The Republican Party in the US state of New Mexico has said it was attacked by a “deliberate act of arson”. The party said the entry to its headquarters in the state were destroyed on Sunday morning and that the words “ICE=KKK” were sprayed on the wall.
It was a “horrific attack, fueled by hatred and intolerance”, the party said according to ABC News. Albuquerque police said an investigation will be led by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI.
Nobody was harmed in the incident according to Amy Barela, the New Mexico GOP’s chair. “We will not allow New Mexico’s broken criminal justice system to dilute the seriousness of this attack,” Ms Barela said. “The Republican Party of New Mexico will not be silenced. We will emerge from this stronger, more united, and more determined to fight for the people of New Mexico and the future of our country.”
It comes after lawyers raised the alarm over 48 “disappeared individuals” in New Mexico earlier this month. A civil rights complaint was lodged by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) after Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and members of other agencies rounded up dozens of individuals in an operation carried out in the cities of Roswell, Albuquerque and Roswell.
ACLU New Mexico’s senior staff attorney said: “We submitted a complaint to the Department of Homeland Security because we don’t know what has happened to these four dozen New Mexicans. They’ve effectively disappeared.” She added that ACLU and other organisations had not heard from them, nor seen them at facilities where ICE is known to hold immigrants on civil immigration violations, the Roswell Daily Record report.
ICE said that on March 8 it detained 48 undocumented people in an “enhanced enforcement operation” with the FBI, US Marshals Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and US Customs and Border Protection. Of the 48 taken into custody, ICE said 20 had criminal records that included “homicide, criminal sexual penetration, sexual assault, battery on a household member, aggravated battery, drug trafficking, burglary-forced entry, driving under the influence, and shoplifting”.
The news release by ICE on March 12 also said: “Others were arrested for immigration violations such as illegal entry and illegal re-entry after deportation. Twenty-one of the illegal aliens taken into custody have final orders of removal.”
ACLU says it has been unable to contact the individuals who were rounded up. A ICE detainee locator service can’t be used, ACLU’s complaint said, because it requires the names of the individuals to track them down.
“We know that when a government apprehends somebody and conceals what has happened to them or their whereabouts, that is a human rights violation,” Ms Sheff said.
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