Uranium transport through Navajo Nation sparks concerns in New Mexico- Patrick Lohmann, Source NM
A provision in the secret, controversial agreement allowing a private company to transport uranium ore across the Arizona side of the Navajo Nation has New Mexico anti-nuclear advocates increasingly worried about the prospect of new mining activity near a mountain sacred to the Navajo people.
The Navajo Nation in late January agreed to let Energy Fuels transport uranium ore from its Pinyon Plains Mine in Arizona to its mill in White Mesa, Utah. Neither party has released the agreement, calling it confidential, they have described what it says in broad terms, and a transport policy, overseen by the United States Forest Service, details plans in case of an emergency.
Two to three truckloads a day are making the trek across the western edge of the Navajo Nation into Utah, officials have said at recent public meetings. That number could increase to 10, said Stephen Etsitty, director of the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency, at recent chapter house meetings, according to video attendees shared on social media.
In exchange, Energy Fuels agreed to pay the Navajo Nation $1.2 million and also clean up as much as 10,000 tons of material from old uranium mines for free. Energy Fuels would also pay the nation 50 cents per pound of uranium processed at the mill.
Energy Fuels also owns the Roca Honda mine near Mount Taylor in New Mexico. The shortest route from Roca Honda to the White Mesa Mill in Utah also runs through the Navajo Nation.
Energy Fuels spokesperson Curtis Moore declined to say exactly what the transport agreement said regarding the Roca Honda mine, citing the agreement’s confidentiality. But he did acknowledge the agreement contemplated the New Mexico mine’s eventual operation.
“If Roca Honda were to proceed, we agreed to take quite a bit more cleanup material at no charge to the Navajo Nation,” Moore said in an email Friday to Source New Mexico.
‘How are we going to beat this monster?’Cheyenne Antonio, an advocate with Diné C.A.R.E, told Source that she asked Navajo Nation officials at a recent meeting about the prospect of uranium transport in New Mexico. She said Stephen Etsitty, executive director of the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency, told her that no roads had been approved yet in New Mexico for uranium transport.
Etsitty told Source New Mexico on Monday that it’s far too early to say what the route could be, but that the Cibola National Forest has presented some options in old draft environmental impact statements in the mine.
Estimates Etsitty has reviewed show that far more trucks would cross the Navajo Nation each day from the Roca Honda mine, based on assessments of the amount of uranium could produce. Between 50 and 60 trucks a day is the maximum, Etsitty said.
The Navajo Nation has, for years, opposed the development of any mine near Mount Taylor, known as Tsoodził in Navajo, Etsitty said.
But if the Roca Honda mine is approved, Etsitty said the new transport agreement contains “a framework” that would require Energy Fuels to remove 30,000 more tons of abandoned uranium mine material, on top of the 10,000 tons the company has already promised to remove as part of the Pinyon Plains transport agreement.
Energy Fuels pushed for the provision, Etsitty said, because the company believes it is far enough along in getting that mine approved that it was necessary.
“We looked at it and and we agreed, but we also stipulated that we were not waiving, we were not pre-judging, nothing was pre-decisional,” he said in a phone interview Monday with Source New Mexico. “Meaning that we were not agreeing with them that we support the Roca Honda project. Because we reserved our right to comment fully and vigorously on that project.”
The company has listed the Roca Honda project as in the “advanced” stage of permitting on its website, but the website has said that since at least 2019, according to the Internet archive.
Antonio and Leona Morgan, who heads up Haul No!, a group opposing the transport agreement, organized a small gathering at an Albuquerque library on Thursday to discuss the latest on uranium mining in Arizona and New Mexico and brainstorm ideas to oppose its extraction and transport.
“My question,” Morgan asked those in attendance, “is what is our solution to fighting it? How are we going to deal with it? How are we going to beat this monster?”
Uranium mining between the 1940s and the 1970s in and around the Navajo Nation left cancer and pollution in its wake. Companies operating in the area back then abandoned hundreds of uranium mines that continue to poison groundwater and otherwise hurt public health.
So the prospect of new mining and its transport has incensed members of the Navajo Nation, Antonio said. At a meeting late last month at the Mexican Water Chapter in Utah, one elder woman spoke up to say, in Navajo, that the agreement amounted to the tribe killing the Navajo way of life without members’ input.
“You agreed to kill our whole Navajo universe without our consent,” the elder said, according to Antonio’s translation.
