Detention Programs
The specifics of our detention and deportation defense work may vary from year to year, but our core values remain the same: provide empowering legal information and assistance to detainees and asylum seekers, advocate for detainee and asylum seekers’ rights, and fight for the abolition of dehumanizing and incarcerating immigration systems.
Defending immigrants facing detention and deportation is in NMILC’s DNA-- in fact, it’s our origin story.
What started off as a short-term project to assist immigrants being held in Albuquerque’s Regional Correctional Center by then-law-student Jennifer Landau has blossomed into 10 years of providing free legal services to thousands of immigrants across the state. The specifics of our detention and deportation defense work may vary from year to year, but our core values remain the same: provide empowering legal information and assistance to detainees and asylum seekers, advocate for detainee and asylum seekers’ rights, and fight for the abolition of dehumanizing and incarcerating immigration systems. We do this work by leveraging our community power at the state and local levels. We stand with and for New Mexicans who say: “Not here, not with our tax dollars, not in our name."
Cibola County Correctional Center
After being shut down for human rights abuses and medical neglect, Cibola reopened in 2017 with an ICE contract. We began providing legal programming out there shortly thereafter, in April of 2017. Since then, we have assisted over 3,000 detained men at that facility. In addition to our general legal presentations, we provided extended legal services to over 100 transgender women seeking asylum during that time. NMILC directly represented or assisted in pro bono representation for nearly one-third of those women in 2018. In 2019 alone, we helped over 2,000 detainees at Cibola. Roughly two dozen dedicated attorney and non-attorney volunteers have staffed our program at Cibola on a rotating basis over the past few years.
If you or someone you know needs legal services at Cibola, please call our office at 505-247-1023 and we can refer you to the legal program.
Torrance County Detention Facility
The Torrance facility opened in August of 2019 with a bed capacity of over 900-- all of whom we were ready to legally orient.
The Torrance County Detention Facility was the second “asylum staging center” in the country following DHS' pilot program in Tallahatchie, Mississippi. An asylum staging center is designed to house people while they await their Credible Fear Interviews.
If you or someone you know needs legal services at Torrance, please call our office at 505-247-1023 and we can refer you to the legal program.
How has Covid-19 Affected the Detention program?
Prior to COVID-19, we provided legal services to an average of 300 detained asylum seekers in New Mexico during four weekly sessions. Since COVID-19, our team has pivoted to provide remote programming to men in Torrance and Cibola who seek our services.
Client Stories
Ibrahim
Ibrahim* recently graduated from university in West Africa, where he studied politics and foreign languages. A member of a rival political party to the government, Ibrahim had been arrested and detained several times by government police forces after participating in peaceful protests. While detained, he was denied food, forced to do unpaid labor, and tortured.
Things came to a breaking point one night when he was out of the house and the police showed up at his door. The police mistook Ibrahim's uncle, who was visiting, for Ibrahim himself, and killed him in front of his mother. Knowing his life was in danger, Ibrahim flew to South America and then declared himself as an asylum seeker at the U.S.-Mexico border.
NMILC and the Santa Fe Dreamers Project have worked together to advise Ibrahim on his case and found a pro bono attorney to directly represent him—greatly increasing the likelihood that he will win his case and be able to remain in the U.S.
Carlos, Cibola
Carlos* had been living in the U.S. for three years when he was stopped by ICE officers while pumping gas. The officers accused him of being a drug dealer, despite the fact that there were no drugs found in his car. ICE transported him to El Paso in a van where his hands and feet were chained along with other detainees. Eventually ICE moved him to Cibola, where he was detained for over a month. His girlfriend, who has children and is fighting cancer, struggled to make things work without his support.
Without legal representation, the odds of getting out of detention on bond are slim, but NMILC attorney Adriel Orozco was able to represent Carlos in his bond hearing after the two met during one of our weekly trips to the facility. Adriel won the case and Carlos was able to return to his loved ones while he fights his deportation case.
Silvia, Cibola
Silvia*, a transgender woman from Mexico, spent several years in the United States after fleeing persecution because of her gender identity. She returned to Mexico when her mother was diagnosed with cancer, but the violence she faced continued. After being trafficked by the Narcos, she knew that she had to find a way to get back to the U.S. She was detained and deported trying to reenter the country and declared herself as an asylum seeker at the U.S.-Mexico border.
For months she was moved from one detention center to the next, all while trying to fight her case. She found an attorney to represent her for free while in California, but it was difficult for them to communicate once she was relocated to Cibola. NMILC attorneys worked with Silvia's lawyer to bridge the communication gaps and ensure Silvia received the legal support she needed.
