Divisions of the District of New Mexico
Appeals Division
The Appeals Division is responsible for drafting, editing, and submitting briefs in criminal cases from the district on appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. The section also conducts oral arguments before the Tenth Circuit in criminal cases.
Civil Division
The Civil Division, which includes the Financial Litigation Unit and the Affirmative Civil Enforcement Unit handles a large number and wide variety of civil actions encompassing both affirmative and defensive cases. Affirmative actions include eminent domain actions, enforced collection of student loans, criminal monetary impositions, bond forfeitures, judgment debts and other types of collection cases including bankruptcies, mortgage foreclosures, and judicial foreclosures. Defensive actions include those brought under the Federal Tort Claims Act, Title VII (employment discrimination), the Freedom of Information Act, and a myriad of other civil actions. Affirmative civil enforcement actions include cases under the False Claims Act such as Medicaid/Medicare fraud, government contract fraud, qui tams actions, anti-kickback cases.
Criminal Division
The Criminal Division is subdivided into various litigating sections, including an Immigration Section and a Narcotics Section in Albuquerque. The district's location along the international border with the Republic of Mexico gives rise to very large numbers of immigration and narcotics cases. Another Criminal Division litigative section is the Violent Crime and Firearms Section. The Violent Crime and Firearms Section emphasizes the prosecution of felony offenses in Indian country and the prosecution of federal firearms offenses, but also prosecutes other crimes such as bank robbery and carjacking. The district's Criminal Division litigative section also includes a White Collar and General Crimes Section, which prosecutes an enormous range of offenses arising from the broad scope of activities of the federal government in New Mexico, as well as prosecuting various types of business frauds.
Las Cruces Branch Office
The Las Cruces office is approximately 220 miles south of Albuquerque. The Las Cruces Branch Office is responsible for prosecutions arising out of the southern portion of New Mexico. The office prosecutes principally narcotics and immigration related offenses, but is also responsible for an assortment of firearms, public integrity, and other types of cases.