In February of 2024, a vote was taken on SB 145, the Dignity Not Detention Act. The bill failed on the New Mexico Senate floor with a vote of 21-18. 

If it had passed, the DND act would have prohibited public entities like the three detention facilities in the state, from entering into contracts to detain people for civil immigration violations. It would have also required any New Mexico public entities with existing Intergovernmental Services Agreements (IGSAs) to exercise the termination provision in those contracts.

Lawmakers blocked a similar bill in the 2023 legislative session, and though both were certainly setbacks, they only hardened the resolve of advocacy organizations. NMILC, along with the New Mexico Dream Team, Innovation Law Lab, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and the Detention Watch Network, formed the the Dignity Not Detention Coalition, which continues to fight for immigrants and asylum seekers who remain in civil immigration. 

DND encourages the public to be more informed about these detention facilities and how the passing of SB145 will be a big step to building a more humane immigration system by ending the collaboration between local governments and ICE to detain and deport New Mexico residents. 

We encourage the public to become involved in the Dignity Not Detention campaign by contacting our legislators, congressional delegation and the current executive administration to demand that the U.S. treat immigrants with dignity and stop the rampant documented abuses found at these detention centers.

Below are links to background information and contact information for our elected officials. Please help us end detention of migrants and instead, lend them the dignity every human rightly deserves.