Moore, the Energy Fuels spokesperson, noted that the company had nothing to do with the legacy uranium mines, which were drilled to produce weapons material, and that it is doing its part as “good samaritans” to clean up the old companies’ messes.
“Our uranium is only used for clean, carbon-free … nuclear energy, not weapons,” Moore said.
‘The Trump administration is moving quickly’
While outside observers and both parties to the agreement agree many hurdles remain in the way of the state’s first new uranium mine in more than 50 years, they see the transport agreement as the latest domino to fall.
Already this year, Cibola National Forest officials deemed the Roca Honda mine a “priority project,” following an executive order from President Donald Trump seeking to boost domestic energy production. Trump’s pushes to make public lands profitable and his newly announced tariffs could also point in the direction of new uranium mines here, Moore said.
“Roca Honda is a large and high-grade uranium deposit that could enhance U.S. energy independence considerably,” Moore said. “We are not sure what the executive orders mean yet in terms of concrete actions. However, the Trump administration is moving quickly to reduce America’s dependence on Russian and Chinese uranium and rare earth imports, which are the two commodities Energy Fuels produces today.”
As for tariffs, Moore said the taxes on imports could “support domestic uranium and rare earth production.”
Also, the price of uranium has risen steadily since 2020, including cresting at a little more than $100 a pound last January. That’s close to the point at which new mines are profitable, according to Eric Jantz, legal director at the New Mexico Environmental Law Center.
Etsitty, speaking to a small crowd gathered at a chapter house in Crownpoint last month, said the price hitting $100 last January is what prompted the new speculation in and around the Navajo Nation.
“That’s what drives all of this. When people say, what is this all about? Is it just about money? Yes, it’s just about money to the industry,” Etsitty said.
Moore said regulatory review can take years, even decades, for a new mine, especially if anti-mining interests get in the way.
“Anti-nuclear and anti-mining interests can severely delay good domestic mining projects,” he wrote. “Therefore, we would welcome any shortening of permitting timelines, and reductions in ‘lawfare’ and nuisance lawsuits, to get domestic critical mineral projects into production to support energy, economic and national security quickly.”
Navajo Nation officials have defended the agreement as the best deal they could strike in the face of a lawsuit they feel they would likely lose. In the Crownpoint meeting and a question-and-answer virtual meeting shortly after they struck the agreement, Nation officials cited the Supremacy clause of the United States Constitution, which they said pre-empts the tribe’s right to restrict uranium transport over roads that course through the Navajo Nation.
“We are supportive of the overarching desire to not have these functioning and operating, but we can’t stop it,” Etsitty said in the meeting. “So now we’re trying to manage it.”
UPDATE 1:49 p.m.: This story was updated shortly following publication with additional comment from Stephen Etsitty, director of the Navajo Nation EPA.
Corrections Department open-records violations costly to taxpayers, suit all - Olivier Uyttebrouck, Albuquerque Journal
Open-records lawsuits against the New Mexico Corrections Department have cost the state at least $365,000 in settlement costs, a government transparency watchdog alleges in a new lawsuit.
The suit, filed this month by the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government (NMFOG), asks a judge to compel the Corrections Department to reveal how much money the agency has paid for violations of the state Inspection of Public Records Act.
The 22-page lawsuit, filed Tuesday in 1st Judicial District Court in Santa Fe, alleges the agency that operates the state’s prisons has been the target of at least nine successful lawsuits since 2020 for failing to comply with the state’s open-records law.
Brittany Roembach, a spokeswoman for NMCD, said in a text message Wednesday that the agency would have no comment about the suit.
The action stemmed from public records requests made by NMFOG in April 2024 seeking financial records showing settlement amounts and damage awards paid by the agency to resolve lawsuits filed under IPRA.
The request also sought payments made to lawyers who represent the Corrections Department to contest IPRA lawsuits. Both requests sought records from January 2021 through April 3, 2024.
David Pardo, NMCD’s general counsel, responded in April 2024 that the agency has “no records” about settlement amounts or payments to outside law firms. Pardo referred FOG to another state agency.
The suit alleges that “it is inconceivable that (NMCD) would not possess these records. Records of settlement agreements, for example, are drafted and exchanged by the parties, and ultimately would have been approved” by NMCD.
The suit also alleges that NMCD has shown a pattern of failing to respond to public records requests, resulting in a series of costly lawsuits at the expense of taxpayers.
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed at least seven lawsuits against the Corrections Department in the past three years alleging IPRA violations, resulting in $200,000 in settlement costs, the suit said.
