FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, July 21, 2020
Immigrant Rights Organizations Denounce Sheriff Gonzales’ Collaboration with Trump’s Shadow Police Force
New Mexico – Bernalillo County Sheriff, Manuel Gonzales III, announced Tuesday afternoon he will meet with President Trump and Attorney General William Barr at the White House on Wednesday to discuss BCSO’s efforts to “combat crime.” This news comes after CBS News published a memo detailing that the Department of Homeland Security is considering Albuquerque as one of a few cities where more than 175 federal officers could be deployed.
The following is a joint statement by community groups in Bernalillo County expressing opposition to Sheriff Gonzales’ meeting with the Trump administration and the possibility of deploying paramilitary forces in NM:
“Systemic racism pervades every institution of government, and unfortunately law enforcement is often its executor as proven by their systemic violence, brutality, abuse, and killings of Black and Brown lives across the country as a way to carry out a white supremacist agenda.”
“We unequivocally denounce the possible deployment of Trump’s federal paramilitary force in a majority community of color; this action is simply another damaging tactic laced with xenophobic and anti-immigrant sentiment that does not make families safe. It is a ploy to distract the nation from the failures of the Trump administration during a global pandemic while further descending into a totalitarian regime in the U.S.”
“The relationship between local law enforcement and our communities is already a fractured one as our city and county have experienced a deep and persistent history of police brutality and abuse. Most recently highlighted with the shooting of an unarmed protester by Steven Baca, the son of a former Bernalillo County Sheriff.”
“Sheriff Manuel Gonzales’ meeting with the Trump administration will only exacerbate the distrust and fear our families carry day to day, keeping domestic abuse survivors or victims of wage theft silent out of fear of deportation.”
“We must denounce any attempt to deploy a paramilitary force to our city. We strongly object to the meeting between the Bernalillo County Sheriff and the Trump administration, and we strongly object to the deployment of this paramilitary force into our county and our city.”
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