Tribal leaders pepper New Mexico candidates with questions - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
Leaders representing Native American communities around New Mexico hosted a number of political candidates Friday, peppering them with questions about how they would ensure voting access for tribal members, respect sovereignty and protect water rights as the West grapples with historic drought.
The forum in Albuquerque follows last year's efforts by tribes to stand their ground in the fight over legislative redistricting. The goal has been to keep the Native vote from being diluted and bring more light to issues that many tribal communities have been dealing with for decades — from the lack of adequate health care and educational opportunities to jurisdictional challenges that have hampered law enforcement efforts.
Mark Mitchell, the chairman of the All Pueblo Council of Governors and the former governor of Tesuque Pueblo, told the crowd that the forum was critical given the disproportionate effect that the coronavirus pandemic had on tribes, 2020 census data and the redrawing of the state's political boundaries.
"We are at the cusp of knowing how our advocacy will shape the governance of our state," he said, urging Native Americans to exercise their right to vote as early voting gets underway throughout New Mexico.
The political weight of Native Americans has been building, particularly over the last year as New Mexico's political boundaries were redrawn. Native Americans make up more than 12% of New Mexico's population as the state is home to nearly two dozen pueblos and other tribal nations.
Some tribal leaders said Friday there still is a long way to go when it comes to Native Americans making up a more significant percentage of the state's top office holders. Boosting that number would help to shift the priorities of policymakers, they said.
Questions for the candidates ranged from how they would address the ongoing crisis of missing and slain Native Americans to the systemic education shortfalls that are at the heart of a legal battle that state education officials have yet to remedy.
Congressional incumbents and nearly all of their challengers were on hand, while Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Ronchetti made an appearance before the forum. Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham was invited, but she was traveling in southern New Mexico on Friday.
Democrats touted the recent approval of billions of dollars in federal spending aimed at broadband, water and infrastructure projects, some of which will benefit tribes. Republicans talked about rising prices for food and other commodities and the link to spending at tribal-run casinos and hospitality venues, saying inflation needs to be addressed.
Joseph Ray, a disability advocate from Laguna Pueblo, was hopeful the forum would help raise interest in the upcoming general election among Native Americans. His priorities include health care funding, noting that Congress over the years has included language aimed at providing services for people like himself, but those measures have resulted in unfunded mandates and the status quo.
Ray said it's possible some voters will cross the aisle during the midterm elections.
"Tribal communities have been made promises by candidates for so long," he said.
Casey Duma, a past member of the All Pueblo Council of Governors, said it wasn't long ago that the voices of Native people were ignored and policies were created on behalf of Native Americans but without their input.
Relationships with other governments have been changing as tribal communities organize and voting rights are exercised, he said.
List of known missing Indigenous people in NM and Navajo Nation reaches 192 - By Nash Jones, KUNM News
The list of Indigenous people in New Mexico and the Navajo Nation who are missing has now grown to 192.
Albuquerque’s division of the FBI released the updated list Friday. The department says the update includes 27 new people. The names of 18 have been removed since last month.
Special Agent in Charge Raul Bujanda said in a statement that since the FBI launched the program with a list of 177 individuals in July, they’ve been able to figure out the location of "many" of them. A specific number, or how many of those people were discovered alive, wasn’t released.
The list is updated every month. Bujanda asked the public to review the list and contact local or tribal law enforcement with any information on those who are missing.
The families of Indigenous people who are missing but are not included on the list are also encouraged to reach out. A law enforcement agency must submit a missing person report with the National Crime Information Center.
The state Attorney General’s Office is partnering on the project, along with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services, and New Mexico’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives Task Force.
Governor may appoint a commission candidate to fill Couy Griffin’s seat - Lissa Knudsen, Source New Mexico
Democrat Stephanie Dubois has been tapped by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to replace Couy Griffin on the Otero County Commission, according to the Alamogordo Daily News. The Governor’s Office, however, has not officially announced the appointment and says it is not yet finalized, as paperwork is still being completed.
“The review process is ongoing and is expected to be done shortly,” said Nora Sackett, the governor’s spokesperson.
Dubois is also a candidate for the District 2 seat on the commission, the position Griffin vacated.
If she fills Griffin’s seat — either by appointment or election — she might end up weighing whether to recover the salary he was paid as a commissioner over the last year and a half.
According to the District Judge Francis J. Mathew’s ruling on Sept. 6, 2022, the Cowboys for Trump co-founder was disqualified from holding public office by participating in the Jan. 6, 2021 siege on the U.S. Capitol.
As of that date, former Commissioner Griffin became disqualified under the U.S. Constitution from serving in any elected position, the ruling states.