Among them, NMCD last year paid $38,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the ACLU seeking records regarding the use of inmate labor to manufacture products.
In another case, the agency paid $70,000 last year to settle a lawsuit filed by Disability Rights New Mexico seeking records about the confiscation of illegal drugs in New Mexico prisons, according to the FOG lawsuit.
The suit alleges that those actions “are the tip of the iceberg of the actual number of successful IPRA enforcement actions” against the New Mexico Corrections Department.
The suit seeks unspecified damages and asks a judge to issue an injunction to ensure NMCD’s compliance with the open-records laws.
US sees third measles-related death amid outbreaks - By Devi Shastri, AP Health Writer
A second school-age child who was hospitalized with measles is the third measles-related death in the U.S. since the virus started ripping through West Texas in late January.
The child died Thursday, according to state health officials. The child was 8 years old, according to a statement from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. A spokesperson for UMC Health System in Lubbock, Texas, confirmed the child was unvaccinated and being treated for measles complications.
The U.S. now has more than double the number of measles cases it saw in all of 2024, with Texas reporting another large jump in cases and hospitalizations on Friday. Other states with active outbreaks — defined as three or more cases — include New Mexico, Kansas, Ohio and Oklahoma. The virus has been spreading in undervaccinated communities.
The multi-state outbreak confirms health experts' fears that the virus will take hold in other U.S. communities with low vaccination rates and that the spread could stretch on for a year. The World Health Organization said last week that cases in Mexico are linked to the Texas outbreak.
Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that's airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs. It is preventable through vaccines, and has been considered eliminated from the U.S. since 2000.
Here's what else you need to know about measles in the U.S.
HOW MANY MEASLES CASES ARE THERE IN TEXAS AND NEW MEXICO?
Texas' outbreak began more than two months ago. State health officials said Friday there were 59 new cases of measles since Tuesday, bringing the total to 481 across 19 counties — most of them in West Texas. The state also logged 14 new hospitalizations, for a total of 56 throughout the outbreak.
More than 65% of Texas' cases are in Gaines County, population 22,892, where the virus started spreading in a close-knit, undervaccinated Mennonite community. The county now has logged 315 cases since late January — just over 1% of the county's residents.
New Mexico announced six new cases Friday, bringing the state's total to 54. New Mexico health officials say the cases are linked to Texas' outbreak based on genetic testing. Most are in Lea County, where two people have been hospitalized, and two are in Eddy County.
A child died of measles in Texas in late February — Kennedy said age 6 — and New Mexico reported its first measles-related death in an adult on March 6.
HOW MANY CASES ARE THERE IN KANSAS?
Kansas has 24 cases in six counties in the southwest part of the state as of Wednesday. Kiowa and Stevens counties have six cases each, while Grant, Morton, Haskell and Gray counties have five or fewer.
The state's first reported case, identified in Stevens County on March 13, is linked to the Texas and New Mexico outbreaks based on genetic testing, a state health department spokesperson said. But health officials have not determined how the person was exposed.
HOW MANY CASES ARE THERE IN OKLAHOMA?
Cases in Oklahoma remained steady Friday: eight confirmed and two probable cases. The first two probable cases were "associated" with the West Texas and New Mexico outbreaks, the state health department said.
A state health department spokesperson said measles exposures were confirmed in Tulsa and Rogers counties, but wouldn't say which counties had cases.
HOW MANY CASES ARE THERE IN OHIO?
Ohio reported one new measles case Thursday in west-central Allen County. Last week, there were 10 in Ashtabula County in the northeast corner of the state. The first case was in an unvaccinated adult who had interacted with someone who had traveled internationally.
In central Ohio, Knox County officials reported two new measles cases in international visitors, for three cases in international visitors total. Those cases are not included in the state's official count because they are not in Ohio residents. A measles outbreak in central Ohio sickened 85 in 2022.
WHERE ELSE IS MEASLES SHOWING UP IN THE U.S.?
Measles cases also have been reported in Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, and Washington.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines an outbreak as three or more related cases. The agency counted six clusters that qualified as outbreaks in 2025 as of Friday.
In the U.S., cases and outbreaks are generally traced to someone who caught the disease abroad. It can then spread, especially in communities with low vaccination rates. In 2019, the U.S. saw 1,274 cases and almost lost its status of having eliminated measles. So far in 2025, the CDC's count is 607.
DO YOU NEED AN MMR BOOSTER?
