[ACLU-NM] Espanola Town Hall: No State Funding for Civil Federal Immigration Law Enforcement

[Kimberly Lavender]

~ ACLU-NM PRESS ADVISORY ~



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, January 12, 2005



Contact:        Diane Wood, ACLU-NM Lobbyist, 379-9470

                        Peter Simonson, ACLU-NM Executive Director, 266-5915



Espanola Town Hall:
No State Funding for Civil Federal Immigration Law Enforcement



This evening from 7-9 pm, Senator Richard Martinez is holding a town hall at
the Mision Convento located at 601 Bond Street, Espanola (next to the post
office).  Martinez and other speakers will discuss legislation that he is
introducing in the upcoming 2005 Legislative Session: No State Funding for
Civil Federal Immigration Law Enforcement.  This bill would prohibit state
and local law enforcement agencies from detecting or apprehending persons
who violate Federal Immigration Law.



Santa Fe Police Chief Beverly Lennen will address the town hall.  In an
Executive Summary that she wrote on the issue of police enforcing Federal
Civil Immigration Law, Lennen takes a position that endorses Martinez’s
legislation.  “As Chief of the Santa Fe Police Department and a member of
the New Mexico Municipal Chiefs of Police Association, I am opposed to any
effort to burden municipal agencies with additional responsibilities as they
relate to the enforcement of Immigration Law.”



Marcela Diaz, Director of the immigrant’s rights group Somos Un Pueblo
Unido, supports this legislation and will also be speaking this evening. The
immigrant community tells and retells stories of people who went to the
police after they were victims of crime and were turned over to the federal
officers for deportation.  Whether they are based on actual experiences or
are myths, these stories deter most immigrants from contacting the police
for any reason.  Even legal immigrants are afraid of contacting police if
they are victims of crime because they do not want to put their undocumented
friends and family members at risk of detention..



Many New Mexicans oppose state funding for civil federal immigration law.
Espanola Police Chief Richard A. Guillen endorses Martinez’s bill, “ I
support this legislation, we do not have the resources or manpower to
enforce immigration laws, our contacts with immigrants is strictly for
criminal investigations.”



In 2004, a coalition of New Mexican organizations, community members, and
public officials passed municipal resolutions in Albuquerque and Santa Fe
against funding civil federal immigration law enforcement.  The NM Sheriff’s
and Police Association, the Albuquerque Chapter Hispanic American Police
Commander Officer’s Association, and the Chicano Police Officer’s
Association are on record stating their opposition to the proposed federal
CLEAR Act which if passed, would have required state and local police to do
the work of federal immigration officers.



Kimberly Lavender
Public Education Coordinator, ACLU-NM
PO Box 80915
Albuquerque, NM 87198
www.aclu-nm.org



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