New Mexico U.S. Rep. Leger Fernández denounces ICE arrest in Santa Fe healthcare clinic parking lot

Leger Fernández told Source NM she was preparing for a previously scheduled inspection of the Torrance County Detention Facility on Wednesday when she learned about the federal immigration operation at La Familia Medical Center in Santa Fe. She asked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and CoreCivic, the facility’s private operator, whether she could speak with any of the people ICE detained in the clinic’s parking lot.

“We did make a request,” she said. “They told us that they anticipated there would be eight detainees arriving to the facility, but that they had not yet gotten there when we were there.”

After videos and photographs of the Santa Fe operation gained traction online, La Familia officials on Wednesday posted to social media noting that federal agents were parked in the organization’s Alto Clinic parking lot to make an arrest and that no officers entered the clinic building. 

Still, the arrest has prompted widespread outcry from New Mexico elected officials, including Leger Fernández, who told Source NM that ICE should not be “stalking people” to health clinics to make arrests. 

“The fact that they are in Santa Fe conducting these raids so that they can meet a quota has nothing to do with getting the ‘worst of the worst,’” she said. “It’s all about meeting a quota.”

ICE spokesperson Leticia Zamarripa referred Source NM’s questions about the arrest to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which did not immediately respond Thursday. 

New Mexico House Majority Leader Rep. Reena Szczepanski (D-Santa Fe) in a statement Wednesday said she was outraged that ICE agents “followed a parent and child from their home to a neighborhood health clinic, then arrested that parent in the parking lot.”

“This Administration’s cruel acts turn places of safety and care into places of fear. No parent should have to worry that getting medical care for their child will put them at risk of detention. I will do all I can to protect immigrant safety in our community.”

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deb Haaland also denounced the parking lot arrest in a post Wednesday evening as “absolutely unacceptable.” 

Leger Fernández said members of her staff have spoken to eyewitnesses of the arrest and that she is hoping to find the family of the person or people arrested to continue to find answers. 

As for the visit to the detention facility in Estancia, she said being denied an interview with those detained in Santa Fe capped off a “disappointing” inspection of the facility, she said. 

ICE and CoreCivic officials intervened to prevent her from speaking to any detainees, she said, and the facility seemed to have been hastily sanitized ahead of her arrival. Torrance is one of three facilities in the state that houses ICE detainees, who have alleged poor water quality and health concerns amid an ongoing water shortage in Estancia.

“You could smell the cleaner as you were walking, right? They had sanitized the place and emptied the hall, so that we were not able to actually see anybody,” she said. 

Leger Fernández’s visit marked the first time a member of Congress has inspected the facility since CoreCivic and ICE entered into a direct contract governing the facility without Torrance County’s involvement. The two parties opted to contract directly after the Legislature enacted the Immigrant Safety Act, which prohibited public entities like counties from contracting with ICE for the purposes of immigrant detention. 

Officials from CoreCivic did not immediately respond to Source NM’s request for comment Thursday about Leger Fernández’s visit.