For Immediate Release:
Contact: Olivia Padilla
(505) 986-4882
Olivia.Padilla@nmlegis.gov
February 10, 2020
SANTA FE – Today, the New Mexico State Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 137, Licensure Eligibility Without Lawful Presence. Co-sponsored by Senators Gerald Ortiz y Pino and Daniel Ivey-Soto and Representatives Javier Martínez and Andrea Romero, this bill creates new law that allows an individual who is qualified for occupational or professional licensure to remain qualified regardless of one’s citizenship or immigration status. Expert witnesses for the bill included Jazmín Irazoqui-Ruiz, staff attorney for the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center (NMILC), and Felipe Rodríguez Romero, campaign manager for the New Mexico Dream Team, who advised Senator Ortiz y Pino during the Senate floor debate. Upon passage, members of the New Mexico Dream Team sitting in the Senate Gallery were overcome by emotion. Fernanda Banda, NM Dream Team Advocacy Lead, stated that the NM Dream Team had “been working on [SB 137] since before the session began” and that it feels good to know that with the 42-0 vote, “all the Senate was on [DREAMERS’] side.”
The legislation will positively impact many New Mexican DREAMERS, including the state’s more than 6,000 DACA recipients, who are entering the workforce after completing their schooling. SB 137 strives to combat the rapid brain drain New Mexico faces with young professionals leaving the state to practice their professions elsewhere. Rodríguez Romero stated that many New Mexico Dream Team members who are completing their education are “considering moving by the end of the year to other states that have passed legislation like [SB 137].” Now that the bill moves on to the House, it is promising that many young professionals will have more opportunity to stay and serve New Mexico communities and “alleviate the shortage the state has in many professions like education, medicine, and other industries,” added Rodríguez Romero.
Senator Ortiz y Pino is confident that “the House will be receptive to [SB 137]” and that “the Governor will definitely sign it when it reaches her desk.” Though the legislation has a ways to go before being officially signed into law, today’s passage was a victory for many who had been actively advocating for the bill.
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