At Thursday’s commission meeting, Otero County resident John Davis called on the officials to look into recouping Griffin’s salary for the time period between Jan. 6, 2021 and Sept. 6, 2022.
“Since he was not qualified to hold that office, during the time he was paid on Jan. 6 (2021) to Sept. 6 (2022) — a total of 20 months salary as a Otero county commissioner — that comes to $40,907.50 that he received that he was not qualified to receive,” Davis told the commission on Thursday.
Republican Commissioner Gerald Matherly said that they wouldn’t weigh in on the issue until after the appellate court ruled on Griffin’s appeal, but he added that he wasn’t inclined to support an effort to recover Griffin’s previous salary.
Despite not being qualified to hold the commissioner seat at the time, “he still took time off of his regular job to attend meetings and meet with residents,” Matherly said.
“He did work for the county during that time, which I think he needs to be paid for,” Matherly added.
EXAMINING HIS VOTES
The county is also reviewing all issues where Griffin cast a deciding vote during the time period in which he was not a qualified commissioner, Davis said.
The Otero County Commission is made up of three members, so any 2-to-1 vote where Griffin voted in the majority could be subject to review. These votes include a lawsuit against the secretary of state, a vote to remove ballot drop boxes and a budget increase for the gun range ammunition.
Later in the meeting, Jessica Aguilar, also spoke against the push to recover the dispersed salary funds.
Despite Griffin’s engagement in the Jan 6 insurrection not being a part of his official commission duties, he requested the county provide him with legal representation, which the county declined.
He was “not treated fairly and was shut out by his fellow commissioners,” Aguilar said, reading from a prepared transcript on her mobile phone.
The commissioners called a special meeting to vote on an official position from Otero County, according to Aguilar.
“Instead of scheduling an executive session, a public meeting was scheduled, even when you said you weren’t going to take any public comments,” Aguilar said addressing the commissioners.
In addition to opposing the efforts to recover the money spent on the former commissioner’s salary, Aguilar said the money spent on the Otero County attorney was an even graver misuse of public dollars, adding that the lawyer “ doesn’t fight for commissioners’ or the people of Otero County’s rights,” Aguilar said.
Former Alamogordo Police Officer Bob Heisinger, also spoke against attempting to recoup the salary money.
“Couy earned those funds. He was rightfully employed, and did his job,” Heisinger said.
He added that he didn’t think this was a fight the county really wants to have.
“‘If you don’t start none, there won’t be none,’” Heisinger said. “If we don’t start a fight, we don’t have to contend with the battle, and I don’t think this is a battle the county or this commission wants to undertake.”
Clock is ticking on burn scar agriculture as waterways remain clogged - By Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
If the vital irrigation infrastructure winding through the 500-square-mile burn scar in northern New Mexico isn’t repaired in the next few weeks, advocates warn that the charred and flooded region could lose at least a year’s worth of agriculture and ranching. And funding that could help won’t likely come in time.
Historic irrigation channels known as acequias have fallen through the cracks, advocates say, of a federal and state response to the biggest fire in history. The blaze was accidentally started by the federal government in April and destroyed about 1,000 structures.
Ensuing floods damaged the roughly 80 acequias covering more than 100 miles in the burn scar, and it left the vast majority clogged with silt or debris.
Advocates and mayordomos have gone back and forth with state and federal agencies for months seeking help in the form of backhoes or hand crews. But only recently did the Federal Emergency Management Agency finally begin accepting applications from acequias for its Public Assistance Program, and none have been approved so far.
Advocates are also pushing to make sure acequias can get some of the newly enacted $2.5 billion compensation program for fire victims, but it will likely be months before the first check reaches victims. Rules are still being established about how individuals and potentially groups of acequia users can bundle their applications for some of the historic windfall.
Frustrated, United States Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, whose district is marred by the burn scar, sent a letter to FEMA Secretary Deanne Criswell late last month. She wrote that FEMA had agreed all the way back in June that acequias are political entities and should therefore qualify for the program.
“Every time my office has communicated with FEMA, we are assured that acequias are eligible for public assistance under the disaster declaration. Yet every time we have spoken with the acequias, they are having applications held up for a new reason,” she wrote in the letter sent Sept. 24. “FEMA’s failure to convey the correct information to its field staff or those processing applications has exacerbated an already difficult disaster.
FEMA, in a statement to Source New Mexico on Wednesday, said the agency is now approving applications as it receives them from the state. The agency did not address why it’s taken so long to accept applications or whether it agreed in June that acequias qualified.
The state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management has so far submitted seven applications on the acequias’ behalf. FEMA expects the state to submit 35, according to spokesperson Angela Byrd.
