The following is a speech given by ACLU of New Mexico Director of Public Policy Lena Weber at the No Kings Rally in Albuquerque this past weekend. We're presenting it as-is, and we hope you find inspiration in her words.
Good afternoon.
My name is Lena Weber, the Director of Public Policy for the ACLU of New Mexico.
We are all here today for the same reason: we believe in democracy. We believe in dignity.. And we refuse to be ruled by fear.
We are here because this administration is out of control. It is cruel. And it is dangerous.
This administration launched an unconstitutional war on Iran without congressional approval. And while bombs fall overseas, that same government has unleashed a different kind of war at home.
They have unleashed masked federal agents against our neighbors, our families, our communities... dragging people out of their cars, smashing windows, and zip-tying families. At least eight people have died through interactions with ICE this year alone. And in 2025, 32 people died in ICE custody… the deadliest year in more than two decades.
And right here in New Mexico, our detention centers in Torrance, Cibola, and Otero counties have documented patterns of abuse and inhumane conditions: solitary confinement, rotten food, sewage in cells, people denied medical care.
But New Mexico said: NOT IN OUR NAME.
After a decade of community-led work, Governor Lujan Grisham signed the Immigrant Safety Act into law... landmark legislation that prohibits our state from participating in civil immigration detention, bans the 287(g) agreements that turn local police into ICE agents, and stops the use of public land for federal detention.
This is what it looks like when a state fights back and refuses to be complicit.
Now we must protect something else: our right to live our lives freely without being watched.
This administration is rapidly expanding a massive surveillance web, and it is already being weaponized against us... disregarding our Fourth Amendment protections.
Information about our immigration status, our gender identity, whether we’ve been to a protest, whether we’ve accessed reproductive healthcare... all of it can be purchased by anyone. Including vigilantes, federal or out-of-state law enforcement, and foreign governments and intelligence groups.
We believe in democracy. We believe in dignity.. And we refuse to be ruled by fear.
Every time you drive to work, to school, to a health clinic, to a protest like this one... you are leaving a trail. And someone may very well be following it.
That is not freedom. That is a surveillance state.
And here is what you need to understand: this lawlessness does not stop at the federal level. It spreads.
An ACLU of New Mexico public records investigation uncovered thousands of instances where out-of-state agencies accessed our license plate reader cameras. We looked at the search terms they were using. They searched for “ICE.” They searched for “immigrant.” They searched for “immigration.”
And a sheriff in Texas used that same system… our data, from our roads... to track down a woman who had an abortion.
Think about that. A law enforcement officer in another state reached into New Mexico’s surveillance infrastructure and used it to hunt a woman for making a private medical decision. That is not law enforcement. That is persecution. And it was happening with data that was readily available to the highest bidder.
But New Mexico said: not with our data. Not in our name.
New Mexico must lead on all of it. Biometric privacy. AI guardrails. Comprehensive data privacy. We have proven we know how to do this. And we are not stopping.
This legislative session, our state passed the Driver Privacy and Safety Act, sponsored by Los Alamos’s very own Representative Christine Chandler. This law addresses the most urgent vulnerabilities around our license plate reader data... including prohibiting the sharing of that data with out-of-state groups for immigration enforcement, for investigating protected healthcare, and for criminalizing constitutionally protected activities like our right to be right here, right now.
Because while we celebrate those victories, we know they are the beginning... not the end.
Facial recognition software can identify you at a protest, at a clinic, at a place of worship. AI systems are supercharging surveillance and discrimination at a scale we have never seen... and we must require common-sense guardrails to ensure AI can be a tool and a resource for all New Mexicans, rather than a weapon of Big Brother.
And we know that we deserve comprehensive online privacy protections, so that we can all access the internet without fear that our most intimate personal information will be collected and sold to anyone who wants to use it to control our lives.
New Mexico must lead on all of it. Biometric privacy. AI guardrails. Comprehensive data privacy. We have proven we know how to do this. And we are not stopping.
From our villages and towns and cities that refuse to cooperate with federal government overreach, to our legislature defending landmark protections like our Civil Rights Act and passing urgent new ones that the rest of the country is looking to as a model... New Mexico is not just resisting. We are building. Building on a legacy that has always defined us.
Other states are watching. We are showing them what courage looks like.
We will live freely. We will live authentically. We will live safely. And we will not ask permission to do so.