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New Mexico governor-elect nixes possibility of emulating Arizona immigration law
Susana Martinez, the newly elected governor of New Mexico, recently stated that she has no plans to bring strict immigration policies like Arizona's controversial SB 1070 to her state, according to USA Today.
"No, no, I don't want that for New Mexico," she said during an interview on Spanish-language television channel Univision.
New Mexico's population is 45.6 percent Hispanic, nearly three times that figure nationally. It has the highest proportion of Hispanics of any state in the country.
Martinez, a Republican, is the first female Hispanic governor in the history of the United States.
Despite not wanting to emulate Arizona's strict immigration law, Martinez is reportedly hawkish on some immigration issues, particularly on the question of whether illegal immigrants should be able to obtain driver's licenses in her state.
"Around 80 percent of people in New Mexico don't want the people who are here illegally to have a driver's license. They want to ensure that those who get licenses are from the United States," she said during the Univision interview.
Foreigners interested in immigrating to the United States legally can participate in the EB-5 program, which awards U.S. green card eligibility to any foreign national whose $1 million ($500,000 in some regions) investment in an American company results in the creation or preservation of 10 or more jobs.