Members of the Legislature’s interim Courts and Criminal Justice Committee had their first chance Tuesday to weigh in on a lawsuit alleging state probation officials repeatedly referred probationers to ICE. (Patrick Lohmann/Source NM)
New Mexico lawmakers on Tuesday had their first chance to press the state Ethics Commission chair about its recent lawsuit alleging state probation officers referred immigrants under their supervision to federal immigration law enforcement.
The lawsuit’s allegations, if true, could violate a law the Legislature passed with a wide margin earlier this year that prohibits state employees from sharing private personal information, including immigration status, with non-state actors, including ICE. The law went into effect July 1.
Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez (D-Albuquerque), a sponsor of the Nondisclosure of Sensitive Personal Information Act, applauded the commission for moving so quickly to enforce a bill she championed.
“I was outraged that so soon after it was passed, that these probation officials would [allegedly] violate it so blatantly,” she said during the Legislature’s interim Courts and Criminal Justice Committee meeting in Albuquerque, adding that she hopes other law enforcement agencies step up and start investigating similar violations of law that “really put our people in New Mexico at risk of danger.”
The commission alleges probation officers lured at least three immigrants with long ties to New Mexico to their offices under false pretenses for Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainment. The three people have either been deported or remain in ICE custody.
The suit also alleges that probation officers initially began contacting ICE agents to remove “problem probationers” — ones convicted of serious crimes or difficult to supervise — but that recently the practice has extended to “any individual who certain probation officers suspected of having an unlawful presence in the United States,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit seeks a declaratory judgment from a judge that the commission can move forward with a lawsuit against the Corrections Department for its employees’ alleged conduct. The commission writes that a potential conflict may exist with federal laws and is asking the judge to weigh in.
The suit names Corrections Secretary Alisha Tafoya, who has not yet been served with the lawsuit, according to court filings. A spokesperson for her agency previously declined to comment on Source New Mexico’s questions about the lawsuit for that reason.
Tafoya also declined the committee’s invitation to appear during the hearing Tuesday, according to Chair Sen. Joseph Cervantes (D-Las Cruces).
Jeremy Farris, the commission’s executive director, did appear before the committee, but he said he was largely limited in what he could say, given the ongoing lawsuit. Still, he explained some of the context surrounding the suit, including why the relatively new Ethics Commission is taking the lead.
The commission, first created in 2018 to look into governmental misconduct and election code violations, is also empowered under the NSPI Act to investigate alleged violations, along with local district attorneys or the New Mexico Department of Justice, Farris said.
So when the commission received a “complaint” recently containing the allegations, commission staff quickly interviewed witnesses, pored over court documents and prepared for an executive session meeting with the bi-partisan commission board to approve the lawsuit.
Farris did not say who filed the complaint or when.
The commission’s lawsuit prompted Rep. John Block (R-Alamogordo) to suggest the agency was prioritizing the investigation of deportation of criminals over his and other ethics complaints.
“I’ve filed complaints before, and usually it’s a very lengthy process,” he said. “Usually it goes to some retired judge who looks at it, takes 1,000 years, and then finally will make a determination if it has standing.”
Farris responded that the authority the NSPI Act gave the commission to investigate violations invokes a different process, more akin to the authority that prosecutors have, than the one individuals undertake when asking the commission to rule on potential ethics violations.
Shortly after the hearing, Block posted on social media, criticizing the commission for using its authority “to fast-track this case because they are apparently angry that three law-breaking criminal aliens are being deferred to federal law enforcement agencies.”