SouthWest Organizing Project: Albuquerque Mayor and City Council Criminalize Immigrants

This statement from the SouthWest Organizing Project appeared in SWOP’s blog this morning, as a response to the City Council meeting held last night and the Council’s failure to meet the public’s demands by supporting resolutions sponsored by Councilors Rey Garduño and Ken Sanchez.

The five Albuquerque City Councilors who voted against two resolutions last night that would have sent a strong message that the city embraces diversity and is committed to human rights were largely silent in their opposition.

They offered little commentary on their votes against a boycott offered in a resolution co-sponsored by Councilors Rey Garduno and Ken Sanchez against Arizona’s recently passed anti-immigrant legislation.

Nor did they speak up to explain why they think it’s okay to give the federal agency that deports immigrants a home within the local police department’s prisoner transport center -- a new city policy announced last week by Mayor Richard Berry. Councilor Garduno offered a bill that would have stopped that merging of ICE with APD.

In announcing his new policy, Mayor Berry said immigrants and people of color wouldn't be targeted unfairly because the new rules say every person arrested by the police -- regardless of nationality -- will have their immigration status checked by ICE at an APD facility.

Claudia Medina, Executive Director of ENLACE Comunitario -- an organization that provides services to immigrant women victimized by domestic violence -- warned the Council of unintended consequences.

ENLACE has been working for the last ten years to educate the immigrant community to not be afraid of the police, collaborating with the APD to develop policies that facilitate the reporting of crimes by immigrants. Trust between the immigrant community and the police department enhances public safety, she said.

She told the council that institutionalizing ICE in the same place that immigrant women come to file restraining orders against domestic abusers would prevent victims from coming forward.

She was just one of many passionate people who came to the meeting last night, giving many examples of how this policy could further drive immigrants into the shadows and potentially lead to racial profiling of our community. We were struck by how many people showed up who said they had never come out to speak before but felt compelled to show up on this issue. Enough is enough, people said over and over again.

But the council members who share both the political party of both Berry and the Arizona Governor, and who voted against the measures co-sponsored by Garduno and Sanchez, sat largely mute.

Mayor Richard Berry’s policy perpetuates a theme he has been sounding since last summer, when his campaign for Mayor heated up. He’s taken anti-immigrant fervor found among his political base to new heights by equating immigration with crime in the city.

In Berry’s worldview and that of the majority of the City Council, seemingly, immigrants aren’t just in the country without proper immigration documents, they are criminals who hurt people and take their property.

This isn't a worldview that fits with our values here at SWOP.

BW Note: The DFNM blog applauds the councilors who voted for the two resolutions and spoke eloquently for their passage: Debbie O'Malley, Rey Garduño, Ken Sanchez, Isaac Benton. We also send a shout out to all those ordinary people who spoke out so powerfully and effectively against this travesty at the meeting last night.

As for those who voted against the measures -- Michael Cook, Brad Winter, Dan Lewis, Trudy E. Jones, Don Harris -- shame on you for voting for political expediency and against our human and civil rights. The Mayor and these five councilors are helping to create an atmosphere of fear, anger and bigotry right here in Albuquerque, and they didn't even have the decency to speak up about why they were voting against the measures. Cowards. I'll be writing more about this in the coming days.

You might want to contact the councilors and let them know your thoughts on their actions.