Undocumented victims of violent crime can receive 4-year visas for cooperating with police and prosecutors.

Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico

This article was originally published by Source New Mexico.

New Mexico immigrant advocates and law enforcement leaders on Wednesday told state lawmakers they plan to reintroduce a bill in the upcoming legislative session in January that would streamline the process for undocumented crime victims to obtain visas.

Under current federal guidelines, undocumented immigrants who survive certain violent crimes and then cooperate with a police department’s investigation or a district attorney’s prosecution are eligible for a U Visa, which provides lawful status for four years. Typically, an official within the police department or prosecutor’s office handling the crime has to certify the victim’s eligibility for the visa.

However, advocates and law enforcement leaders told state lawmakers on the interim Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee that New Mexico lacks uniform standards for how police and prosecutors should certify U Visa eligibility. In some cases, the victim’s attorneys don’t even know who the certifying official is within a police department.

That jeopardizes a victim’s ability to stay in the country, and can also jeopardize a police department’s ability to investigate the crime and refer charges to a prosecutor, Albuquerque Police Department Commander Paul Haugh said.

“Victims need to know that they can come forward,” he said, adding that their cooperation is “fundamental to us as an agency being able to prosecute crimes.”

Haugh spoke alongside New Mexico Immigrant Law Center Associate Managing Attorney Valeria Garcia Tavarez and Santa Fe Dreamers Project Legal Director Deshawnda Chaparro. The three said they plan to introduce a bill in next year’s legislative session that would require law enforcement agencies to make decisions on whether to certify an undocumented victim’s U Visa eligibility within a specific timeframe, which would be expedited if the victim was simultaneously undergoing deportation proceedings.

They said they’re also considering how to add penalties for law enforcement agencies that don’t comply with the proposed requirements.

“Rarely are we having to argue with law enforcement agencies on the actual merits,” Garcia Tavarez said. “What we are seeing more uniformly — and the major reason why we’re hoping to enact this piece of legislation — is the vast majority of time, there’s just no response.”

Garcia Tavarez added that this proposal would mark the fourth time a similar bill has come before the Legislature.

Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez (D-Albuquerque), who has sponsored previous iterations of the proposal, said she’ll support it in the 2027 legislative session because she’s heard of too many undocumented victims receiving “uneven treatment between jurisdictions.”

Senate Majority Whip Cindy Nava (D-Bernalillo) similarly supported the bill, saying that her family has undergone the burdensome process of obtaining a U Visa.

She said that Santa Fe police helped her sister, a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipient, certify her eligibility as she sought a U Visa after being attacked outside Santa Fe’s Target store. Enshrining stronger guidelines and timeline requirements in state law would help to streamline the process, she said.

“This is something nobody actually wants to do,” she said. “It is not an easy process in any way, shape or form.”

Garcia Tavarez, the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center attorney, told Source NM after the committee hearing that she and other advocates are still examining whether an undocumented victim could expose themselves to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents by cooperating with a local police department’s investigation. She said recent immigration arrests in New Mexico are partly why the bill will include an expedited U Visa certification timeline for victims who are in deportation proceedings.

“If one victim doesn’t feel safe, none of us do,” she said.

Joshua Bowling is a senior reporter for Source New Mexico. He's reported in New Mexico, where he broke stories of lavish spending at Western New Mexico University and more, since 2022.