Of the seven applications, six were approved as of Wednesday, and one is pending as the agency awaits additional documentation, Byrd said.
The letter from Leger Fernandez goes on to say that time is running out.
“Repair work on acequias needs to start immediately so work can be completed before the winter freeze and so that the acequias are operational when irrigation begins in the Spring,” she said. “These communities already lost so much. We must not force them to forgo another year without the ability to plant their crops.”
Leger Fernandez asks, in closing, for the number of pending acequia applications, an estimate of how long they’ll take to be resolved and for FEMA to hold a workshop with the state to iron out any issues.
Advocates like Paula Garcia, director of the New Mexico Acequia Association, have said getting the acequias flowing again will mitigate flooding, and also allow ranchers and farmers a foothold back in the landscape. Acequias flowing means hay can be irrigated, which means farmers can feed their cattle without having to pay for hay elsewhere.
Antonia Roybal-Mack, a Mora resident and attorney seeking clients in the burn scar, held a meeting Oct. 1 at a middle school lecture hall with mayordomos to hear about their concerns. She said the confluence of land grants, water rights, lack of documentation and acequias’ quasi-governmental status make the 200-year-old structures the “most complicated” of any rebuilding effort in the burn scar.
And they’re crucial for life to return, she said.
“I really look at this is one of the most critical crisis needs in front of us, because the sooner we get our agriculture back up and operating, the sooner that communities can recover as a whole,” she said.
There are about 2,000 farms in San Miguel and Mora Counties, according to the 2019 Census of Agriculture conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture.
The farms attach their fates to the acequias that trickle through their properties. These days, many acequias are so full of silt, they resemble hiking trails through drying farmland.
It’s not just FEMA that’s dropped the ball, either, according to Roybal-Mack and Garcia. DHSEM could do better as well, they said.
Roybal-Mack said she doesn’t know why the state can’t simply pay for a backhoe, fuel and hourly wages for workers, and then seek reimbursement from FEMA later.
“That’s a question I’ve been asking since the start of this thing,” she said.
The state has asked the federal government to reimburse nearly $10 million in costs related to the fire, a spokesperson for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said recently.
DHSEM did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
ACT test scores drop to lowest in 30 years in pandemic slide - By Cheyanne Mumphrey AP Education Writer
Scores on the ACT college admissions test by this year's high school graduates hit their lowest point in more than 30 years — the latest evidence of the enormity of learning disruption during the pandemic.
The class of 2022's average ACT composite score was 19.8 out of 36, marking the first time since 1991 that the average score was below 20. What's more, an increasing number of high school students failed to meet any of the subject-area benchmarks set by the ACT — showing a decline in preparedness for college-level coursework.
The test scores, made public in a report Wednesday, show 42% of ACT-tested graduates in the class of 2022 met none of the subject benchmarks in English, reading, science and math, which are indicators of how well students are expected to perform in corresponding college courses.
In comparison, 38% of test takers in 2021 failed to meet any of the benchmarks.
"Academic preparedness is where we are seeing the decline," said Rose Babington, senior director for state partnerships for the ACT. "Every time we see ACT test scores, we are talking about skills and standards, and the prediction of students to be successful and to know the really important information to succeed and persist through their first year of college courses."
ACT scores have declined steadily in recent years. Still, "the magnitude of the declines this year is particularly alarming," ACT CEO Janet Godwin said in a statement. "We see rapidly growing numbers of seniors leaving high school without meeting college-readiness benchmarks in any of the subjects we measure."
The results offer a lens into systemic inequities in education, in place well before the pandemic shuttered schools and colleges temporarily waived testing requirements. For example, students without access to rigorous high school curriculum suffered more setbacks during pandemic disruptions, Babington said. Those students are from rural areas, come from low-income families and are often students of color.
The number of students taking the ACT has declined 30% since 2018, as graduates increasingly forgo college and some universities no longer require admissions tests. But participation plunged 37% among Black students, with 154,000 taking the test this year.
Standardized tests such as the ACT have faced growing concerns that they're unfair to minority and low-income students, as students with access to expensive test prep or advanced courses often perform better.
Babington defended the test as a measure of college readiness. "Now more than ever, the last few years have shown us the importance of having high-quality data to help inform how we support students," Babington said.
Test scores now are optional for first-year student admission at many institutions. Some colleges, such as the University of California system, even opt for a test-blind policy, where scores are not considered even if submitted.
But many students still take the tests, hoping to get an edge in admissions by submitting their scores. Tyrone Jordan, a freshman at test-optional Arizona State University, said he took the ACT and the SAT to get ahead of other students and help him receive scholarships.
