Lea County Commissioner Pat Sims is a registered Republican but a Libertarian at heart.
He calls his cows Democrats.
“They’re always sitting around, waiting for a handout,†he said.
He has homes on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, one in Eunice and one in Baja, where he runs an international team that races trophy trucks.
In Mexico, “We don’t even close the doors at night,†he said. “We just leave the screens open and let the Sea of Cortez cool us down.â€
However, he said, citing drugs coming across the border into New Mexico, “I lock my deadbolt in the U.S.â€
Sims said he’d be “100%†in favor of having a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Lea County.
New Mexico already has three ICE detention facilities with a combined capacity of about 2,000 people. None is located in Lea County, but that could change.
Records obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union through a federal Freedom of Information Act request reveal GEO Group, the private prison operator that runs the Lea County Correctional Facility near Hobbs, has responded to a federal “request for information†about the potential for housing immigrant detainees.
Construction crews work on temporary housing for migrants last month in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
The federal government began seeking to expand its capacity to detain immigrants in New Mexico in the summer, issuing an August request for information regarding “approximately 850 to 950 detention beds … for adult noncitizens†within two hours of its El Paso office and suboffices in Las Cruces, Roswell, Chaparral and Albuquerque.
ACLU of New Mexico senior staff attorney Rebecca Sheff said in a recent interview the organization received a batch of heavily redacted materials Jan. 15 showing the federal government received three information packets from New Mexico.
As suspected, CoreCivic, a private prison operator that already runs ICE detention facilities in Cibola and Torrance counties, has submitted information about the potential for increasing capacity in those centers.
The documents also show GEO Group has proposed holding ICE detainees in the Lea County Correctional Facility, Sheff said.
“That one … doesn’t currently hold people in ICE detention,†she said. “It only holds people in state detention … so that would necessitate some changes, operationally and potentially contractually, for them to start as an ICE facility. But they’ve proposed it.â€
A GEO Group spokesperson referred questions about the proposal to ICE.
The federal agency acknowledged a query The New Mexican sent to its media email address but didn’t provide any information in response.
GEO Group owns the prison in Lea County, but the county owns the land under the facility and leases it to the firm, which has a state contract to house New Mexico prisoners.
‘We want the criminals deported’
Sims said his desire to see expanded ICE capacity and tougher enforcement in New Mexico is not about immigration — it’s about drug crime.
Border Patrol officers search an undocumented migrant before loading him onto a bus bound for a processing center in Sunland Park on Jan. 18, 2025.
“I don’t have more than just two or three friends that don’t have a relative by marriage or blood that are or that have an illegal alien somewhere,†he said, “and these are hardworking, taxpaying members of our society.â€
He has friends whose parents came to the U.S. illegally before he was born, he added.
He doesn’t want to see 80-year-old grandmothers picked up and harassed by ICE agents, Sims said, but he’s also seen his stateside community ravaged by the impacts of fentanyl trafficking, “and if locking down the border will protect the young people in my community, I’m all for it.
“I have no problem with somebody coming here to better themselves, but I have a serious problem with somebody coming here to do a drug operation,†he said.
He added, “I don’t believe innocent people are going to be put in those facilities, and if they are, I will deal with them to the fullest extent of my power.â€
Fellow Lea County Commissioner Brad Weber said when it comes to the mass deportations promised by newly elected President Donald Trump, “I can pretty much speak for the group. … We want the criminals deported.
Mexican National Guard troops patrol the border in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, near El Paso.
“I mean, look what our state does now,†Weber said. “We give them a little hug and pat on the back and send them back out and see how many times they’re gonna do the same thing before they ever get sentenced. So yeah, I would like to see the criminals go back.â€
As for law-abiding immigrants, that’s another matter.
“I think there needs to be a better way, a better avenue to get a green card to work and gain citizenship. That needs to be fixed,†Weber said.
‘No discussions’ with state
Details about any potential ICE expansion in New Mexico remain scarce.
The New Mexico Corrections Department “has not been approached by GEO Group regarding the housing of ICE detainees at Lea County Correctional Facility, nor have there been any written proposals or upcoming meetings on the topic,†agency spokesperson Brittany Roembach wrote in an email Friday.
“There have been no discussions within NMCD about the co-mingling of state inmates and ICE detainees at this facility or any other state facility, and NMCD does not support such an arrangement,†Roembach added.
She said the Lea County facility has a capacity of about 1,200 inmates and a current population of about 1,065.
Asked if the state prison system has room in other facilities to house those inmates if the Lea County Correctional Facility became an ICE detention center, Roembach said she couldn’t comment on such a hypothetical scenario, “other than to say that the New Mexico Corrections Department will always figure out how to safely house those entrusted to our care.â€
GEO Group ‘wanting to sell’?
Sims, Weber and Lea County Commissioner Gary Edison all said no one has talked to them about changing the arrangement at the prison, but there have been other indicators change might be afoot.
“They actually approached us recently wanting to sell this facility,†Weber said of GEO Group. “And we were like, ‘No, we don’t want to get in that business.’ â€
The company’s price was in the $300 million range, Weber said.
“More than we cared to mess with, that’s for sure,†he said.
“We just assumed they were fixing to just shut it down,†Weber said, which he thought would be sad because it would leave the big building empty and remove about 200 jobs in the region.
Mexican National Army soldiers stand guard last month as crews construct a tent facility to house undocumented migrants in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
Although he added, “There’s not anywhere here in Hobbs there’s not a ‘help wanted’ sign hanging out.â€
Edison said he’d also hate to see the facility become vacant but would need to learn more about how an ICE detention center would impact the region before saying whether he’d support one in Lea County.
“That might be a conversation for the commission if it arises,†he said. “But as far as I know, nobody’s proposed that to us.â€
Weber also said he couldn’t comment on whether he’d support an ICE facility in the county without learning more.
“You’ve got me very curious, so I’m going to be making a few phone calls and see what I can find out,†he said.