The best way to avoid measles is to get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The first shot is recommended for children between 12 and 15 months old and the second between 4 and 6 years old.
People at high risk for infection who got the shots many years ago may want to consider getting a booster if they live in an area with an outbreak, said Scott Weaver with the Global Virus Network, an international coalition. Those may include family members living with someone who has measles or those especially vulnerable to respiratory diseases because of underlying medical conditions.
Adults with "presumptive evidence of immunity" generally don't need measles shots now, the CDC said. Criteria include written documentation of adequate vaccination earlier in life, lab confirmation of past infection or being born before 1957, when most people were likely to be infected naturally.
A doctor can order a lab test called an MMR titer to check your levels of measles antibodies, but health experts don't always recommend this route and insurance coverage can vary.
Getting another MMR shot is harmless if there are concerns about waning immunity, the CDC says.
People who have documentation of receiving a live measles vaccine in the 1960s don't need to be revaccinated, but people who were immunized before 1968 with an ineffective measles vaccine made from "killed" virus should be revaccinated with at least one dose, the agency said. That also includes people who don't know which type they got.
WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF MEASLES?
Measles first infects the respiratory tract, then spreads throughout the body, causing a high fever, runny nose, cough, red, watery eyes and a rash.
The rash generally appears three to five days after the first symptoms, beginning as flat red spots on the face and then spreading downward to the neck, trunk, arms, legs and feet. When the rash appears, the fever may spike over 104 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the CDC.
Most kids will recover from measles, but infection can lead to dangerous complications such as pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death.
HOW CAN YOU TREAT MEASLES?
There's no specific treatment for measles, so doctors generally try to alleviate symptoms, prevent complications and keep patients comfortable.
WHY DO VACCINATION RATES MATTER?
In communities with high vaccination rates — above 95% — diseases like measles have a harder time spreading through communities. This is called "herd immunity."
But childhood vaccination rates have declined nationwide since the pandemic and more parents are claiming religious or personal conscience waivers to exempt their kids from required shots.
The U.S. saw a rise in measles cases in 2024, including an outbreak in Chicago that sickened more than 60.
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AP Science Writer Laura Ungar contributed to this report.
‘Time to move on’: Yates family lists massive New Mexico ranch for $68.5M - Kylie Garcia, Albuquerque Journal
A massive New Mexico ranch — full of vibrant wildlife, steeped in family history and covering more ground than Denver — is on the market for the first time in 47 years for $68.5 million.
The nearly 110,000-acre ranch, dubbed Atarque Ranch, is owned by the Yates family, who have a long history as oil and gas magnates. After decades of stewarding the land in western New Mexico and leasing it to hunters and livestock operators, the family has decided it is time to move on.
The Yates family acquired the ranch in 1978, after John Yates Sr. purchased the ranch for an amount the family didn’t disclose.
The family’s oil and gas legacy started long before then, with John Yates Sr.’s father, Martin Yates Jr., drilling the first commercial oil well on New Mexico state lands in 1924. The family-owned Yates Petroleum Corp. was born and grew to producing almost 30,000 barrels of crude oil per day across multiple states before it was acquired by Houston-based EOG Resources Inc. for $2.5 billion in 2016.
The family, based in Artesia, still owns land across the United States. They’ve weighed parting ways with Atarque Ranch for the last five years or so, according to Trey Yates III, the grandson of John Yates Sr. and vice president of Abo Empire, another family oil production company.
John Yates Sr. died at age 93 in 2022, prompting the family to consider selling the ranch. The family announced the listing a little over a week ago.
“I think it’s just become time to move on to the next chapter. It’s simply just a business decision. ... We feel like the market’s strong,” Trey Yates said. “It’s not an easy decision by any means but ... the family has land holdings across the United States and we’re looking at being able to monetize this one and then look to improving others as well as reallocating capital.”
The ranch, located near Fence Lake, offers about 97,000 deeded acres and 11,000 acres of “extremely private” state-leased land, according to the listing. Hall and Hall, a national brokerage that specializes in farmland and ranches, is handling the listing, which includes a 2,766-square-foot main home.
The family is currently leasing out the ranch for livestock operations and hunting, said Jeff Buerger, a partner of Hall and Hall and the listing agent for Atarque Ranch, but both can be terminated if the new owner desires. A variety of wildlife roam the ranch, including bull elk, mule deer and pronghorn antelope, the listing says, adding that the populations have been “expertly managed.”
