Politicking against federal contract could cost NM

He’s a Democrat running for a congressional seat in a crowded primary, and he apparently thinks that scoring political points by taking a tough stance against ICE and those affiliated in any way with the agency is more important than local jobs. Welcome to primary season in New Mexico. The congressional candidate is Pat Davis, and the company he painted a scarlet letter on is Albuquerque-based CSI Aviation, which is trying to secure $250,000 in state Local Economic Development Act funding to renovate the former headquarters of Eclipse Aerospace. The company estimates the hangar renovation will create and maintain an additional 60 full-time jobs over the next decade. The average annual wage for those jobs — which include administrative staff, maintenance personnel and pilots — is $50,000.

The Albuquerque Development Commission approved the project on March 29, but it still needs City Council approval.

So what, exactly, has CSI Aviation done to merit a scarlet letter? The company received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Detention Compliance and Removals office for air charter services. CSI Aviation says those contracts are unrelated to the hangar it rents at the Albuquerque International Sunport or the proposed renovation. Besides, what CSI does is completely lawful. Davis has raised concerns that the city’s recently beefedup immigrant-friendly resolution prohibits the city from aiding in any part of the federal immigration enforcement or deportation process. “I believe this would prohibit the use of staff in the Economic Development Department from serving as aides to the (CSI Aviation) application or facilitating subsequent payments from city-administered funds, even if they are pass-throughs from the states,” Davis wrote in a Feb. 28 letter to city Chief Administrative Officer Sarita Nair. As his letter makes clear, this isn’t city money. Davis is wrong to suggest that the city should penalize CSI Aviation for its association with ICE, particularly when the company says there is no relationship between the hangar it rents at the Sunport or the proposed project and its work for ICE. Indeed, CSI Aviation notes that the company’s New Mexico business operations “are about getting sick and injured people transported by air to receive the medical care they need to stay alive, adding quality jobs and revenue to the local economy, and coming up with a solution to use empty and wasted hangar space at the Sunport.” The company says it has been diversifying its business operations to include work with its own aircraft through federal contracts unrelated to ICE, including transportation of military personnel for the Department of Defense.

To suggest that a business should be penalized because of its affiliation with a federal agency that is tasked by Congress with upholding immigration laws smacks of McCarthyism. And what about all the other federal contractors who keep the economy here running? Do they deserve scarlet letters as well? Where does it end?

Should ICE agents be banned from catching a flight at the city-owned Sunport altogether? Should gas stations, restaurants and hotels that serve ICE agents be off limits to city of Albuquerque employees on trips?

Mayor Tim Keller’s administration and Davis’ colleagues on the City Council need to shut Davis down on this matter. CSI Aviation’s project should be judged solely on its merits. To do otherwise would be an abuse of power, and it would likely open the city up to a lawsuit in federal court.