By Kevin Hendricks, The Paper. — A man riding to a family wedding in Rio Rancho ended up in immigration detention after a Sandoval County sheriff’s deputy stopped his ride on Interstate 25 and called ICE, according to a report released Friday.
The May 22 stop near Algodones is the Sandoval County case in a preliminary report from Somos Un Pueblo Unido. The group presented the report Nov. 6 to state lawmakers while pushing for a statewide ban on local help with civil immigration enforcement.
The man was a passenger when the deputy asked for his ID, according to the report. He handed over a Mexican identification card and the deputy contacted ICE’s Albuquerque office. Agents arrived shortly after 7 p.m. and arrested him and another passenger. Both were taken to the privately run Torrance County Detention Facility. ICE’s own arrest narrative lists his criminal history as “none.”
The sheriff’s office has helped federal agents before. In June 2025, deputies backed up a Homeland Security Investigations arrest operation at the Walmart at Unser and Southern boulevards, according to the Rio Rancho Observer. County Manager Wayne Johnson told the paper the office backs up any agency that asks, including ICE.
Somos asked the county for records on the stop, but a September request was denied, according to the report. The county hasn’t answered a request to reconsider.
“The public deserves to know how local agencies interact with federal immigration authorities,” said Gabriela Ibañez Guzmán, the Somos attorney who wrote the report.
INFO BOX
Read the Somos report: files.constantcontact.com/b6dfe469001/1881e800-b692-4695-84eb-f080977d1bf3.pdf
Find your legislators: nmlegis.gov/Members/Find_My_Legislator
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