Crimes against children – no criminal conviction for a crime committed against a child is eligible for expungement.Sex crimes – no conviction for a sexual offense is eligible for expungement, whether rape, sexual assault, or a lesser crime.Convictions in the following cases will NOT be eligible for record-sealing: There are certain crimes that CANNOT be expunged under the CREA law. New Mexico is leading the way with this and has now implemented some of the broadest-reaching expungement laws in the country. The new laws remedy this rather unjust situation where somebody’s future employment, housing, immigration status or other key aspects of their life could be negatively affected by actions taken a long time ago that never resulted in a conviction or where a person proved after conviction that they went on to live a productive life with no further offenses. Only the criminal records of juveniles, first drug offenses committed under the age of 18, and crimes committed by victims of human trafficking could be sealed prior to the changes. Expungement of most cases in which there was a conviction after a conviction-free waiting period of two to ten years, depending on what the underlying charges were.īefore these changes to the law, a person arrested and charged with any crime in New Mexico still had a permanently publicly accessible record even if they were never convicted of the crime.Expungement of cases that were dismissed (all but a small category) after a one-year waiting period, providing no new charges are pending against the individual.The new law (known as Criminal Record Expungement Act or CREA for short) allows the following: Since January 1, 2020, the state of New Mexico has allowed the expungement (sealing) of most arrests, cases which were dismissed, and conviction records in all but the most serious crimes. As well as serving any initial sentence or probationary period, you may continue to pay the price when trying to secure employment, housing, immigration clearance or anything else requiring a routine background check.īut did you know that the records of most crimes can be expunged (sealed) in New Mexico? With a few exceptions, criminal records can be made invisible to the public, protecting you from problems with future background checksīut which crimes can be expunged and which stay on your record? The Criminal Record Expungement Act in New Mexico – about one in three.Ī criminal record can have serious consequences for your future. This applies to 70 million adults in the U.S. If you have ever been arrested, charged, or convicted of a crime in New Mexico, there is no escaping a criminal record.Įven if you are never convicted, there will be a permanent record of it somewhere.

New mexico criminal records