An unmarked SUV accelerated past a pickup truck, braked to cut it off, and at least six men in tactical gear marked “Police ICE” rushed into homes under construction on Rosemary Court near Coors and Sage roads SW in Albuquerque's South Valley on Thursday. Nearby residents watched the scene unfold and pulled out their phones to film it, capturing footage that has since spread widely online.
According to the New Mexico Political Report, federal agents in unmarked vehicles descended on the neighborhood construction site in Bernalillo County's South Valley that day. The outlet reported that at least one Hispanic man was seen removed in handcuffs as the scene played out in front of residents who watched and filmed. The video itself was captured by an Instagram user, who shared it and gave permission for it to be reposted by The Paper. and New Mexico Political Report.
The South Valley incident has not come with an official account from immigration authorities about what prompted it or how many people were taken into custody there. KOB 4 reported that ICE said it had arrested 237 people across New Mexico, but the agency did not say where those arrests took place, and it has not clarified whether that statewide figure includes anyone picked up at a construction site in Santa Fe, according to the same station's reporting.
A Separate Santa Fe Raid Drew Scrutiny Too
The Santa Fe case stems from a raid at a housing construction site in the city's Los Brios development, where federal immigration agents arrested several people on a Tuesday morning, per the Santa Fe New Mexican. A social media video from that scene showed men being walked off in handcuffs by agents marked ICE and ERO, the paper reported. Twilight Homes owner Vincent Pizzonia told the Santa Fe New Mexican that other builders had described similar visits, saying, “I spoke to a couple other builders. They've gone to quite a few construction sites in the city.”
New Mexico Homebuilders Association CEO Miles Conway said the pattern was rippling beyond any single job site. “The increase in immigration arrests and raids in some of New Mexico's largest cities is taking a toll not only on construction workers and their families but on the homebuilding industry,” Conway said, per the Santa Fe New Mexican.
Statewide Numbers Point to a Sharp Rise
The scale of enforcement activity has grown dramatically over the past two years. A New Mexico Immigrant Law Center report found that immigration arrests statewide rose from 20 in July 2024 to 729 in July 2026, a jump cited by the New Mexico Political Report in its coverage of the Rosemary Court incident.
That climb has shown up in Albuquerque neighborhoods beyond the South Valley. Source New Mexico reported that an Albuquerque resident provided video of what she said was a federal immigration arrest involving a man in a work truck in her neighborhood on August 23, 2026, showing ICE officers in unmarked vehicles and masks pulling him over around 8:30 a.m. Advocacy groups told Source New Mexico they were fielding a steady stream of calls from affected families: El Centro de Igualdad y Derechos said it had heard from roughly eight relatives of people arrested in a single week, while the Immigrant Law Center's Emily Alvarez said her organization had heard from about six family members recently. In Santa Fe, advocates told the outlet that ICE had arrested as many as 16 people over the course of several days. Even so, the advocates and local officials cited in that report said they could not estimate the total number of people ICE may have arrested in Albuquerque in recent days.
Legal Fights Are Playing Out Elsewhere
Construction-site enforcement has also triggered legal challenges in other states. In Alabama, a federal judge issued a stay temporarily halting ICE officers from using certain policies at construction sites in Baldwin County while that case proceeds, according to the Alabama Reflector. The policies at issue there concerned warrantless entry, preemptive detention and continued detention. That ruling applies to the Alabama case and does not establish what rules govern the South Valley incident in New Mexico.
