SENATE MEMORIAL 82
53rd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2017
INTRODUCED BY
Richard C. Martinez
A MEMORIAL
EXPRESSING OPPOSITION TO RECENTLY ISSUED EXECUTIVE ORDERS ON BORDER AND IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT.
WHEREAS, the president of the United States has recently issued executive orders to:
A. begin construction of a one-thousand-nine-hundred-mile-long wall along the southern border with Mexico and hire an additional five thousand border protection officers;
B. construct or establish detention facilities near the border to detain certain immigrants in that area;
C. hire ten thousand additional immigration officers and withhold funding from jurisdictions that do not cooperate in enforcement of federal immigration directives; and
D. suspend refugees from entering the country for one hundred twenty days and bar citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for ninety days; and
WHEREAS, an executive order to construct a barrier along the southern border with Mexico could be costly, as the United States government accountability office has found that a single-layer pedestrian fence for a barrier along the southern border with Mexico could cost approximately six million five hundred thousand dollars ($6,500,000); and
WHEREAS, construction of the barrier could result in increased deaths of immigrants crossing the border, disruption of the Rio Grande, protracted legal battles between the federal government and private landowners, harm to protected wildlife and the environment and interference with economic and trade relationships between border communities; and
WHEREAS, pursuant to the recent executive orders, immigration officials would have more freedom to deport people found to be in the country illegally; and
WHEREAS, the executive orders will significantly affect the lives of immigrants living in the state and throughout the country; and
WHEREAS, the mass deportation of immigrants would have severe economic and social consequences for New Mexico's communities and for hundreds of thousands of United States citizens; and
WHEREAS, separation of families by raids and other immigration operations worsens the currently broken immigration system and further threatens the economic, familial and social fabric of local communities; and
WHEREAS, participation in enforcement of the recent executive orders could threaten public safety, increase civil rights violations, implicate due process, divert already scarce local law enforcement resources and cause immigrant communities, families and children to live in fear; and
WHEREAS, some jurisdictions have taken the position that the tenth amendment to the United States constitution precludes the federal government from coercing states or local governments into adopting federal programs or enforcing certain federal immigration laws; and
WHEREAS, policies to limit the enforcement of certain federal immigration laws have resulted in the enhancement of public safety and improved services for immigrant victims of crimes; and
WHEREAS, it is important to embrace policies that celebrate and recognize the economic, social and cultural contributions of immigrants to the United States and to New Mexico, rather than implement policies that stifle those contributions; and
WHEREAS, it cannot be forgotten that nearly one-half of the population of the United States can trace their roots to Ellis island, the point of entry for immigrants seeking a better life; and
WHEREAS, New Mexico is home to more than two hundred thousand immigrants, according to the United States census bureau; and
WHEREAS, in 2013, according to the United States census bureau, immigrants comprised about thirteen percent of the state's workforce in key industries, including agriculture, dairy, oil and gas, hospitality, home care, construction, retail, service and other professional sectors; and
WHEREAS, immigrant contributions to the agriculture industry are especially important, as it is a four billion dollar ($4,000,000,000) per year industry in New Mexico; and
WHEREAS, the New Mexico department of agriculture reports that, in 2012, there were over twenty-four thousand farm and ranch operations in New Mexico that employed more than fifteen thousand migrant and immigrant workers; and
WHEREAS, eight and four-tenths percent of all business owners in New Mexico are foreign-born, and immigrant owners of small businesses make significant contributions in the state through entrepreneurship; and
WHEREAS, New Mexico's population of approximately seventy thousand unauthorized immigrants paid sixty-six million three hundred thousand dollars ($66,300,000) in state and local taxes in 2012, according to data from the institute on taxation and economic policy; and
WHEREAS, the number of immigrants in New Mexico with college degrees has increased substantially in the last fifteen years, in part because state legislation affords students in-state tuition rates and financial aid regardless of immigration status; and
WHEREAS, in 2009, the majority of immigrants lived in mixed-status families, and approximately eighty-five percent of children with immigrant parents living in New Mexico were born in New Mexico, according to data from the urban institute; and
WHEREAS, approximately eleven thousand young immigrants who grew up in New Mexico and attended the state's public schools and universities have benefited from the deferred action for childhood arrivals program; and
WHEREAS, New Mexico and its academic institutions have benefited from the academic, economic and cultural contributions of immigrant and international students, including students from the seven predominantly Muslim countries named in the executive order banning entry by certain immigrants into the United States; and
WHEREAS, New Mexico has strong legislative, historical and legal traditions that protect minorities, including laws that integrate immigrants, that promote equal rights based on the Human Rights Act and that prohibit bias in policing;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that implementation of executive orders that would extend the physical barrier between the United States and Mexico along the New Mexico border and increase the number of border patrol agents be opposed; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that executive orders to increase the number of border protection officers and construct additional immigration detention facilities in New Mexico be opposed; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that executive orders to hire additional immigration officers and withhold funding from jurisdictions that do not cooperate in federal immigration directives be opposed; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that executive orders effecting a denial of entry into the country for refugees who are fleeing violence be opposed; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that executive orders effecting religious tests for entry into the country be opposed; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that any executive action affecting the lives of immigrants who have been granted work permits and temporary residency through the deferred action for childhood arrivals program be discouraged and opposed; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the state attorney general be requested to provide information to local jurisdictions regarding their rights to refuse to use local resources to aid the federal government in enforcement of federal immigration laws; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the state auditor be requested to provide information to state and local governments regarding the financial impact to the state of the recently issued executive orders; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the president of the United States, the president pro tempore of the United States senate, the speaker of the United States house of representatives, the members of the New Mexico congressional delegation, the state attorney general, the state auditor and the elected officials of the state's political subdivisions.
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