The 2026 Legislative Session: Creating A Firewall for Freedom in New Mexico

As we approach the 2026 legislative session, our nation is facing unprecedented threats to our fundamental freedoms. For the past year, President Trump has tested every limit and abused every power to silence dissent, terrorize immigrants, unleash violence and chaos in our cities and neighborhoods, and expand surveillance in ways that threaten the safety of millions.

But we aren’t powerless against these attacks. This legislative session, the ACLU of New Mexico will fight —alongside our partners and community activists— to safeguard hard-fought protections New Mexico leaders have already won and to pass new, urgent bills that will shield New Mexicans’ from the Trump administration’s most dangerous attacks.

Here are the bills we’re championing—and those we’ll fight against.

Under the Trump administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has become more dangerous and less accountable than ever. We’re witnessing unprecedented abuses— masked agents dragging people out of their cars, smashing windows, zip-tying parents and children, physically harming our neighbors, and, in multiple cases, including those of Renee Nicole Good, Silverio Villegas, and González Jaime Alanis, killing them.

That same unchecked system is also inflicting harm inside detention centers— including right here in New Mexico. For years, conditions in New Mexico’s three immigration detention centers have been dangerous and dehumanizing and the current administration has only intensified those risks. People held in detention facilities in Torrance, Cibola, and Otero counties have reported abysmal conditions like rotten food, sewage water in their cells, and the misuse of solitary confinement. Three people have also died in these facilities in recent years— a pattern reflected across the country in a rising death toll that reached its highest point in more than two decades last year.

While New Mexico cannot directly regulate ICE, we can refuse to enable a system that violates human rights and due process. At least eight other states have already passed laws limiting collaboration with ICE.

The New Mexico Immigrant Safety Act would do exactly that. It would bar state and local governments from entering into agreements to detain people for federal immigration violations, remove New Mexico from the business of mass deportation, and end the leasing of public land for immigration detention.

With detention conditions deteriorating and abuses mounting across the country, we’re standing with immigrant rights advocates to demand the passage of this urgent bill in New Mexico.

Law enforcement in New Mexico collects huge amounts of data on us through surveillance technology, including cameras known as automatic license plate readers (ALPRs). These devices, mounted on police cars or on objects like road signs and bridges, use high‑speed cameras to photograph thousands of plates per minute—creating a detailed record of where we drive.

While this technology has legitimate law enforcement uses and can help solve crimes, sharing this data with out‑of‑state or federal authorities carries serious risks. It has been used to track immigrant community members, people seeking abortion care, and activists. A recent ACLU-NM public records request showed that New Mexico ALPR cameras have been accessed thousands of times by out-of- state authorities for immigration enforcement, and at least once by Texas authorities to track a woman under criminal investigation for seeking abortion care.

New Mexico should join the growing number of states and cities that have enacted common-sense limits on how ALRP data can be used and shared.

The Driver Privacy and Safety Act would prohibit data sharing for purposes that violate New Mexico values, while ensuring law enforcement can continue using ALPRs for legitimate investigations. Passing this bill is critical to ensure outside authorities can’t turn our surveillance tools against us to target our families and communities.

Tech companies constantly harvest and sell personal data far beyond shopping preferences. Information about our immigration status, gender identity, or whether we’ve accessed reproductive healthcare can be purchased by anyone — including out‑of‑state law enforcement and anti‑LGBTQ+ politicians. Every time we post on social media or search the web, online service providers retain that information and may share it with the government. For non‑citizens, this data is already being used in visa screenings and could soon be used for other international entry decisions. Even something as simple as entering “Planned Parenthood” into Google Maps becomes part of a data trail that can be bought and weaponized.

Under an administration that is terrorizing immigrants, targeting protestors and critics, and dismantling reproductive and LGBTQ rights it is even more crucial that New Mexico strengthen its privacy protections.

CHISPA would require for‑profit companies serving New Mexicans to collect only the data that is necessary to provide the service requested, and to obtain explicit consent before collecting, processing, or sharing anything more—an opt‑in standard far stronger than the typical opt‑out model. Critically, the bill has teeth by giving individuals the right to sue when their privacy is violated. We’ll be working alongside the NM CHISPA coalition to pass this bill and ensure that New Mexicans — not corporations or hostile governments — control their own data.

Everyone in New Mexico deserves to live in safe communities, and we have the ability to make real progress on safety this session. What we know from experience and research is that the safest communities are those where everyone is housed, where everyone can access the healthcare they need voluntarily, and where everyone has access to quality jobs and education. Investments in these areas are investments in public safety.

This year, with our partners in the All Safe New Mexico coalition, we’re asking the legislature to make significant investments in housing services so that New Mexicans can build and maintain lasting stability in their lives. We’re also asking legislators to continue leading the country on harm reduction and a public‑health approach to substance use by studying overdose prevention centers and ensuring that people can access medication‑assisted treatment in their communities.

At the same time, we must reject proposals that expand mass incarceration or make it easier to involuntarily commit people who are unhoused—the very approach President Trump advanced in his dangerous executive order last year. Policies that increase sentences, create new crimes, target youth, or push people into locked institutions won’t make us safer. They will deepen the challenges our communities have faced for years.

We’re advocating for common‑sense, root‑cause solutions that strengthen our communities and promote real safety, not policies that criminalize people.

The work to protect and advance our fundamental freedoms takes all of us. If you’re interested in joining us in our advocacy efforts, you can sign up for one of our impact teams or for our volunteer base.

Together, we can ensure that New Mexico remains a place where our freedoms are protected, our privacy is respected, and our communities are truly safe.