New Mexico legislators rejected a proposal Tuesday to prohibit state and local government agencies from contracting with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain immigrants as they seek asylum in the U.S.
The bill failed on a 17-21 vote of the state Senate. It also would have phased out local government participation in three-way agreements with private detention facilities and federal authorities.
The bill held implications for three privately operated detention facilities in New Mexico — and would have effectively ended migrant detention in early 2025 at the privately operated Otero County Processing Center at Chaparral in southern New Mexico on the outskirts of El Paso, Texas.
