NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – KRQE News 13 is learning more about allegations made against the New Mexico Corrections Department, claiming that their employees are working closely with ICE to arrest immigrants who are on probation. “The Ethics Commission received a whistleblower complaint back in 2025 that employees of the Corrections Department were releasing personal information to federal ICE agents to assist in their subsequent arrests,” said New Mexico State Ethics Commission Deputy Director Amelia Bierle.
The lawsuit alleges at least four probationers were taken into ICE custody, with help from NMCD employees. If true, that would be a direct violation of new state law that went into effect last July. One of those cases details Juan Lamas Aguilar, a man who illegally entered the United States in 2008, when he was 12 years old. He attended a public Albuquerque High School, has a young child, a fiancée, and a home on the east side. Juan was serving a 90-day probation sentence for a misdemeanor DWI when the Ethics Commission said he was targeted by ICE and the corrections department.
Text messages between an ICE agent and a corrections employee appear to show a plot to trick Aguilar into coming to the parole office on Gold Ave., saying in part: LOL, I will schedule him for 8 on Thursday. The ICE officer responded: “Thank you. I owe you”…