Buerger said the ranch has been blocked off and maintained in a way that upholds privacy, adding that the family has “purposely decreased the number of elk tags they have on the ranch” to ensure that they are not overhunted.
After years of water courts efforts by the Yates family, Buerger said the ranch has an established decree for almost 60 acre-feet of water — equivalent to 19.5 million gallons of water — including a spring, wells and stock ponds.
“Most ranches in western New Mexico don’t have that,” Buerger said. “It’s the first time in my career I’ve seen a civil court case where it actually has a decreed water right.”
The ranch’s other unique qualities, according to Buerger, are its diverse lands — from plateaus to canyons, arroyos, grasslands and volcanic rock layers — remoteness, lack of light pollution, starry nightscapes and remnants of Native American history, including settler towns, artifacts and petroglyphs.
The ranch does not have oil or gas wells on it.
In addition to offering an oasis for hunters and cattle ranchers, Atarque Ranch has also served as a retreat for family, Trey Yates said.
“One of my favorite things was riding around on a four-wheeler with my grandfather and ... seeing what a true working ranch was like,” he said. “Also, getting to enjoy the mystery of always trying to discover arrowheads or pottery shards throughout the ranch and honing in on that southwestern and Native American history.”
He added that the ranch helped the family to “stay grounded” and “remember where our family started and got its roots in New Mexico.”
The ideal buyer, he said, is someone who is drawn to the size and remoteness of the ranch and has a desire to steward the land and understand its history and value. Buerger said the ranch has received significant interest so far.
“It’s been a good asset for the family,” Trey Yates said, adding that he would tell the next owner to “treat the land like you want to be treated and it’ll always be good to you.”
Catron County declares wolf emergency - Hannah Grover, New Mexico Political Report
A wildlife advocate says there are resources available to help ranchers reduce the number of cattle killed by wolves, even as Catron County issued an emergency declaration this week calling the lobos a threat to public health and safety.
The Catron County Commission met Thursday in Reserve to discuss the growing population of Mexican gray wolves, which some residents say are killing livestock and pets.
After the meeting, Bryan Bird with Defenders of Wildlife told NM Political Report about some of the efforts his organization is involved in to help ranchers in the Catron County area.
Bird said he is sorry to hear that Catron County residents feel unheard and believe that they aren’t receiving the help they need.
“They are the ones that have to experience this first hand,” he said.
While Bird said he is sympathetic to the concerns that ranchers have, he emphasized the importance of predators in the ecosystem and said ranchers are often operating on public lands.
Bird said the government needs to balance the benefits of public lands, including the wildlife resources.
“These [ranchers] are running private businesses on public lands,” he said.
Additionally, advocates say ranchers tend to rely on government subsidies.
Bird said ranchers receive payments for cattle losses and are also reimbursed for activities to reduce conflict with wolves.
Defenders of Wildlife has partnered with ranchers for many years to reduce losses.
Bird said the organization spends a significant amount of its budget helping ranchers with “the cost of doing business in wolf country.”
Those efforts include range riders and other methods of getting between the wolves and the cattle.
“We’ll match the cost of having somebody out there on the land,” Bird said.
He said Defenders also helps with flagging – surrounding the calving cows with a material to scare away wolves.
The Catron County resolution states that the “Government has continually lied about the nature of Mexican wolves, claiming that Mexican wolves rarely prey on livestock and that the County’s livestock would only minimally be effected [sic].”
The resolution further states that the “destruction of livestock by Mexican wolves has exponentially exploded to disaster levels” and that the wolves are harming both the hunting and livestock industries.
“People have been conditioned to be afraid of wolves,” Bird said.
He said wolves are not dangerous to humans and, while they will kill cattle, he doesn’t think the wolves are taking as many cows as ranchers claim.
The resolution cites the county investigator Shawn Menges’ claims that, since 2004, the wolves have caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in actual losses of cattle and led to thousands of missing cows.
Bird said those missing cattle may not necessarily be as a result of wolf activity. Cattle deaths are not uncommon on rangelands and some of the leading causes include weather and disease.
At the same time, he acknowledged living near wolves takes a toll on cattle. That can lead to less weight gain and miscarriage of calves.
“Anytime a rancher loses a cow, it hurts their pocketbooks,” Bird said.
Bird said advocates would like to see changes so that ranchers aren’t simply compensated for the loss of livestock.
“We want to shift the entire paradigm from paying for dead cows to paying for live wolves,” he said.
