New Mexico
Behind Detention Walls: Leonel’s Story
By Rebecca Sheff, Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU of New Mexico & Zoe Bowman, Supervising Attorney at Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center
Editor’s note: Trigger Warning: this narrative mentions thoughts of self-harm and suicidal ideation. This is the third in a series of stories from inside the Otero County Processing Center, based on interviews conducted in the summer of 2024 by Colorado College students: Alex Reynolds, Sandra Torres, Karen Henriquez Fajardo, and Michelle Ortiz. We are grateful for their invaluable work on this project.
We spoke with Leonel Jose Rivas Gonzalez at the Otero County Processing Center in June 2024. Leonel is one of three men, represented by Las Americas, Center for Constitutional Rights, and the ACLU of New Mexico, who recently petitioned a federal district court to prevent their transfer to Guantánamo. Despite initially obtaining a temporary restraining order enjoining their transfer, Leonel and the other petitioners were deported to Venezuela on February 10, 2025—less than 24 hours after the court order was issued. They were put on the first deportation flights to Venezuela in over a year.
Leonel was born in Venezuela in 1997 and, along with his siblings, was raised by his grandparents after his mother passed away. Growing up, his family would gather to celebrate birthdays and Christmas together.
Leonel described himself as a “salsero” who enjoys dancing and sports, though he emphasized that more than anything, “I liked to study.” His dream of becoming a businessman led him to study sales and management. What he talked about loving most was “playing with my daughter” and his simple wish for “Un buen vivir”—a good life.
“I feel kidnapped…
Sometimes I could not stop crying,”
Leonel entered the US in December 2023 and was taken into ICE custody. An immigration judge ordered his deportation in March 2024. Months later, he was still detained in Otero, even though there were no deportation flights from the US to Venezuela due to the diplomatic breakdown between the two countries.
“I feel kidnapped,” Leonel told us.
He found the arbitrary rules at Otero dehumanizing: “You can’t even put your hand on another detainee’s shoulder without the guards coming at you. They see everything as bad.”
Leonel and other immigrants held in Otero were placed in solitary confinement as punishment for participating in a hunger strike protesting conditions at the Otero facility and ICE not responding to their release requests.
He spent 45 days in solitary. During this ordeal, “I thought about cutting my wrists,” he confessed, “but thinking about my [partner] and daughter gave me strength.” The guards sometimes “shut their windows,” intensifying his anxiety. “Sometimes I could not stop crying,” he said.
With only “a really small window” connecting him to the outside world, Leonel turned to reading—”mainly the Bible or Bible analysis books”—to maintain his sanity.
“Los Venezolanos no somos peligrosos a la sociedad.”
To cope with detention, Leonel watched TV and slept. He used to talk more with family, but the facility restricted calls and charged high rates. When mental health staff visited, he stayed silent, having heard that conditions are worse in the mental health clinic.
Leonel has held onto dreams for life beyond detention. He hopes to be reunited with his family, travel the country and see new sights, and work.
“Los Venezolanos no somos peligrosos a la sociedad,” Leonel emphasized—Venezuelans are not dangerous to society. His story, like Junior’s and Yofer’s, underscores why New Mexico must pass House Bill 9, the Immigrant Safety Act. Our state must not continue to enable a detention system that strips immigrants of their dignity, subjects them to arbitrary punishment, and denies them the chance to contribute to our communities.
New Mexico
A 900K-acre land sale just made LA Rams owner Stan Kroenke the nation’s largest private landowner
The purchase of a New Mexico ranch nearing 1 million acres tipped the scales for Stan Kroenke, who is now the largest private landowner in America.
Kroenke, 78, topped Land Report’s annual list of the country’s 100 largest landowners, leading a pack of billionaires eager to beef up their rural portfolios.
Kroenke is worth an estimated $26.8 billion, according to Bloomberg, largely thanks to his ownership of sport franchises like the Los Angeles Rams, the Denver Nuggets and the UK’s Arsenal Football Club — as well as several of the teams’ sports arenas.
Kroenke, a Missouri native, is married to Walmart heiress Ann Walton Kroenke.
