On Friday, June 20, approximately 2000 people marched in Downtown Albuquerque to protest President Donald Trump’s immigration policies and call for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
ICE has conducted raids across the United States, with a quota of 3000 arrests daily, according to Reuters. The New Mexico Immigration Law Center has seen a rise in local ICE arrests, including at people’s homes, workplaces and immigration court hearings, according to Source NM.
The protest began at Civic Plaza, during which mariachi performers sang and played songs, and organizers gave speeches to the crowd before the march.
Protesters then marched from Tijeras Avenue to Lomas Boulevard and occupied the intersection of Lomas and 4th Street for speeches, before marching back to the Civic Plaza on 4th Street, where the protest concluded, having lasted around three hours.
Alexandria Aragon and Destiny Lopez, two of the organizers of the protest, said this was their first time organizing an event this large.
“I want to be the voice for the community that cannot speak to themselves right now because they're in fear every day that they could be sent into horrible detention centers and camps,” Aragon said.
According to a March 2024 report by Colorado College researchers that partnered with the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, immigrants who lack permanent legal status detained at the New Mexican Immigration Detention Facilities in Milan and Estancia experienced “inhuman conditions,” including potential excessive force by guards, inadequate medical and mental health care, exposure to health hazards from ill-prepared food and further violations of the 2011 Performance-Based National Detention Standards.
Aragon said that she wants to see more rights being given to the immigrants in New Mexico and to people who are trying to get the legal pathway to citizenship.
“(We) also want the legal pathway to be faster, quicker, easier. So people don't have to wait 10 to 15 years to become a legal citizen,” Lopez said.
Paloma Chapa is the multimedia editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at multimedia@dailylobo.com or on X @paloma_chapa88
Jaden McKelvey-Francis contributed reporting to this story.
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