In the first week of March, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted an “enhanced enforcement operation” in New Mexico that resulted in the arrest of 48 people, as reported by the agency itself. Their names, whereabouts, whether they have access to counsel and which agency is holding them are all unknown, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which considers them to have been “forcibly disappeared.”
“This is not just a procedural issue, but a grave human rights violation,” said Rebecca Sheff, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of New Mexico. “When the government detains people and then their whereabouts are unknown and they are unreachable, it exempts them from the protection of the law. Families are left in agonizing uncertainty, desperate to contact their loved ones and ensure their safety. Enforced disappearances are prohibited by both our Constitution and international human rights laws,” she said.
Immigration authorities indicated that 20 of the detainees had been arrested or convicted of criminal offenses that included, in addition to homicide and sexual assault, driving under the influence and shoplifting. The latter two offenses were not considered grounds for deportation by the previous administration, but Trump signed the Laken Riley Act, which allows undocumented immigrants to be deported for these offenses. The remaining 28 were apprehended for immigration violations such as unlawful entry or re-entry. Of the 48 arrested, 21 had final orders of removal, according to ICE.
The ACLU, the civil rights organization responsible for most of the lawsuits filed against the Trump administration’s immigration policy, has sent a formal complaint to the Department of Homeland Security.
“We are alarmed and disturbed that these four dozen New Mexican individuals remain unidentified and that insufficient transparency, oversight, and accountability has taken place to date regarding their whereabouts and wellbeing. We call on your offices to exercise the full extent of your authorities to determine their current status and ensure their safety,” the complaint states.
The arrests took place in the New Mexico cities of Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Roswell, in an ICE operation that also involved U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and the U.S. Marshal Service (USMS).
The ICE website has a detainee locator, but to use it, it is necessary to enter some identifying information such as name or immigration number and country of origin. Immigrant advocacy organizations are concerned that no one has sought them out, as is often the case, to report the detention of family members. Another reason, they explain, may be the fear unleashed by Trump’s push for deportations by invoking an 18th-century law designed for wartime and allowing for expulsions without due process.