Kroenke recently acquired more than 937,000 acres of noncontiguous New Mexico ranchland, rounding out his total land holdings to more than 2.7 million acres across the American West and Canada.
Land Report confirmed the December deal, which spans four New Mexico counties. The off-market transaction is the largest single land purchase in the US since 2011.
The price of Kroenke’s New Mexico purchase remains under wraps, but Land Report estimated the former value of his ranch holdings at $3.9 billion.
Kroenke made headlines in 2016 when he snapped up Texas’ historic Waggoner Ranch — the 535,000-acre property is largest piece of unbroken ranchland in the Lone Star State. Other acquisitions include massive ranches in Montana and Nevada.
In addition to rolling rural plains, Kroenke owns an estimated 60 million square feet of commercial holdings, the New York Times reported, including sports venues in California and Denver.
The investor’s busy two decades of ranch acquisitions has set him far above other high-profile billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
Bezos’ holdings ranked 21st in Land Report’s report, spanning close to half a million acres largely concentrated in Texas. Gates trailed behind in 44th place, whose prolific farmland purchases span roughly 275,000 acres.
An uptick in rural land grabs among billionaires over the past decade was hastened along in recent years by the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic and the so-called “Yellowstone Effect.”
New Mexico
Actor Timothy Busfield turns himself in following child sex abuse allegations in New Mexico
Timothy Busfield turned himself into police on Tuesday after authorities in New Mexico issued an arrest warrant for the director and Emmy Award-winning actor accused of child sex abuse.
A spokesperson for the Albuquerque Police Department confirmed to CBS News that Busfield had surrendered. He was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center in Bernalillo County on a child sex abuse charge. The arrest warrant, which was signed by a judge, said the charge was for two counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor.
An investigator with the Albuquerque Police Department on Friday filed a criminal complaint which alleged a child reported that Busfield touched him inappropriately. The acts allegedly occurred on the set of “The Cleaning Lady,” a TV series that Busfield directed and acted in.
In a video provided to TMZ, Busfield said the allegations “are all lies.”
“I did not do anything to those little boys,” the 68-year-old actor said in the video appearing to show him in Albuquerque. He said he arrived in the city after driving 2,000 miles. Busfield’s attorney did not immediately return a message seeking comment Tuesday.
The criminal complaint filed by an investigator with Albuquerque police says the boy reported that he was 7 years old when Busfield touched him three or four times on private areas over his clothing. Busfield allegedly touched him five or six times on another occasion when he was 8, the complaint said.
The child was reportedly afraid to tell anyone because Busfield was the director and he feared he would get mad at him, the complaint said.
The boy’s twin brother told authorities he was touched by Busfield but did not specify where. He said he didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to get in trouble.
When interviewed by authorities, Busfield suggested that the boys’ mother was seeking revenge for her children being replaced on the series. He also said he likely would have picked up and tickled the boys, saying the set was a playful environment.
The mother of the twins — who are identified only by their initials in court records — reported to Child Protective Services that the abuse occurred between November 2022 and spring 2024, the complaint said.
“The Cleaning Lady” aired for four seasons on Fox, ending in 2025. It was produced by Warner Bros., which according to the complaint conducted its own investigation into the abuse allegations but was unable to corroborate them.
Busfield is known for appearances in “The West Wing,” “Field of Dreams” and “Thirtysomething,” the latter of which won him an Emmy for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series in 1991. He is married to actor Melissa Gilbert, who deactivated her Instagram account amid the allegations.
Gilbert indicated through a publicist that she won’t speak publicly at the request of attorneys for Busfield while the legal process unfolds.
“Her focus is on supporting and caring for their very large family,” publicist Ame Van Iden said in a statement. “Melissa stands with and supports her husband and will address the public at an appropriate time.”
The investigation began in November 2024, when the investigator responded to a call from a doctor at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque. The boys’ parents had gone there at the recommendation of a law firm, the complaint said.
According to the complaint, one of the boys has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety. A social worker documented him saying he has had nightmares about Busfield touching him.
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