AG Torrez filed a motion this week to dismiss the federal government’s lawsuit challenging the Immigrant Safety Act (HB9), the law that prohibits state and local government entities from entering into agreements to detain, investigate, or apprehend individuals for civil immigration violations. The motion, filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico, argues that the Trump administration’s claims each fail as a matter of constitutional law. 

“New Mexico gets to decide how New Mexico’s resources are used. That principle is older than the federal government itself, and no administration gets to simply wave it away. The federal government can build its own detention facilities. It can hire its own officers. What it cannot do is compel this state to participate in a federal program that New Mexicans, through their elected Legislature, have decided is not in their interest. We will defend that decision in court.” -AG Torrez