one of more than a dozen advocates who gathered in front of the Roundhouse on Wednesday morning, told Source New Mexico that potentially waiting until January is “not good enough,” with people being detained in New Mexico and across the country “left and right. “
“If the governor doesn’t want to put us on the agenda, we’ll bring detention to her,” she said.
The protest featured a handful of demonstrators sitting in a makeshift jail cell. They read statements they had collected from ICE detainees held in the Torrance County Detention Center, most of them during Trump’s second term, which described being separated from their families and held in poor conditions, including dealing with a sewage backup and water shortage earlier this year.
Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth (D-Santa Fe) told Source New Mexico after a news conference Wednesday morning that he and other lawmakers have already committed to making ICE detention a piece of priority legislation that the Legislature takes up during the first half of the session.
But he said he’s still not sure whether it will pass the Senate. “I don’t know yet,” he said. “That’s why we need the time to get it right.”