SB 364 New Mexico Senate · 2025 Regular Session

LAW ENFORCEMENT QUALIFICATIONS

SB 364 updates New Mexico's law enforcement hiring standards by requiring all new peace officers, police officers, and state police members to either be U.S. citizens or have valid U.S. work authorization from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) at the time of appointment. This applies to all law enforcement roles covered by the bill, including city police, county sheriffs, and state police. The bill amends existing statutes to replace the previous citizenship-only requirement with this dual standard, while maintaining other existing qualifications like age, education, background checks, and physical exams. It does not change other hiring criteria but adds this new work authorization requirement for eligibility.

Issues: ✓ Immigration

Bill status signed all 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2025

Committee Review

Mar 2025

Senate Passage

Mar 2025

House Passage

Mar 2025

Signed into Law

Apr 2025

Introduced Feb 12, 2025 Signed Apr 8, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

introduced version → Final Version · 5 edits

MODERATE

SB 364 amends New Mexico state law to allow non-citizens and individuals without work authorization to be appointed as special deputy law enforcement officers, while maintaining citizenship requirements for regular state police officers. The bill creates a distinction between special deputies who may be non-citizens and regular sworn officers who must be citizens or authorized to work in the U.S.

Scope change

The bill expands eligibility for special deputy sheriff, marshal, and police officer positions to include non-citizens, while regular state police officer positions still require U.S. citizenship or work authorization.

ELIGIBILITY

Special deputy law enforcement officers can now be appointed without being U.S. citizens or having work authorization from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

New Mexico state police regular officers still must be U.S. citizens or authorized to work, but the college education requirement was reduced from 60 hours to 30 hours with a provision to complete the remaining 30 hours later.

REQUIREMENT

New certification requirements for police officers include holding a high school diploma or equivalent, valid driver's license, and no convictions for felonies or certain crimes within three years of application.

New certification requirements mandate completion of an approved law enforcement training program and require officers to obtain certification within 12 months of employment.

ENFORCEMENT

Added provisions for forfeiture of police officer positions if certification requirements are not met within 12 months of beginning employment.

Floor votes · Senate Mar 13, 2025 · House Mar 21, 2025

How they voted

25–12

Passed · 3 other

Total votes 40

Mar 13, 2025

D Democratic24

23 Yea 1

95% Yea

R Republican16

2 Yea 12 Nay 2

75% Nay

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Apr 8, 2025

Signed into law

Signed

executive

Mar 21, 2025

Lower · Passed

passed House

lower

Mar 20, 2025

Lower · Passed

DO PASS committee report adopted

lower

Mar 14, 2025

Introduced

Sent to House Judiciary Committee

lower

Mar 13, 2025

Upper · Passed

passed Senate

upper

Mar 11, 2025

Upper · Passed

DO PASS committee report adopted

upper

Mar 7, 2025

Upper · Passed

DO PASS committee report adopted

upper

Feb 12, 2025

Introduced

Sent to Senate Tax, Business and Transportation Committee & Senate Judiciary Committee

upper

5 primary · 0 co-sponsors