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- By Levi Rickert
Native Vote. Former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo), who is running to be New Mexico’s next governor, is speaking out against what she called the “cruel and unchecked” actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Border Patrol following the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis man by federal agents.
“This has to stop,” Haaland wrote Saturday in a Facebook post after learning of the killing of Minneapolis resident Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an ICU nurse who was shot and killed by Border Patrol agents. “While Minnesotans and many across the country protest the disgusting and terrifying violence ICE is carrying out in our country, federal agents shot and killed another person. Trump and ICE agents are making our communities unsafe.”
On Friday, Haaland stood alongside protesters at a rally in Albuquerque, where she condemned what she described as a pattern of violence and lawlessness by federal immigration agents.
Haaland said she is alarmed by ICE agents using violence, rounding people up, tearing families apart, targeting Black and brown communities, and breaking the law. She also said she is concerned that while state and local law enforcement agencies work to protect communities, ICE agents are undertrained and putting New Mexicans in harm’s way.
She said federal agents are failing to focus on what she described as the real public safety priorities: keeping violent criminals and illegal drugs off the streets.
At the rally, Haaland said she would, if elected, hold ICE officials accountable for breaking the law and protect public spaces such as schools, churches, courthouses, health care centers and state government facilities. She said she supports requiring ICE agents to identify themselves and remove their masks.
Haaland also praised New Mexico’s congressional delegation for voting against funding for the agency that oversees ICE and said she supports legislative proposals to ban ICE detention centers in New Mexico.
“I am proud to support protesters stand up to injustice and the cruel policies of ICE and the Trump administration,” Haaland said. “Every day, I hear another story of a child, peaceful protester, law-abiding human being, getting detained and arrested for nothing. It’s un-American. As governor, I will always stand up for New Mexicans.”
Haaland, a member of Laguna Pueblo, previously served as U.S. secretary of the Interior, where she oversaw law enforcement agencies across the department and established a task force aimed at strengthening standards for public protection and improving training and resources for officers.
While in Congress, Haaland helped secure $350 billion for state and local governments and law enforcement agencies and co-sponsored legislation aimed at reforming immigration enforcement and restricting family separations.
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