Immigrant law center calls ICE's no-bid approach a major red flag
New Mexico Immigrant Law CenterJessica Martinez, policy director, in an interview with the Santa Fe New Mexican
The New Mexico Immigrant Law Center's policy director said federal procurement rules exist for transparency and accountability and protect taxpayers, and called ICE's move to skip competitive bidding a really major red flag.
“The requirements of the federal procurement processes are there so that we could have transparency, accountability It protects the taxpayers. Circumventing this process is a really, really major red flag”
Reporting
Where this statement fits
ICE gives CoreCivic a no-bid contract to keep two New Mexico detention centers open; advocates sue for the records
After New Mexico barred counties from detention agreements with ICE, the agency gave CoreCivic a sole-source contract to keep holding immigrants at the Torrance County Detention Facility and the Cibola County Correctional Center. Immigrant legal advocates say ICE bypassed competitive bidding and have sued for the contract records. ICE's notice said CoreCivic was the only operator able to meet its requirements in time.
Source and context
Reporting
About this source
Report on ICE's notice of intent to contract directly with CoreCivic, with comments from the lead sponsor of the Immigrant Safety Act and the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
ICE published a notice on the federal contracting site on March 10, 2026, of its intent to contract directly with CoreCivic for the Cibola and Torrance detention facilities. The notice was not a request for bids.
After the quotation
Martinez told the newspaper that a competitive bidding process would allow public input and would have let legal advocates raise concerns about conditions at CoreCivic's facilities.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
The reference point is ICE's sole-source contract with CoreCivic to keep detaining immigrants at the Torrance and Cibola facilities after the Immigrant Safety Act. The center's policy director calls bypassing competitive bidding a major red flag, which criticizes how the contract was awarded, so we labeled it Condemned. The objection is to the award itself, not to a label for it, so Challenged characterization does not fit.
- Recorded on
- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
More from this case
Read the full caseImmigrant law center says ICE is trying to evade New Mexico's law
New Mexico Immigrant Law Center
“Our communities spoke up and passed the Immigrant Safety Act to say that we refuse to be complicit in locking up immigrants, yet ICE is doing everything in its power to retain and expand Trump’s cruel detention and deportation machine in our state We’re requesting these documents because New Mexicans deserve to know why ICE and the Trump administration are attempting to evade our laws while they continue to subject people to inhumane detention.”Read statement
ACLU of New Mexico says ICE replaced one underhanded contract with another
ACLU of New Mexico
“We’re concerned that ICE just replaced one underhanded contract with another The state made it clear with the passage of the Immigrant Safety Act that New Mexico stands against the mistreatment and abuse of people in these detention facilities. ICE cannot continue to operate here without accountability.”Read statement
Cibola County manager says the county is relieved by ICE's direct contract with CoreCivic
Cibola County
“The jobs won’t go, and we’re very relieved — so relieved I was kind of concerned, because in state government procurement would take longer. They did it very quickly, and I don’t know how they did it, but they’re doing a federal procurement, not state”Read statement
Share or embed this statement
The embed keeps its attribution link to The Dispute Index. Credit the image to The Dispute Index and link to the statement page.
Cite this record
- Publisher
- The Dispute Index
- Title
- Immigrant law center calls ICE's no-bid approach a major red flag
- First published
- Last updated
- Permalink
- https://disputeindex.com/events/6128-the-new-mexico-immigrant-law-center-s-policy
Last updated marks the most recent saved version of this published statement.
The Dispute Index. "Immigrant law center calls ICE's no-bid approach a major red flag". First published: 2026-10-20. Last updated: 2026-10-20. https://disputeindex.com/events/6128-the-new-mexico-immigrant-law-center-s-policy