[LWVNM Action] Torrance Detention Facility Operating Illegally

[Meredith Machen]

Torrance County ICE facility contract expiration prompts protest

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.

We were informed it was temporary, just for today, and future legal visits
would move forward as planned, but we are concerned people were being
turned away today because ICE and CoreCivic took exception to a peaceful
protest ... while they are continuing to operate despite expiration of the
contract that permits them to do so," 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.
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