Republican lawmakers introduce border security bills for special session | Local news

“We can protect our communities, but we must be willing to protect our country’s borders, remove incentives that encourage illegal immigration and punish criminals when they break the law,” said House Leader Rod Montoya (R-Farmington). the minorities in the House of Representatives, in an opinion piece. sent to newspapers across the state on Wednesday.

New Mexico Senate Minority Leader Greg Baca (R-Belen) and Sen. Crystal Brantley (R-Elephant Butte) were also adamant in a press release issued Tuesday that Lujan Grisham reaffirmed the statements she made earlier this month. had to reconsider and rule out the inclusion of border security. to her call for a special session.

“If the Governor is serious about fighting crime, let’s start securing our state from the criminals who plague our border communities with deadly drugs and deadly violence,” said Senate Minority Leader Greg Baca (R-Belen). .

Baca and Brantley said in their release that they will introduce legislation to add three years to the base sentence for distributing or selling fentanyl; allowing first-degree murder charges to be filed against fentanyl dealers in cases where sales of the drug result in death; and providing additional resources to enhance surveillance and communications infrastructure used for border security.

All three Republicans also said they would propose legislation to ban so-called “sanctuary cities.”

Global Refugee, a nonprofit organization based in Maryland, says on its website that a refuge is the name given to communities that adopt policies that discourage, restrict or prohibit local law enforcement from reporting on an individual’s immigration status unless there is is from an investigation. to a serious crime.

Such places, which may include counties and states, also typically do not honor Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) requests to detain illegal immigrants for criminal offenses and investigations.

New Mexico is one of 11 states claiming sanctuary status, according to Global Refugee.

Montoya’s piece also called on the governor to follow the lead of Texas and Arizona and deploy the National Guard to help secure the border, and for a bill to be introduced to require law enforcement to verify the immigration status of anyone is arrested to determine and report. the status of criminals to ICE.

He also wrote that Republicans will introduce legislation to establish guidelines for the judiciary that would limit when suspects accused of drug trafficking and violent crimes can be released pending trial.

Lujan Grisham has advocated for reform of state pretrial detention systems, only to see those proposals end in defeat in the Democratic-led Legislature.

The push to take on immigration comes as communities along the southwestern border grapple with the impact of a surge of migrants and illegal crossings, straining local resources and addressing shortcomings in the country’s border security and legal immigration systems. the country come to light.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol statistics show that there were 1,340,801 encounters by federal authorities with undocumented migrants between October and March.

A 2023 study from the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research found that an immigrant is 60% less likely to end up in prison than someone born in the United States.

But Montoya wrote in his piece that while most immigrants are not dangerous, there are people, including those involved in narcotics and human trafficking, who take advantage of the situation at the border.

Brantley, whose Senate district includes part of the state’s 200 miles along the border, said these vulnerabilities have led to greater prevalence of fentanyl and increased dangers for those living along the southwest border.

“The uncontrolled flow of illegal immigration has exposed my constituents to violent crime, human trafficking, drug smuggling and damage to their property,” she said in the press release.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office did not respond to requests for comment on the latest proposals from Montoya or Senate Republicans, but in a statement her office sent to the Roswell Daily Record earlier this month, Lujan Grisham indicated that issues such as border security and immigration are the responsibility of the federal government.

“While I share my Republican colleagues’ concerns about border security, calling a special session does not give me federal authority over the border. We must strengthen border security, and that requires additional funding and policy changes from Congress,” she said.

Texas has taken action to crack down on border crossings and illegal immigration, something that Lujan Grisham notes has forced the state to spend large sums of money and embroiled the state in lawsuits with the Biden administration.

A better solution, she argued, is for Republican lawmakers to convince their counterparts in Congress to accept a bipartisan border security treaty rejected by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives at the urging of the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump .

While Lujan Grisham has said she is open to proposals from lawmakers of both parties, her office has named three proposals the Legislature plans to focus on this summer in Santa Fe. These measures include a statewide ban on panhandling, increasing penalties for felons who possess firearms, and changes to the state’s mental health laws regarding criminal and civil competency.

In an email Thursday to the Roswell Daily Record, Montoya said there are things the state can do to address immigration that do not conflict with federal authority, such as banning policies that limit cooperation by federal law enforcement agencies.

“While it is the responsibility of the federal government to protect the border, it is the responsibility of the Governor and Legislature to protect new Mexican citizens,” he said in the email.