NOVEMBER 2024 NEWSLETTER

As we prepare for another Trump presidency, we are researching what needs to be done in New Mexico to protect our immigrants as much as possible.

Taos County and Town already have “Immigrant Friendly” resolutions, and we are getting opinions as to how effective they will be.

The state of New Mexico does not have these, and pro-immigration policies have been voted down in the past by our legislature.

Now may be different, though.  We are launching a campaign to ask the state to codify immigrant friendly laws. The National Immigration Law Center is suggesting that we encourage our governor to make executive orders to:

1. prohibit ICE arrests without judicial order or warrants

2. publicly support legislative efforts to o codify high quality anti-detainer policies

3. prohibit state agencies from notifying ICE, detaining people for ICE and transferring people for ICE.

4. Prohibiting ICE arrests in state facilities

5. Outlawing private detention centers.

These actions are totally within her rights as a Governor.

We also need the Attorney General to weigh in on this, with formal opinions and guidance to state agencies, and to litigate for immigrants’ rights. He can

introduce legislation himself too. His office can create an immigrant assistant program and coordinate legal services for immigrants. They can create and distribute “know your rights” resources. They can join/file litigation and amicus briefs, and they can issue guidelines for local law enforcement, making clear the legal concerns with detaining immigrants for ICE and emphasizing that they are not mandatory.

TIA is preparing a letter writing and calling campaign to Michelle Lujan Grisham and Raul Torres to try to accomplish these goals. As an ” Immigrant Friendly” town and county, in a border state, Taos may be among the first to attract ICE’s attention, and our legislature begins to meet in January.

As we know, the people that we work with, eat with, pray with and school our children with, may be in danger of being “removed”, detained and separated from family in the near future. One in ten US families are “mixed status” families. That means that one in ten families may be broken up by mass deportation. These people contribute billions of dollars in taxes to our economy in New Mexico alone, and contribute to Social Security, and Medicare, which they cannot collect. They create jobs and are much less likely to break the law than US born residents.  Please consider carefully what you can do to help them. We will be keeping you in the loop about the campaigns, and we need funds to help families navigate these scary times. We are all volunteers, and all our donations go to direct services as needed for undocumented Immigrant families.

Please take ten minutes today to call Attorney General Raul Torres 505-490-4060 and Governor Lujan Grisham 833-520-0020. Ask them if they will try to keep families from being separated, losing their breadwinner, causing unnecessary indefinite detentions and ruining businesses.  Tell them we want to live in a state where hard-working law-abiding people do not have to live in fear, and not a country in which neighbors are encouraged to turn on their neighbors.

Thank you,

Taos Immigrant Allies

HOW TO DONATE TO TIA

TIA IS FISCALLY SPONSORED BY B’NAI SHALOM HAVURAH, A JEWISH 501(C)(3) NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION THAT HAS BEEN ACTIVE IN TAOS SINCE THE EARLY 1980’S. ALL DONATIONS WILL RECEIVE AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT LETTER FOR TAX PURPOSES.

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