Dozens Of People Missing In New Mexico Following ICE Raids: 'They've Been Effectively Disappeared'

A group of immigrants' rights advocates in New Mexico filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security reporting the "disappearance" of 48 state residents after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted raids in the area in early March.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico said in a civil rights complaint that the absence of families searching for loved ones who were taken away is an anomaly. They are calling for an investigation regarding the whereabouts and well-being of the disappeared migrants, the complaint added.

The filing calls on the civil rights and detention ombudsman offices to investigate the matter, ensure the disappeared people's physical and psychological well-being, ensure no retaliation occurs against them for the complaint's submission and "pursue accountability for all personnel and contractors" involved.

"We are alarmed and disturbed that these four dozen New Mexican individuals remain unidentified and that insufficient transparency, oversight, and accountability has taken place to date regarding their whereabouts and wellbeing," reads a passage of the complaint.

The migrants were "snatched up" in Santa Fe, Roswell and Albuquerque. ACLU and other organizations have been unable to locate them since the weeklong raids ended on March 8, said Rebecca Sheff, senior staff attorney at the ACLU New Mexico.

"We don't have anybody and that's exactly the concern, that they've been effectively 'disappeared.' We have yet to learn any of their identities or whereabouts or the authorities under which they were held or conditions of their detention. We don't know if they've already been deported," Sheff said.

"No one here in New Mexico should have to live with this kind of fear that they or their loved ones could be picked up and effectively disappeared," she added.

The term "disappeared" is most often used in reference to people secreted away by military or law enforcement in repressive regimes in Latin America and other regions, NBC News explains.

According to ICE, officials arrested most of the New Mexico residents not for criminal convictions, but for violations of civil immigration law, such as unlawful entry or re-entry after deportation. ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations El Paso Field Office Director Mary De Anda-Ybarra also applauded the arrests in a statement.

"ICE is grateful for our federal partners' assistance in taking egregious offenders off the streets and out of our communities, these arrests exemplify the type of criminals living among us and highlight ICE's commitment to our agency's primary mission to protect public safety," she wrote.

Marcela Diaz, founding executive director of Somos un Pueblo Unido, said the towns' mayors told members of her organization that they didn't know the arrests would happen, and that ICE had assured them they would only be going after people with criminal convictions.

"They're putting everyone into the same category, whether it's a misdemeanor for having come into the country without inspection and a broad range of serious crimes, and we know that that isn't the majority of people being taken in collateral arrests," Diaz said.