News & Commentary

On January 20th, America watched a man assume the presidency who has, among other things, pledged to deport our undocumented neighbors, place our Muslim friends under aggressive surveillance, reauthorize torture as an interrogation tactic, and punish women for making decisions about their own bodies and health. Though he was duly elected under the laws governing our land, the majority of Americans rejected the racism, xenophobia, and sexism that were the very heart and foundation of his campaign.

 LAS CRUCES, NM—Today, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico Regional Center for Border Rights (RCBR), the ACLU Foundation of Texas (ACLU-TX), and the Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC) filed a complaint on behalf of thirteen border residents, urging the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to investigate abusive treatment by Office of Field Operations officers at ports of entry in El Paso, Texas and southern New Mexico.

“You’re a whore.”

ACLU-NM lawsuit pushes PED to remove ban against “disparaging” standardized tests SANTA FE, NM—In response to a free speech lawsuit filed in March by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico, the New Mexico Public Education Department (PED) announced that it will begin the process of removing the rule that prohibits PED employees from “disparaging” standardized tests. The PED will ask the court for a stay in the lawsuit while it goes through the necessary steps to remove the gag rule from the books.

 Tamesha Means was 18 weeks pregnant with her third child when her water broke. She rushedto the nearest hospital, which is operated by Mercy Health Partners in Muskegon, Michigan. The pregnancy was not viable. Ending the pregnancy would have been the safest co

ALBUQUERQUE, NM—Yesterday, the New Mexico State Court of Appeals upheld a district court opinion in a case brought by the ACLU which found that former Secretary of State Dianna Duran had violated state IPRA law by withholding public information. In 2011, Duran made allegations before the legislature that foreign nationals had committed voter fraud by voting in New Mexico elections. Due to the serious nature of her claims and their potential to undermine the public’s confidence in New Mexico’s elections, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico filed a public records request for the documentation she claimed supported her allegations. After Duran steadfastly refused to provide the evidence, the ACLU of New Mexico filed a public records lawsuit in 2011. In 2014, a district court judge ordered the state to pay nearly $87,000 in attorney’s fees and costs based on its earlier finding in 2012 that Duran had violated state IPRA law. The district court's decision awarding fees and costs against former Secretary Duran was affirmed yesterday by the New Mexico Court of Appeals.

Border Rights Groups Urge DHS to Investigate Widespread Dispossession of Belongings LAS CRUCES, NM— Today, civil and human rights organizations in Mexico and the United States filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on behalf of 26 people. Immigration officials confiscated and failed to return the people’s personal belongings, exposing them to severe risk of harm upon their return to Mexico. The complaint shows how U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials in the El Paso Border Patrol Sector—which covers West Texas and all of New Mexico—routinely dispossess people of their personal belongings, deporting them to Mexico without money, identification and legal documents, mobile phones, and other important personal possessions. “Deporting people without their personal belongings isn’t just wrong, it’s cruel,” said Vicki B. Gaubeca, director of the ACLU of New Mexico Regional Center for Border Rights in Las Cruces, New Mexico. “Imagine being abandoned a thousand miles from home without money, ID, or a cell phone. We as Americans need to stop the wholesale robbery of people, and start treating noncitizens with the same dignity and humanity that we would want for ourselves.” The ACLU of New Mexico Regional Center for Border Rights, the ACLU of Texas, the American Immigration Council, the Programa de Defensa e Incidencia Binacional, the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, Derechos Humanos Integrales en Acción, A.C., El Centro de Recursos para Migrantes, the Kino Border Initiative, and Senda de Vida filed the administrative complaint today with the DHS Office of Inspector General, the CBP Office of Professional Responsibility, and the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility. The complaint details how CBP and ICE take individuals’ belongings and do not provide an effective process to reclaim them. When people try to reclaim their belongings, some agents have responded by threatening them with more detention time. These abuses persist despite recent national policy changes on belongings within CBP. A recent report showed that the U.S. government deports as many as one in three people to Mexico without their personal belongings. “For years, we have documented the grave consequences that noncitizens face when the U.S. government deports them to Mexico without their belongings,” said Blanca Navarrete, the Director of the Programa de Defensa e Incidencia Binacional, in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. “Without money, voter cards and other identification, cellular phones, and warm clothes, these individuals struggle to return to their home communities from the border. Many continue to struggle when they return home and cannot obtain work without identity documents. The Mexican voter card is particularly important because it is the primary means that people in Mexico use to prove their identity and it requires multiple original identity documents to replace.” “The numerous case examples in this complaint underscore the failure of the existing policies and procedures,” said Mary Kenney, Senior Attorney with the American Immigration Council. “DHS and CBP must adopt procedures that work – procedures that will ensure that an individual is able to retrieve his or her belongings before being removed to Mexico.” The complaint details the experiences of 26 people whom the U.S. government deported to Mexico without their personal belongings in 2015 and 2016: 

PED “anti-disparagement” regulation illegally restricts teachers’ free speech.

LAS CRUCES, NM—Today, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico’s Regional Center for Border Rights (RCBR) and the Programa de Defensa e Incidencia Binacional (PDIB) in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico welcomed the inclusion of protections for migrants’ personal property in the new repatriation agreements between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the government of Mexico. The new repatriation agreements include the following language: “The signatory participants should take all feasible steps to ensure that property, valuables, and money