Action Alert!

Dear SFDP Community,

We are writing to you today to bring to the front of your attention the alarming recent trend of anti-immigrant bills being introduced all across the country as well as in Washington D.C., and right here in New Mexico.

NO on R-24-45!

On May 6, 2024, members of Albuquerque City Council proposed an amendment to the city’s Immigrant Friendly Policy allowing police to call ICE officers on undocumented individuals who are arrested for certain crimes. This amendment is coming before the City Council today, June 3, 2024. This will result in individuals being deported based on the accusation alone and will encourage racial profiling on the part of the police. It is a common occurrence for individuals to be charged with crimes that are later dismissed by the prosecuting agency. Our criminal justice system is founded on the principle that everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Should this amendment be adopted, immigrants who are arrested will be presumed guilty as charged and they will be fast-tracked for deportation. This amendment will cause an increase in forced family separations and tramples on immigrants’ rights to pursue immigration relief for which they are qualified. Furthermore, if our police departments are actively working with ICE, survivors of crime in our communities will be less likely to report their victimization as they will fear being deported themselves. We would not stand for it if American citizens’ rights to due process and a fair trial were so blatantly disregarded and neither should we stand for it when the rights of immigrants are violated, undermined, and ignored. Similar to other anti-immigration proposals, this attempt to erode our community’s immigrant friendly policies is thinly disguised as a measure taken out of concern for public safety despite the many studies that show that immigrants are less likely to be perpetrators of crime than those born in the U.S.

Fear tactics rooted in white supremacy, xenophobia and racism should not be the basis for immigration related policies and practices in New Mexico nor anywhere else in our country. The policy changes proposed to the Albuquerque City Council reek of the same anti-immigrant scapegoating that is fueling states across the country to model policies based on Texas’ disastrous and deeply unjust SB4 Bill that unconstitutionally gives state law enforcement officials the authority to detain individuals suspected of being non-U.S. citizens.

Santa Fe Dreamers Project has maintained an Albuquerque office since 2018 and we have hundreds of Albuquerque based clients. We will continue to stand up for our community and our clients and so we are showing up to Albuquerque City Council meetings to oppose this amendment. We ask that if you live in Albuquerque, please contact your city council member and ask them to vote NO on R-24-45, the proposed amendment to Albuquerque's Immigrant Friendly Policy.

Copycat bills based on Texas’ unconstitutional and anti-immigrant law SB4 sweeping republican led states across the country. The state of Texas has provided republican led states with a blueprint for enacting laws giving local law enforcement agencies the right to question, detain, and arrest individuals suspected to be undocumented. Though the implementation of SB4 is currently on hold by order of a federal court judge, states across the country are following Texas’ misguided lead including Oklahoma, Arizona, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, and West Virginia. This wave of bills is reminiscent of Arizona’s 2010 bill SB1070 which was ultimately struck down by the supreme court for being in violation of the constitution. Now due to the popularity of anti-immigrant sentiment amongst their political base, republicans want to empower Sheriff Joe Arpio wanna-bes across much of the country and cause even more undue fear and uncertainty in lives of immigrants and their families.

Reintroduction of the bi-partisan anti-immigration Bill in the U.S. Senate

Sadly, the republicans aren’t the only ones introducing and passing anti-immigrant legislation. On the federal level, Congress’ March 2024 Appropriation Bill included massive levels of funding for immigration detention and Border Patrol and ICE despite ICE’s continued contracts with private prisons with long track records deplorable and inhumane conditions and countless human rights violations. Simultaneously, this bill cut funding the Shelter and Services program which allowed newly arrived migrants to receive life saving supportive human services.

Alarmingly, on May 14, 2024, Senate majority leader Chuck Shumer (D) spoke on the Senate Floor and alluded to a willingness on the part of democrats to move forward on the Lankford-Murphy border bill which reads like a GOP wish list of anti-immigrant policies including the unprecedented move of turning away asylum seekers based on an arbitrary cap of applications. Policies like this will do nothing to improve national security and will cause great harm to asylum seekers and the larger immigrant community in this country whose lives continue to be treated like political bargaining chips and whose international human rights are being sacrificed as expendable.

Anti-immigrant sentiment is growing across the political spectrum including among Democrats. We need you to help push back on the propaganda and misinformation machines and let politicians know in New Mexico, in D.C., and across the country that we will not stand idly by while the rights of immigrants are trampled upon with impunity.

Take action today! Please see the attached flyer from our partners at El Centro de Igualdad y Derechos for more information!

Your support of Santa Fe Dreamers Project helps keep thousands of families together by providing high quality legal representation to immigrants who are legally eligible for immigration relief in the U.S. Your donations make an enormous difference in the lives of some of the most vulnerable members of our communities. Please continue to stand with SFDP in our fight for justice for immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers by donating today!