The Las Cruces City Council on Nov. 15 voted unanimously to approve a resolution that calls for the U.S. to craft a better pathway for immigrants to achieve American citizenship.
The resolution requests Congress to develop comprehensive immigration reform, Councilor Johana Bencomo explained, according to New Mexico State University’s KRWG.
“This felt really important to me to just reiterate and vocalize that Las Cruces has been a welcoming community to immigrants and people of all backgrounds for a really long time, but especially in the last few years,” Bencomo told the PBS affiliate. “We, right now, are in a once-in-a-generation moment where Congress is currently discussing applying another pathway to citizenship.”
This is the second time in five years in which the Las Cruces City Council approved a resolution expressing support for immigrant families.
According to KWRG, undocumented immigrants comprise close to 12% of the population and in all, 60,000 undocumented immigrants call New Mexico home.
“I'm really surprised we haven't done this a long time ago,” Councilor Gill Sorg told KRWG. “I think the welcoming resolution that we had here, what three or so years ago, that was part of the whole process, but getting this path to citizenship is so important.”
Nonprofit New Mexico Voices For Children estimates that the state’s undocumented immigrant population pays almost $70 million a year in state and local taxes.
Bencomo asserted that most of Las Cruces’ essential workers who stepped up during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic were undocumented residents, KRWG reported.
Las Cruces City Council will have a different look when it convenes for the first time in 2022.
All six seats will be filled by women, including three who prevailed on Election Day earlier this month, according to the Las Cruces Sun News.
