The Torrance County Commission approved its latest — and potentially last — month-long extension Thursday of a contract enabling U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold immigrants at the local jail.
The commission’s unanimous vote comes ahead of the May 20 effective date of House Bill 9, the Immigrant Safety Act, which prohibits public entities from contracting with ICE to detain immigrants. The New Mexico Legislature passed the bill in the 2026 legislative session.
Under the contract commissioners extended Thursday until April 30, ICE pays Torrance County more than $2 million for costs associated with housing detainees, funding the county then passes on to CoreCivic under what’s known as an “intergovernmental services agreement.”
But even after the agreement expires, county officials expect that operations at the jail, including detention of roughly 370 ICE detainees, will continue uninterrupted.
That’s because ICE has announced its intention to contract directly with private company CoreCivic, which owns the Torrance County Detention Facility.
ICE officials prefer to include government entities in detention contracts, because the federal agency generally faces fewer barriers, including procurement and competition requirements, than it would face in contracting directly with private companies.
Torrance County Manager Jordan Barela said Thursday county officials expect the federal agency and CoreCivic will ink a contract before the effective date of HB9.
“CoreCivic is in the process of negotiating a direct contract with ICE, which, if approved, would remove Torrance County as a partner to the contractual agreement for these services,” he told commissioners. “It is our understanding that those contract negotiations are ongoing and they would be in place within the next 30 days.”
Torrance County is one of three New Mexico counties with ICE detention contracts. Cibola County’s commission voted last week to begin the county’s withdrawal from its contract due to HB9. However, Cibola commissioners, in a letter to ICE and CoreCivic, raised the possibility of litigation that could arise soon that could halt the county’s exit from the contract.
That’s because Otero County, which owns the Otero County Processing Center facility, has extended its contract past the HB9 effective date in apparent defiance of the state law, an act that Cibola officials could result in litigation that affects Cibola’s contract.
The New Mexico Department of Justice has twice determined that the Otero County contract extension is illegal under two state laws, and Attorney General Raúl Torrez on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to order the county to stop its enforcement of the extended ICE contract.
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