Some Hispanic immigrants and families may soon call Albuquerque their new home.
As a result of Arizona’s “draconian” new immigration law, undocumented immigrants and legal Hispanic citizens are looking to escape the state, said Ralph Arellanes, director of New Mexico’s League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).
“They’re leaving Arizona because of fear — fear of being racially profiled and arrested,” he said. “In New Mexico, they have a lot more liberty.”
Albuquerque area realtor Tracy Venturi said she has talked to a few families choosing to move to New Mexico because of immigration issues in Arizona.
“We have had a couple of folks from Tucson who state that part of why they want to get out is because of illegal immigration problems,” she said. “But they were looking to move before the latest stuff came up. It has to do with lots of things, not just (the immigration law).”
The Arizona law states that police officers “without a warrant, may arrest a person if the officer has probable cause to believe that the person has committed any public offense that makes the person removable from the United States.”
New Mexico, Utah and Washington are the only states that issue driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants, according to Stateline.org. New Mexico issued about 80,000 driver’s licenses to foreign nationals, a group that includes undocumented immigrants, said S. U. Mahesh, New Mexico Taxation and Revenue spokesman.
Arellanes said immigrants will also likely travel to other surrounding states, including California, Nevada and Colorado. He said there are reasons immigrants and Hispanics concerned about the possibility of racial profiling would be drawn to New Mexico, especially Albuquerque.
“We’re a very progressive state as far as Hispanic civil rights,” he said. “In terms of education, New Mexico is much friendlier to Hispanos and immigrants than Arizona.”
Arellanes said Albuquerque has the best economy of any city in the state, which means more job availability.
Still, Arellanes said LULAC and other local Hispanic organizations won’t know the full impact of the Arizona law until it is enacted July 29.
“The immigrant community really lives in the shadows,” he said. “They don’t want to let other people or other groups know that they’re coming. They’ll just come.”
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
The Justice Department filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the state of Arizona to prevent the law from going into effect. The Justice Department claims that the Arizona immigration law competes with federal ability to control illegal immigration, according to a New York Times article published July 6.
A policy enacted by Mayor Richard Berry in May allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to work at the Prison Transport Center to check the immigration status of all people who are arrested.
Arellanes said the Hispanic community is worried about the new policy, but it is still much less severe than the Arizona law.
“Yeah, that’s going to be a concern for immigrants coming from Arizona, but it’s not as bad as what Arizona is doing right now,” he said. “Arizona is doing something that is downright illegal and unconstitutional.”
The policy was enacted to reduce crime in Albuquerque, said T.J. Wilham, spokesman for Berry, and shouldn’t be compared with the Arizona law.
“What we’ve done is not an immigration policy,” he said. “It’s not an immigration issue. It’s a public-safety procedure.”
Wilham said the policy will not lead to racial profiling because only ICE officials can conduct the immigration status checks, and witnesses and victims of crimes won’t be checked, he said.
“Anyone comparing what we’re doing to Arizona — we would have contention with that,” he said. “We have not written any laws. What we have done is we have developed a procedure that allows ICE to be in the Prison Transport Center.”
Wilham said everyone who comes through the Transport Center will be screened by ICE, which also curbs racial profiling.
