The Torrance County Detention Facility has been operating without a contract since Halloween, when the latest agreement between Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the county expired.
Immigrant advocates said Thursday that means the Estancia facility is operating without legal authority, and the hundreds of detainees being held there are falsely imprisoned and should be released per ICE's own policies.
Torrance County Manager Jordon Barela confirmed the expiration of the contract Thursday. He said the county had been negotiating a new contract with ICE throughout October and expected a short-term contract extension until a deal was concluded. But on Oct. 31, ICE informed the county there would be no extension, Barela wrote in an email.
"I believe that some of these issues are related to the shutdown, either due to staffing issues, or due to unknown budgetary factors that would impact a contract like this moving into the next federal fiscal year," Barela added.
The Torrance facility is one of three immigration detention centers in the state and has become a political flashpoint since the Trump administration vastly ramped up deportation efforts earlier this year. Immigrant advocates have long decried reports of inhumane conditions at the facility. Supporters have denied these reports and say the prison is an important economic driver for the rural community.
A bill to ban immigration detention facilities in New Mexico passed the House during this year's regular legislative session but stalled in the Senate. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's office has said she plans to bring the issue back up during the 30-day 2026 session that starts in January.
CoreCivic — the private prison operator that owns and operates the facility — referred questions to ICE, which did not respond to an email sent to its media line seeking comment.
A coalition of immigration advocates held a protest vigil outside the facility Wednesday evening calling for the release of people being held there, according to Innovation Law Lab Director Ian Philabaum.
The detention center administration responded by preventing the immigrant advocacy group's legal team and volunteers from holding a weekly legal orientation inside the detention facility Thursday, Philabaum said.
"About 30 minutes after our team got there, they were informed our legal visit was being terminated due to an ongoing investigation into the protest," Philabaum said.
According to a document provided by Innovation Law Lab, ICE policy states: "Agreements for bed space have a specified period of performance that automatically expire if a new option period is not exercised or if the contract or agreement is not renewed. In these cases, all noncitizens and ICE equipment must be removed from the facility on or before the expiration of the period of performance."
Exact population counts for ICE facilities have been difficult to come by. However Philabaum said Innovation Law Lab estimates about 600 immigration detainees are currently housed at the Estancia prison.
"There are people from all over the world there," Philabaum said.
More and more, Philabaum said, the population inside the Torrance County facility seems to be made up of people who have been living in the U.S. for decades, including people who are married to U.S citizens or have children who are citizens, and even some who have worked for the federal government.
"They are now detained in this facility and are being deported and are flabbergasted that the place where they live is now condemning them for being who they've always been and threatening to rip them apart from their community even further," Philabaum said.
The group is also hearing "more and more" that ICE officers are increasingly telling detainees not to bother fighting their deportation, he said.
ICE officers are now just saying, 'I don't know why you're trying so hard. You are here because you're going to get deported, and you just need to accept it,' ” Philabaum said.
Santa Fe architect Beverly Spears, who volunteers with Innovation Law Lab, was one of those who attended Wednesday's protest.
"I am dismayed that what ICE is doing through CoreCivic is happening here in New Mexico and in fact so near Santa Fe," she said in a phone interview Thursday.
"This horror is happening right in our backyard, and I felt compelled to do something," she added.