NM governor will include proposed ban on immigrant detention on legislative agenda
—Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham will include legislation banning immigrant detention on the agenda for the legislative session starting Jan. 20, her office told Source NM on Wednesday. The Senate majority leader said the bill has growing support and strong prospects for passage.
But even if the Legislature passes and the governor enacts the legislation, two of the state’s three immigrant detention facilities run by a private prison contractor could potentially still be able to operate here.
The proposed “Immigrant Safety Act” would prohibit public entities from working with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency or other federal agencies to house immigrant detainees in the state. Three rural New Mexico counties — Cibola, Torrance and Otero — have agreements with ICE and private prison companies that enable ICE to house a growing number of detainees in local jails.
If the Legislature passes the bill, counties will be prohibited from joining those contracts, known as “intergovernmental service agreements.” But nothing would stop CoreCivic, a private company that owns the jails in Cibola and Torrance counties, from contracting directly with ICE to continue housing detainees at its facilities, local officials and immigrant legal advocates tell Source.
That’s what Torrance County Commission Chair Ryan Schwebach presumes would happen, he told Source on Wednesday during a break in the commission’s regular meeting in Estancia.
Schwebach said he strenuously opposes the measure and said it puts the Torrance County facility on the “chopping block” should ICE decide to house detainees elsewhere.
Brian Todd, a spokesperson for CoreCivic, declined to answer Source’s question about whether the company would contract directly with ICE if the “Immigrant Safety Act” becomes law, instead referring comment to ICE, which did not respond to Source’s request for comment.
Ian Philabaum, a program director for Innovation Law Lab, an Oregon-based immigrant legal organization that does weekly jail visits in Estancia, said Wednesday that CoreCivic contracting directly with ICE is a “plausible” next step for the company, if one that his organization would oppose.
“It is well documented that ICE detention is harmful in all locations, and we believe that ICE detention should be ended in its entirety in the state of New Mexico,” he said.
According to recent estimates, the Estancia facility currently houses an average daily inmate population of 480 detainees, some of whom have continuously reported poor conditions at the jail, including inadequate access to lawyers, mail, tablets or water.
The current average population at the Cibola County Detention Facility in Milan is about 217 and is about 850 at the Otero Processing Center in Chaparral.
Unlike the Cibola and Torrance facilities, the Otero Processing Center is county-owned, and would be subject to the “Immigrant Safety Act.”
Supporters of the bill say it removes New Mexico’s complicity in President Donald Trump’s mass deportation push. ICE arrested at least 1,800 immigrants in New Mexico last year, according to recent estimates.
Local officials, on the other hand, have said the bill would devastate their towns by eliminating tax revenue and jobs the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency provides to house inmates.
Philabaum, however, countered that “to suggest that this bill is going to remove these prisons and is actively aiming to harm these local economies, is disingenuous.”
Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth (D-Santa Fe) told Source on Tuesday he believes that a “breakthrough” in his caucus occurred during interim committee meetings this summer, one that means both chambers of the Legislature will approve the bill, he said. He expects they’ll do so within the first two weeks of the session.
“We have the votes in our caucus to send this up to the governor,” he said. “The agreement certainly is to move forward on an expedited basis, and I’m confident we’ll get this across the line.”
As for the facilities that might be exempt from the bill, Wirth said “those legal issues — understanding the impact on existing contracts, and the lay of the land moving forward with private contracts — are things we’ll discuss. I think the real big signal, though, this would send is that the state of New Mexico no longer should be part of this, and local government should not be part of this, immigration-focused detention.”
A comparable bill introduced last year died without a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Sponsors in the state House of the “Immigrant Safety Act” told Source on Tuesday that they will reintroduce a version soon with minor changes. Rep. Angelica Rubio (D-Las Cruces) describes the measure as a first step.
The bill doesn’t “end private detention overnight, but it ends New Mexico’s public role in it and forces any ICE/private prison operations to happen without county help, contracts or public resources,” Rubio said in a text message. “I can speak for my House colleagues I’m working with…that we’re committed to making sure this isn’t the only step we take.”
NM lawmaker proposes more oversight, regulations for data center ‘microgrids’
—Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
As controversial proposals to power multi-billion dollar data centers in southern New Mexico wind through the courts and permitting processes, one state senator aims to close what he considers a loophole that could allow the projects to bypass the state’s clean energy requirements.
