Federal prosecutors allege that a new state law and a city ordinance unconstitutionally obstruct immigration enforcement and sever long-standing cooperation agreements with federal authorities.
The Justice Department filed suit Friday against the State of New Mexico, the City of Albuquerque, and their respective governors and attorneys general, charging that recently enacted sanctuary laws violate the Constitution’s supremacy clause and illegally impede federal immigration enforcement operations.
The complaint, filed in federal court alongside a motion for a preliminary injunction, takes aim at two measures: New Mexico’s House Bill 9, known as the Immigrant Safety Act, and Albuquerque’s Safer Community Places Ordinance. Federal prosecutors argue both laws are unconstitutional intrusions into an area of policy that belongs exclusively to the federal government.
Named as defendants are Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Attorney General Raul Torrez, Albuquerque Mayor Timothy Keller, and the governmental entities they lead.
“New Mexico is attempting to regulate immigration policy, something the federal government is clearly and uniquely empowered by the Constitution to do,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.
At the heart of the federal case is the dismantling of what prosecutors describe as decades of voluntary cooperation agreements between local agencies and federal immigration authorities. HB9, which took effect this year, bars local governments from participating in federal immigration detention and prohibits public entities from assisting with the investigation, transportation, and detention of undocumented immigrants — arrangements the Justice Department says have operated successfully in New Mexico for years.
The Albuquerque ordinance goes further, according to the complaint. Federal prosecutors allege it requires private businesses to alert undocumented immigrants to nearby immigration enforcement activity — a provision they characterize as an unlawful effort to harbor individuals from detection by federal agents.
“By unlawfully requiring private businesses to tip off illegal aliens about immigration enforcement activities, the SCPO attempts to harbor and shield illegal aliens from detection,” the complaint states.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison for the District of New Mexico warned that the economic consequences extend beyond legal principle. He said HB9’s prohibition on local participation in federal immigration detention threatens nearly 300 jobs in Otero County, where a detention facility has long maintained agreements with federal authorities.
The lawsuit is part of a broader Justice Department campaign against sanctuary jurisdictions. Attorney General Pam Bondi published a list of such jurisdictions in August 2025, with Albuquerque among those named, and pledged to pursue litigation nationwide. The department said Friday’s filing in New Mexico is the latest in a series of such suits.
The federal government is seeking a court declaration that both laws are invalid and an immediate injunction barring their enforcement while the case proceeds.
By: DNU Staff