Viral videos of ICE circulate alongside questions on the agency’s future in New Mexico

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Viral videos show ICE agents taking at least one person from a southwest Albuquerque construction site as another video showed agents at a bakery.

KOB 4 visited the southwest Albuquerque site near Coors and Sage after videos showed ICE agents going through homes still under construction.

Witnesses said nearly 10 ICE vehicles pulled into the neighborhood last week. They said some construction workers ran but agents caught them, while others went into homes being built and agents arrested them.

Anna Bencomo lives in the neighborhood and described what she saw.

“I was actually concerned for like the community safety, on both parts, on ICE’s part and on the illegal immigrants that are running from ice, I was concerned on both sides because what if there are kids in the neighborhood?” said Bencomo. “I just felt like it was, it was unsafe, luckily I stay home from work but even people in the surrounding area could have been affected by the recklessness, like there was reckless driving on both parts” said Anna Bencomo.

KOB 4 also asked the Department of Homeland Security for more details about that raid and another at El Dorado Bakery in Albuquerque. The department has not responded yet.

On 60 Minutes, President Trump said he wanted to work with Democrats on immigration and said he believed his policies may have been too tough. It remains undetermined what that may mean for raids in New Mexico.

In Santa Fe, immigrants’ rights attorneys told the state Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee last week that local law enforcement agencies hand certain suspects over to ICE.

They said state law bars formal agreements between law enforcement agencies and ICE but does not block informal work between agencies.

“It does not bar informal arrangements, it does not bar local, city or county police in any city or county in New Mexico from informally calling ICE, there is no law that prohibits that” said Teague González of the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center.

The attorneys are pushing for statewide policies for how local agencies should work with the federal government.

Rep. John Block, R-N.M., raised questions about what any new policy would mean for local police.

“Let’s just say somebody who has multiple DWI convictions for example and they’re arrested for like something such as aggravated battery or something, would this prohibit local law enforcement whether it be state, county sheriff, city police, from releasing information to ICE and what… what would that look like?” said Rep. John Block.

The attorneys said there were 20 ICE arrests statewide in July 2024. They said there were more than 700 this past July.

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