This week, state Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D-Las Cruces) introduced a draft bill that would empower state regulators to have approval powers and set new rules for the on site power grids — often called microgrids — and require these private power sources to follow the landmark Energy Transition Act.
A “microgrid” describes developments that generate electricity without drawing from a larger power company’s grid.
These projects currently are not bound by requirements to generate power with cleaner energy sources and face less scrutiny by the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission, Steinborn said in a call with Source NM this week.
“It’s a path to having very dirty energy for these massive data centers rather than using more renewable energy as we require full public utilities,” Steinborn said. “Microgrids pose a threat to the climate and New Mexico’s air quality if we don’t establish minimum renewable energy and other standards regarding water efficiency.”
In public meetings and statements, representatives of Project Jupiter said the microgrid will comply with the state’s law to use fully renewable energy sources by 2045. But state lawmakers disagree on whether a last-minute floor amendment to House Bill 93 passed in the 2025 legislative session allows for “microgrid” developments to circumvent sequential goals laid out in the law.
Steinborn’s bill, if adopted, would require the PRC to put forward new rules for any microgrid producing more than 20 megawatts, enough to power more than 16,000 homes.
The bill would grant regulators oversight over the approval and operation of microgrids and require proof from any microgrid slated to come online after May 2026 of its ability to meet the state’s renewable energy standards. Those standards require 40% percent of a microgrid’s power generation to come from renewable sources by 2028; 50% clean power generation by 2030; and 100% clean power by 2040.
Additionally, the bill would require microgrid operators to submit annual reports after 2027 detailing how much power they generate; water usage and compliance with state laws.
Project Jupiter, a data center proposed for southern Doña Ana County, would emit as many greenhouse gasses as Albuquerque and Las Cruces combined. Applications submitted to state officials include two natural gas generating stations — the microgrid to power the project — which are projected to generate as much electricity as the entire PNM system.
In addition to raising emissions, the project threatens air quality in an area already impacted by ozone and other pollutants, said Las Cruces environmental lawyer David Baake in a statement.
“New Mexico continues to struggle with serious air pollution problems driven by the combustion of dirty fossil fuels,” Baake said. Steinborn’s bill, he said, “protects public health and the climate by ensuring that AI data centers take advantage of our state’s abundant renewable energy resources instead of building more dirty fossil fuel power plants.”
Steinborn said Project Jupiter initially spurred the bill, but pointed to another data center in Lea County with a planned microgrid with gas and nuclear power plants, as signs of a bigger issue.
“Project Jupiter started it, but then it became very clear that this is part of the bigger, maybe even strategy, of some in our state government to bring in lots of data centers into the state,” he said. “Their strategies collectively seem to be that they don’t have to follow any environmental renewable energy standards, so I’m concerned not only for what’s been announced, but what’s in line behind it.”
He continued: “It’s an ecological disaster in the making, quite frankly, that we need to address.”
New Mexico House representatives will support impeachment push – Cathy Cook, Albuquerque Journal
Members of New Mexico’s U.S. House delegation have signed on to cosponsor articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after a Minnesota woman was killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer last week.
“I know a lot of people are feeling very frightened out there, but we want you to know that we are conducting oversight; we are taking action,” said Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M.
Videos of Renee Good’s final interaction with a federal immigration officer before he shot and killed her have flooded social media feeds and fueled a national debate over whether the shooting was justified. The fatal shooting sparked protests, including one in Albuquerque Friday in which two people were arrested. It also boosted calls to impeach Noem.
Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., planned to file articles of impeachment against the DHS secretary Wednesday.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called the impeachment push silly.
“As ICE officers are facing a 1,300% increase in assaults against them, Rep. Kelly is more focused on showmanship and fundraising clicks than actually cleaning up her crime-ridden Chicago district,” McLaughlin said in a statement.
A Los Angeles Times analysis of court records found a much lower increase — a 26% increase in assaults on federal officers. An NPR analysis from last year found a 25% increase.
Impeachment seems unlikely to progress, given Democrats are the minority in the House, but Kelly has secured more than 50 Democratic cosponsors, according to Axios reporting. That includes New Mexico’s three House representatives, the Journal confirmed.
“For the last year, Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security, under the leadership of Kristi Noem, has terrorized communities across the country with a violent, authoritarian, and chaotic attack on our communities,” Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, D-N.M., said in a statement.
Her sentiments were echoed by Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M.
“Under (Noem)’s direction, we have seen masked ICE agents unleash increasingly violent tactics across the country that make our communities less safe, especially for people of color,” Vasquez said in a statement.
