SANTA FE — Protests broke out in Santa Fe this week after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested a man in the parking lot of a Santa Fe medical clinic, prompting Democratic officials to call for the agency’s abolition and drawing a pointed counter-argument from state Sen. Crystal Brantley, R-Elephant Butte, who asked why the same outrage hasn’t been directed at New Mexico’s child welfare agency over a separate case involving a 15-year-old U.S. citizen.

ICE agents arrested Edgar Chacon-Miranda on Aug. 19 in the parking lot of La Familia Medical Center’s Alto Street clinic in Santa Fe, according to a Department of Homeland Security statement provided to news outlets. Chacon-Miranda had just stepped out of his car with his 11-year-old daughter, who was arriving for a medical appointment, when agents approached.

“On August 19, ICE conducted a targeted enforcement operation and arrested Edgar Chacon-Miranda, a criminal illegal alien,” the DHS statement said, adding that Chacon-Miranda’s record includes arrests for battery against a household member, criminal sexual penetration in the second degree, child abuse and abandonment of a child. The statement said ICE is “targeting the worst of the worst” and that nearly 70% of ICE arrests involve people charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S.

U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández said there were eight ICE arrests in the area that week; DHS confirmed only the one. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deb Haaland posted video from the clinic parking lot hours after the arrest, saying agents “left an eleven-year-old child by themself in this parking lot, which is absolutely unacceptable.”

The court record

Court records reviewed by the New Mexico Sentinel show Chacon-Miranda was charged in Santa Fe Magistrate Court on Aug. 6, 2018, with four counts: battery against a household member, criminal sexual penetration in the second degree, and two counts of abuse of a child. All four counts were dismissed on Oct. 9, 2018. The disposition code on each count reads “Dismissed – Failure by Prosecutor Proceed within Time Limits.”

KOB 4’s Ryan Laughlin independently confirmed the dismissal through the state court database and reported that the case was dismissed in 2018 for the state’s failure to prosecute within the required time limits. The district attorney at the time was Marco Serna of the First Judicial District.

Laughlin also noted that DHS is using Chacon-Miranda’s arrest record, not a conviction, as grounds for removal. “Americans are afforded their day in court,” Laughlin said on air, adding that Chacon-Miranda’s case falls into the “charged, not convicted” category of ICE’s stated enforcement statistics.

DHS’s characterization of Chacon-Miranda did not reference the dismissal or its stated cause when describing his criminal history.

Brantley’s response

Brantley posted a video response to the protests, arguing that lawmakers calling to abolish ICE over the arrest were not applying the same standard to New Mexico’s Children, Youth and Families Department.

“New Mexico lawmakers are busy on social media this morning demanding that we abolish ICE, referencing a recent case in which ICE detained an individual that was just simply taking their sick child to the doctor and was detained coming out,” Brantley said. “What they didn’t tell you is that man doesn’t care for children. He’s a child rapist that evaded prosecution because of New Mexico’s soft-on-crime criminal justice system.”

Brantley continued: “Because we wouldn’t put them in jail, ICE is gonna send him back to Mexico, and New Mexico is safer because of it. Thank you, ICE, for doing your job. It’s time that New Mexico Democrats start doing theirs.”

Brantley pivoted to CYFD, referencing the case of a 15-year-old Doña Ana County boy, a U.S. citizen, who was in CYFD custody earlier this summer.

“They called for protests in the streets of Santa Fe to abolish ICE. They didn’t call to abolish CYFD,” Brantley said. “They just recently sent a 15-year-old United States citizen into Mexico against his wishes, against his will, to be reunited with the same abusive mother that the child was removed from.”

The CYFD case

According to reporting by KRQE and Searchlight New Mexico, CYFD took custody of the boy in early June after an informal guardianship arrangement was dissolved by a court. The agency later moved to reunite him with his biological mother in Mexico, who had a substantiated 2019 abuse finding against her and had recently been deported following a drug-related arrest.

On July 6, a CYFD employee escorted the boy to the Bridge of the Americas in El Paso and had him cross alone to meet his mother. The boy, who had told CYFD he did not want to go, instead crossed back into the U.S. and fled into Texas, where he was held in a shelter for 10 days. CYFD later asked federal authorities to deny his reentry, according to a lawsuit filed by state Attorney General Raúl Torrez, and declined to retrieve him until Texas child welfare officials became involved.

CYFD ultimately arranged for the boy to be taken to Mexico to reunite with his mother, coordinating with the Mexican consulate, Texas’s Department of Family and Protective Services and Border Patrol, agency officials told lawmakers.

Torrez filed a civil lawsuit against CYFD in the First Judicial District Court, alleging the agency violated the boy’s constitutional and due-process rights. “We give criminal defendants, people charged with crimes, greater due process guarantees than apparently were afforded to a 15-year-old American child who was, as far as I can tell, effectively deported from his own country against his will,” Torrez said.

CYFD has defended its handling of the case. Agency officials said in statements that they conducted virtual home visits with the mother and assessed her as safe for placement, and cited a state policy giving weight to the input of youth 14 and older.

Brantley argued that the CYFD case has not generated the same public response as the ICE arrest. “No cries to change or abolish CYFD. No cries of protest to the street,” she said. “When are they gonna start crying for New Mexico to be safer? When do our own New Mexico most vulnerable children get prioritized? I’m tired of being gaslit.”

As of this writing, ICE has not confirmed whether Chacon-Miranda has been deported. He remains in ICE custody at the Torrance County detention facility.