Wildlife advocates have questioned the accuracy of depredation numbers reported by the federal government and, in 2023, the Wildlife Services implemented new methods to ensure a more accurate count. The stronger standards implemented two years ago are intended to ensure wolves are not falsely blamed for livestock death.
According to Catron County Manager Deborah Mahler, it would cost more than $900,000 to adequately staff the county’s wolf investigation program.
“As someone raised in rural New Mexico, I know firsthand the value of our land, our livestock, and our way of life,” state Sen. Crystal Brantley, R-Elephant Butte, said in a statement. “The growing threat posed by the Mexican gray wolf is not just an inconvenience—it is an affront to the safety and livelihood of thousands of New Mexican families. I fully support Catron County’s disaster declaration and urge state and federal officials to take immediate action. Our communities should not have to live in fear while their concerns go unanswered.”
As drought grips Catron County, ranchers are facing hard decisions such as whether to downsize their herds. Already, many ranchers rely on other sources of income to supplement their ranching practices.
Bird said wolves can help ranchers in times of drought by controlling herbivore herds, which can improve water quality and forage.
At the same time, he said wolves could provide economic benefits in terms of attracting tourism, as has been seen in the Yellowstone area in Wyoming and Montana.
“I don’t want to tell them how to live their lives or what to do,” Bird said, but added that wolf tourism could potentially help the economy in Catron County.
One dozen New Mexico cities to join nationwide ‘Hands Off’ protests - Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
Protests against U.S. President Donald Trump are planned for a dozen cities in New Mexico on Saturday, part of a mass mobilization effort at state capitals across the country and in Washington D.C.
The “Hands Off” demonstrations center around the message, “We do not consent to the destruction of our government and our economy for the benefit of Trump and his billionaire allies,” according to its website.
Rallies on Saturday will take place in Santa Fe, Ramah, Albuquerque, Taos, Gallup, Las Cruces, Portales, Socorro, Truth or Consequences, Los Lunas, Silver City and Alamogordo, according to a list of actions planned for New Mexico.
The Santa Fe action is being organized by Indivisible Santa Fe, a group of mostly women activists created in 2016 at the outset of the first Trump administration, and a chapter of larger Indivisible movement.
Santa Fe local Max Thurston, one of the co-organizers of the Santa Fe demonstration, told Source NM on Friday he joined the organization because he was looking for something meaningful to do in order to resist the Trump administration’s authoritarian attacks on immigrants, LGBTQ people and women’s rights, freedom of speech and the environment.
“You can feel really helpless and not that powerful when you’re looking at the news individually, so the whole idea of Indivisible is that it’s all about how we can organize, come together and resist this authoritarianism, fight for something we really believe in and fight for our values,” Thurston said.
Thurston, a researcher and PhD student in exercise science at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland, said he was particularly affected by the Trump administration’s funding cuts for research programs.
“For me, it’s also a pretty uncertain, difficult time because I really wanted to be a scientist here in the U.S., ideally in New Mexico,” he said. “I believe in scientific institutions and, in a lot of ways, I felt like America had some of the best science in the world and now I don’t know if that’s the case.”
Thurston said there are now thousands of rallies planned for Saturday, and his group is expecting millions of people to show up.
“I think it’s true of all of the different Hands Off rallies all across the state and across the country that the movement is about bringing together a lot of different groups, really building a strong coalition of different grassroots organizations focused on lots of different topics but that all have the same goal of standing up against the ways the Trump and Musk administration is dismantling our democracy, our government and our future,” Thurston said.
Speakers at the event in Santa Fe are expected to include U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.), Georgetown University law professor Heidi Li Feldman and EarthCare Co-Director Bianca Sapoci-Belknap.
The rally in Santa Fe is scheduled from noon to 2 p.m. on Saturday outside the New Mexico Legislature, on the east side of the Roundhouse.
Thurston said the Santa Fe rally will include people from the National Organization for Women’s local chapter, New Mexico Wild, the National Education Association’s New Mexico branch and the Democratic Party of New Mexico’s Veterans and Military Families Caucus.
The American Federation of Teachers New Mexico and Youth United for Climate Crisis Action have also sent out emails to supporters this week encouraging them to participate.
Thurston said organizers picked Saturday as the time for the protests in part because of the urgency to the harms being done by the Trump administration and the uncertainty about what happens next.
“We stand up on April 5 so that we can keep standing up on April 15, and on April 25, and keep this movement going,” he said. “This is definitely only the start.”