(Reuters) – New Mexico state Senator Cindy Nava recalled how her father, a former police officer in Chihuahua, Mexico, instilled in her a respect for the law even though he brought his family to the U.S. illegally.

“We grew up with this notion of rule of law, and you follow the law, and the irony is that we’re (illegal) immigrants,” said Nava, who counts herself the first former illegal immigrant and enrollee in the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to be elected to public office in the U.S.

As a former Dreamer who has been a U.S. citizen for just three years, Nava has a more nuanced view than many Americans do of the illegal immigration issue that propelled President Donald Trump back into office.

Among the first bills she sponsored after entering office January 1 would stop state and local police resources being used to support Trump’s federal deportation raids.

For her, it is a matter of law. Immigration enforcement is not a state or local duty. 

She supports federal agents going after criminal illegal immigrants and supports cooperation between local and federal police in special cases, like human trafficking.

“Criminals absolutely need to be apprehended, and the issue here is how do you define a criminal,” said Nava in an interview from her office in the Roundhouse, the state legislature’s building in Santa Fe.

After Republican gains among Hispanic voters in 2024, Nava, an up-and-coming Democratic legislator, sees a way forward for Democrats with candidates like herself who understand working-class Latino voters.

“I think sticking to our values, and ensuring that the representation is authentic, I think that is a lesson, because we saw the other side tap into it,” said Nava, who in 2016 enrolled in DACA, which guards against deportation of undocumented people who arrived in the U.S. as children.  

    Such people were commonly referred to as “Dreamers,” based on never-passed proposals called the DREAM Act. When Nava hears Democrats like U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona talk about the need for heightened border security and immigration reform, she agrees. 

Last month Gallego voted for a Republican measure that directs federal authorities to deport illegal immigrants charged with theft or certain violent crimes, outraging many Arizona Democrats.

Nava’s family emigrated to New Mexico when she was seven. Her mother works as a housekeeper while her father is a construction worker.

She became hooked on politics as a teenager, taking unpaid internships at the Roundhouse for a decade. She was a senior policy adviser at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in the Biden administration.

“We don’t need saviors, we don’t need people to talk on our behalf,” Nava said.

She is concerned about Trump’s portrayal of all unauthorized migrants being portrayed as criminals, and the profiling of citizens who may appear to look like them. Native American leaders in New Mexico have urged tribal members to carry state-issued identification cards and their Certificate of Indian Blood, an official U.S. document certifying a person has Native American ancestry, in case they are caught up in Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.

“Folks are so fearful, folks that are not necessarily immigrants,” Nava said.

(Reporting By Andrew Hay; editing by Donna Bryson and David Gregorio)

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