Council Resolution: Las Cruces Police will not ask immigrants to prove legal residency

Las Cruces City Council Monday voted unanimously to adopt a resolution that would prohibit law enforcement officers for asking for a person’s proof of citizenship if they are pulled over for traffic violations or face any other interactions with law enforcement.

“This resolution underscores our commitment to protecting diversity,” said Jennifer Vega-Brown, the city’s attorney.

The official name is: “A Resolution Re-Affirming the City of Las Cruces’ Commitment to Creating a Quality of Place to Live and Work Through Nondiscrimination in all Areas of City Government and Declaring the City a Welcoming Community.”

“Diversity and multiculturalism is not something new to the city of Las Cruces,” Vega-Brown said.

Las Cruces Police Chief Jaime Montoya said his department will not comply with federal deportation requests. He said he’s declined to requests to assist border patrol agents in the past.

“We enforce criminal law, not administrative law, being immigration law,” Montoya said.

Not everyone was in favor of the resolution.

“This city is awash with drugs,” said Linda Dowless, a long-time resident of Las Cruces. “I wonder where they come from.”

Dowless insisted much of the crime in the city comes from south of the border.

“The real heart of this matter is that we have gone from a sanctuary city to a welcoming community,” Dowless said. “(A) change of name to protect the guilty, I assume.”

In 2011, Governor Susana Martinez nullified New Mexico’s status as a sanctuary state, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican.

As a former prosecutor, the governor insisted that state and local officers should report an accused person’s immigration status to federal officials, according to the report.

Last month, a federal judge blocked President Trump’s order to deny funding to sanctuary cities, however, Mayor Ken Miyagishima told ABC-7 this is not a sanctuary city resolution.

The mayor said if a person is arrested, they will be processed at the detention center. If it is determined that they are undocumented residents of the United States, federal authorities will still be notified.