SANTA FE — A renewed push to limit New Mexico’s involvement in federal civil immigration detention is reviving a major policy fight at the Roundhouse, with supporters arguing the state should stop enabling immigration detention while several rural counties warn the change could severely impact local budgets, employment and public safety operations.
Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, said at a Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce legislative preview event that the Legislature is positioned to pass legislation that would prohibit immigration detention agreements with federal authorities, including operations involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The measure expected to be introduced in 2026 would follow similar proposals considered in prior sessions. Prior legislative analyses indicate such legislation would prohibit state agencies and local governments from entering into, renewing or continuing contracts used to detain people for federal civil immigration violations, and would restrict public entities from making public land or facilities available for immigration detention operations.
Supporters argue New Mexico should no longer participate in a detention system they say harms immigrant communities. Critics counter that cutting off detention-related contracts could eliminate rural jobs and destabilize local government finances in counties that host detention facilities.
“Locally, in rural counties like Torrance, Otero, and Cibola, detention centers are more than jail facilities—they are economic lifelines,” Sen. Crystal Brantley and Vince Torres, executive director of the America First Policy Institute’s New Mexico chapter, wrote in an opinion column opposing the proposal.
Torrance County Manager Jordan Barela raised similar concerns last year in comments to the New Mexico Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. “It’s a very economically depressed area, and there aren’t other jobs readily available for people to transition to should that facility close,” Barela said.
A county-focused agency analysis prepared for lawmakers on a prior version of the legislation said three counties — Torrance, Cibola and Otero — have agreements and detention operations that would be affected.
The analysis warns that Torrance County could face one of the largest fiscal impacts. It states the county detention facility’s agreement with ICE makes up roughly 80% of the facility’s operating revenue, and estimates the county could absorb about $3.8 million in fiscal impacts in the first year if detention operations were forced to close. The report also cautions that impacts would extend beyond county government, citing that detention-related tax revenue represents a major share of revenue for the town of Estancia.
In Cibola County, the report estimates the potential loss of about 300 jobs tied to detention operations, representing roughly $10.8 million in annual wages, along with additional local tax impacts.
In Otero County, the analysis projects significant losses in detention-related rent revenue and warns of potential complications tied to outstanding bond obligations connected to detention facility infrastructure.
No bill for the 2026 session has yet been formally introduced, but lawmakers and stakeholders on both sides expect the debate to return as the Legislature weighs immigration detention policy against the economic realities facing rural local governments.
