Torrez says that, by continuing to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the counties are imposing “serious costs on local communities.” Deputies who are assigned to help assist ICE, for instance, are no longer available for criminal investigations and emergency calls—tasks that the attorney general describes as being “the core mission of local law enforcement.”
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez has filed a lawsuit against Torrance and Curry counties, claiming that local law enforcement in both jurisdictions have openly flouted the state’s Immigrant Safety Act, a series of sanctuary-style laws that took effect earlier this month.
“Local officials take an oath to uphold the law, all of it, not just the parts they agree with,” Torrez said in a press release. “The Legislature enacted the Immigrant Safety Act after careful deliberation, the Governor signed it, and it is now the law of New Mexico. No county sheriff has the authority to nullify a statute simply because he disagrees with it. That is not how our constitutional system works, and this office will not allow it to stand.”
Torrez said that his office had previously and proactively reached out to officials in the two counties, informing them that they must terminate their existing agreements with ICE no later than May 20, 2026, which is when the law took effect.
“The lawsuits state that both Torrance County and Curry County Sheriff’s Offices are still in active memorandum agreements with ICE,” Torrez said.
The lawsuits claim that the sheriff’s offices in both Torrance and Curry counties continue to operate ICE 287(g) agreements. Under these agreements, sheriff’s offices can deputize their personnel to assist in civil immigrant enforcement operations, including the execution of arrest and removal warrants on ICE’s behalf.
“Unlike criminal warrants,” Torrez’s office said, “these administrative documents are not reviewed by a neutral magistrate, require no probable cause of any crime, and carry no judicial oversight.”
Torrez says that, by continuing to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the counties are imposing “serious costs on local communities.” Deputies who are assigned to help assist ICE, for instance, are no longer available for criminal investigations and emergency calls—tasks that the attorney general describes as being “the core mission of local law enforcement.”
“The agreements also deter immigrant residents from reporting crimes or cooperating with police, placing entire communities beyond the protection of local law enforcement,” Torrez’s office added. “They further exposed counties to significant civil rights liability, as immigration-status enforcement creates well-documented risks of racial profiling and unconstitutional stops.”
The lawsuit asserts that the Immigrant Safety Act, in its present form, reflects a clear policy judgment by the state government that the harms of cooperating with ICE outweigh any potential benefits.
“These counties have decided their policy preferences override the democratic process,” Torrez said. “They are wrong about the law, wrong about their authority, and wrong to think this office will look the other way. State law is not optional, least of all for the officials who took an oath to uphold it.”
Sources
Attorney General Raúl Torrez files lawsuit against two New Mexico counties over ICE agreements
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