On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Story Is,” Bernalillo County District Attorney and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Sam Bregman discussed his threat to arrest ICE agents in the county and said that “if someone commits a violent felony in our county, we’re going to prosecute them, regardless of their legal status. We’re going to absolutely do everything we can to hold them accountable. At the same token, ICE agents aren’t going to come in and start committing crimes in our county.”
Bregman said if an ICE agent detains someone with “no warrant, no reasonable suspicion, no probable cause, therefore, you cannot involuntarily restrain someone, which means you’re committing a crime of false imprisonment. I absolutely will prosecute.”
Later, he added, “ICE has some footprint in New Mexico, like they do everywhere, I work with federal law enforcement agencies, state law enforcement agencies, every single day. Many of them, as well as [I], are horrified by what they’re seeing out there. There [are] a lot of great law enforcement agents out there right now. But what ICE is doing, what we’re seeing across the country, is not going to happen in New Mexico.”
Host Elex Michaelson then asked, “Do you believe in working with them in the jails and working with them behind bars to turn over people who are criminals who have been convicted?”
Bregman answered, “Listen, I will tell you right now that I don’t — if someone commits a violent felony in our county, we’re going to prosecute them, regardless of their legal status. We’re going to absolutely do everything we can to hold them accountable. At the same token, ICE agents aren’t going to come in and start committing crimes in our county.”
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