New Mexico

Entries where the acting authority was New Mexico (NM), whatever state or country the events took place in.

Jurisdiction is who acted, not where it happened. Federal conduct inside New Mexico is filed under Federal, not here.

2026 Events (4)

July(3)

New Mexico probation officers referred probationers to ICE in violation of state privacy law, ethics commission alleged

On July 10, 2026, the New Mexico State Ethics Commission sued the state Corrections Department and its secretary, Alisha Tafoya Lucero, alleging that probation officers shared probationers' immigration status and personal information with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in violation of the 2025 Nondisclosure of Sensitive Personal Information Act. The Commission said newly unearthed emails showed the coordination was widespread and continued after the privacy law took effect, and that officers lured at least three New Mexico residents to probation offices in Santa Fe and elsewhere where ICE agents arrested them.

New Mexico CYFD dismissed foster teen's case mid-hearing and directed him to walk alone across the Mexico border

On July 6, 2026, New Mexico's Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD) had a 15-year-old foster child's custody case dismissed mid-hearing and drove him from a New Mexico foster home to the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, directing him to walk across alone to reunite with his deported mother over his explicit objections. When the teen fled back into U.S. custody instead of crossing, CYFD asked federal authorities to bar his re-entry and refused to retrieve him from Border Patrol and a Texas shelter for over a week, before completing the expulsion on July 17.

Gallup-McKinley County Schools disproportionately disciplined Native American and Hispanic students, New Mexico DOJ investigation found

A New Mexico Department of Justice investigative report released July 2, 2026, found that Gallup-McKinley County Schools disciplines Native American and Hispanic students far more frequently and severely than white peers, with Native students losing eight to ten times as many instructional days to out-of-school suspension and Hispanic students losing three to four times as many. The three-year investigation, opened in 2023 after reporting on the district's outsized Native student expulsion rates, found district-wide suspension rates roughly double the statewide average despite comparable rates of infractions.

Lea County Sheriff's deputy tased traffic-stop subject after he was on the ground; charged with battery

On January 16, 2026, Lea County Sheriff's Deputy Dustyn Bennett stopped Israel Arenivas on New Mexico Highway 132 while investigating a report of a stolen motorcycle. Body camera footage obtained by KOB 4 shows Bennett grabbed Arenivas, threatened to tase him after he pulled free and remained standing, and then deployed a Taser twice -- once while Arenivas was standing and again after he was already on the ground. Bennett now faces a misdemeanor battery charge over the encounter.