Senate Bill 250 (SB 250) relates to the federal use of state resources and prohibits state and local agencies from using resources to enforce federal immigration laws.  The bill makes the detainment of federal prisoners discretionary under federal law and repeals an obsolete federal reference.  

 Senate Bill 250 (SB 250) enacts a new statute that prohibits state and local agencies (including a home rule municipality or their agents) from using or authorizing public resources to enforce federal immigration law.  “Public resources” include public funds, personnel, property, or equipment.  The bill forbids the use of public resources to identify, detect, apprehend, arrest, detain, or prolong the detention of a person based on a suspicion or knowledge that the person is in the United States in violation of immigration law.  Public resources also cannot be used to assist agents of the federal government in any such activity based on such suspicion or knowledge. 
However, this prohibition does not apply to the new Section 33-3-16 NMSA 1978. SB 250 repeals Section 33-3-16 NMSA 1978 and replaces it with a new section.  This new section provides that a sheriff, jailer, jail administrator, or an independent contractor who operates a jail and receives custody of a person through a federal warrant or order in a criminal proceeding may (not must) keep that person in custody until the person is released under federal law.  It requires the United States to pay a jail fee, which the jail operator establishes. The bill provides definitions for “jail administrator” and “sheriff”. 
SB 250 also repeals Section 29-1-10 NMSA 1978 which required all state and local law enforcement agencies to participate in the Federal Law Enforcement Assistance Act of 1965.  However, that Act was repealed in 1968.   

 Currently, Section 33-3-16 (which this bill repeals and replaces) mandates those who run jails to receive persons into custody who have been remitted in conformity with a legal process issued under the authority of the United States.  It also requires the US to be responsible for paying the fee which is set by those in charge of the jail.  

 The Senate Judiciary Committee Substitute for SB 250 is the same as the original bill, except it adds a provision that nothing in Section 1 (prohibiting enforcement of federal immigration laws) affects an existing written contract between a county government and the federal government for the housing of federal detainees or the extension of such a contract.