The articles allege a pattern of willful misconduct by Noem that undermines congressional authority, constitutional rights, federal law and public trust. The three articles include obstruction of Congress for denying members entrance to DHS facilities, self-dealing for awarding DHS contracts to a company run by the husband of her spokesperson and violation of public trust for allegedly denying due process to detainees.
New Mexico GOP Chair Amy Barela thinks the push for impeachment will not find support among Republicans and believes the DHS secretary has done an amazing job.
“One (article) that stood out to me was willfully obstructed congressional oversight. I don't see how that's been done, because she is actually following orders under President (Donald) Trump to protect our country, to secure our border and to clear out all of the illegal immigrants that are here,” Barela said.
ICE reported 487 arrests in the El Paso sector in 2025. The sector includes the El Paso area and all of New Mexico. Over the past five years, arrests in the El Paso sector have followed national trends, peaking in 2023 with 2,726 arrests, according to ICE data.
The fatal shooting in Minnesota came after a surge in immigration enforcement there. Stansbury said the Trump administration is “very politically motivated,” pointing to child care funding being withheld from five Democratic states. So, she believes a risk for an immigration enforcement surge in Democrat-led New Mexico exists.
“But I do think that our governor has also done a good job of continuing to keep an open line of communication, while also protecting New Mexicans,” Stansbury said.
Courts greenlight payments for Boy Scouts abuse survivors – Oliver Uyttebrouck, Albuquerque Journal
The U.S. Supreme Court this week declined to take up an appeal challenging the Boy Scouts of America's bankruptcy plan, allowing some $2.5 billion in compensation payments to begin flowing to sexual abuse survivors in New Mexico and across the U.S.
Paul Linnenburger, a Santa Fe attorney who represents abuse survivors, estimated that New Mexico claimants will receive payments ranging from several thousand dollars to "many, many times that," possibly more than $1 million.
But more importantly, the settlement provides recognition for the pain and abuse survivors experienced, he said.
"Survivors need closure and they need validation," Linnenburger said Tuesday. "I do think that the arrangement that was reached within the BSA bankruptcy potentially provides that better than a lot of other mass sex abuse bankruptcy proceedings have."
The Boy Scouts of America filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020 after paying about $150 million to resolve some 250 sexual abuse claims, court records show.
"I don't think there's any way that the payments could be reasonable compensation," Linnenburger said. "But you know, it will be compensation. It is a representation of acknowledgment of the wrong and damage that was done."
New Mexico victims were among those who filed lawsuits against the Boy Scouts of America alleging they were sexually abused by adults during their time as scouts. All lawsuits against BSA were stayed after the organization filed for bankruptcy.
A federal bankruptcy court in Delaware allowed abuse survivors to file claims, even if they had not filed lawsuits. As of November 2020, 82,209 survivors nationwide had filed claims valued at as much as $3.6 billion. Negotiations established a $2.48 million settlement trust to pay victims.
Linnenburger said he did not know how many New Mexicans filed claims.
The settlement trust includes $1.6 million obtained from BSA's insurance companies, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit wrote in May in an order upholding the bankruptcy settlement.
Under BSA lie some 250 local councils incorporated as nonprofits under state law that contributed some $400 million to the settlement trust, the order said.
The settlement also involved the sale of dozens of properties formerly owned by BSA, the order said.
Linnenburger said he does not believe BSA sold its Philmont Scout Ranch in Colfax County, which includes 140,000 acres of wilderness in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Officials at the Philmont Scout Ranch did not return messages seeking comment this week.
A bankruptcy judge approved a settlement agreement in 2022. But some victims appealed the ruling, arguing that survivors should be able to file separate claims against local councils and other third-party organizations that supported BSA programs.
The Third Circuit affirmed the bankruptcy plan in May. And on Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal, allowing the settlement to go forward.
A local council in New Mexico, the Great Southwest Council Inc. based in Albuquerque, referred questions this week to its national organization, Scouting America.
"This is an important moment of healing and closure that survivors have long deserved," Scouting America said in a written statement. The decision by the U.S. Supreme Court culminates five years of collaboration among abuse survivors, Scouting America, local councils and insurance companies, it said.
"This action by our nation's highest court means that our plan is now final and irrevocable, and the Settlement Trust established under the reorganization plan can now expedite the payment of compensation to survivors of historical abuse," Scouting America said in the statement.