Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham:
Interestingly enough, if you were to just put a political lens on New Mexico, like any state, we have very Democratic or blue cities. We have very red cities and counties.
And as the Trump administration was trying to get a sense about how many law enforcement jurisdictions, remember, they don’t work directly for me as the governor, how they would help them with indiscriminate and I believe unconstitutional immigration enforcement and detentions and deportations, I’m not aware of any law enforcement jurisdiction anywhere in the state agreeing to that cooperation, because I think ultimately, it takes them away from the core public safety work that they must engage in.
And they — I think they believe and understand that it’s unconstitutional. And if you don’t believe that, it’s certainly indiscriminate and unfair. The sanctuary city has been an easy way for far too many jurisdictions, at least in my opinion, to try to declare that they’re going to do right by all of their laws and efforts at public safety.
But immigration enforcement is, in fact, a federal issue. What we all want is for Congress to pass a bipartisan, smart and fair immigration bill, so that you can get visas and come to the United States legally, that we use smart security and safety measures at the border, more technology.
And I don’t think most folks in Congress are complaining or governors that we don’t need more border personnel. Strategic, smart, deal with the problem, depoliticize it.