Jordan, who wants to pursue mechanical engineering, said he thinks his rigorous schedule at Tempe Preparatory Academy prepared him for college, and the standardized tests helped support him and his family financially.
"All the test did for me was give me extra financial money," Jordan said.
While Jordan was always planning to take the test, many students struggle with access or choose not to take the test since their universities of choice no longer require it. In Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Tennessee and Wyoming, everyone is tested.
New Mexico Supreme Court to take on redistricting case - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
The New Mexico Supreme Court will take up a legal challenge over a congressional map that divvies up a conservative area of the state, ordering Friday that the parties prepare to make oral arguments in early January.
Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who is running for reelection, and her legislative allies had asked the Supreme Court to step in and stay proceedings that began earlier this year in state district court.
The Republican Party and several other plaintiffs had sued over the new map for the 2nd District in southern New Mexico, citing public comments by top Democratic legislators as evidence of partisan bias in decisions about the district's boundaries.
The case holds implications for the district where Republican Yvette Herrell ousted a first-term Democrat in the 2020 election to win back GOP control of the seat. It includes one of the most lucrative oil-producing regions in the U.S. and extends to remote stretches of the U.S. border with Mexico.
In a ruling in April, District Judge Fred Van Soelen denied a preliminary injunction that sought to set aside the map ahead of the June primary and the November general election. He said making changes "this late in the game" would result in chaos and would not be in the public's best interest.
He also noted that the map at issue could potentially be used for the next five elections, until the next redistricting process in about 10 years, so the case — which could affect elections after 2022 — would continue.
GOP attorney Christopher Murray had argued in court earlier this year that the congressional map approved in December 2021 by the Democratic-led Legislature and signed by Lujan Grisham was partisan, diluted the conservative vote and violated state constitutional rights to impartial government.
Attorneys for the Legislature and governor have defended the state's congressional map, saying it was vetted through the political process.
Democrats hold two of New Mexico's three congressional seats, command majorities in the state House and Senate, make up the five-member Supreme Court and hold every statewide elected office.
Roswell's recent UFO Festival brought over $2M in spending - Associated Press
Roswell officials say the city's UFO Festival had an economic impact of more than $2 million.
The Roswell Daily Record reports the Roswell City Council's finance committee looked earlier this month at an economic report for the event.
It indicated more than 40,000 visitors came to the four-day festival, which ran June 30-July 3.
The cost for the city to mount it was more than $200,000. Officials applauded the results as a "10 to 1 return on your money."
Staff who put together the report reviewed gross receipts taxes, occupancy or lodgers' tax, ticket sales and other factors. They also analyzed data from trash collection to estimate the number of visitors.
This year's festival marked the 75th anniversary of the alleged Roswell Incident. Something crashed at what was then the J.B. Foster ranch in 1947, with the U.S. Army announcing it had recovered a "flying disc" but later saying the debris was merely the remnants of a high-altitude weather balloon.
Speculation about extraterrestrials and government cover-ups has existed ever since, inspiring books, movies and TV shows.
The milestone anniversary brought various businesses and groups together to organize 34 events for the UFO Festival.
Biden turning to Trump-era rule to expel Venezuelan migrants - By Colleen Long And Zeke Miller Associated Press
Two years ago, candidate Joe Biden loudly denounced President Donald Trump for immigration policies that inflicted "cruelty and exclusion at every turn," including toward those fleeing the "brutal" government of socialist Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.
Now, with increasing numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border as the Nov. 8 election nears, Biden has turned to an unlikely source for a solution: his predecessor's playbook.
Biden last week invoked a Trump-era rule known as Title 42 -- which Biden's own Justice Department is fighting in court — to deny Venezuelans fleeing their crisis-torn country the chance to request asylum at the border.
The rule, first invoked by Trump in 2020, uses emergency public health authority to allow the United States to keep migrants from seeking asylum at the border, based on the need to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Under the new Biden administration policy, Venezuelans who walk or swim across America's southern border will be expelled and any Venezuelan who illegally enters Mexico or Panama will be ineligible to come to the United States. But as many as 24,000 Venezuelans will be accepted at U.S. airports, similar to how Ukrainians have been admitted since Russia's invasion in February.
Mexico has insisted that the U.S. admit one Venezuelan on humanitarian parole for each Venezuelan it expels to Mexico, according to a Mexican official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke condition of anonymity. So if the Biden administration paroles 24,000 Venezuelans to the U.S., Mexico would take no more than 24,000 Venezuelans expelled from the U.S.
The Biden policy marks an abrupt turn for the White House, which just weeks ago was lambasting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, both Republicans, for putting Venezuelan migrants "fleeing political persecution" on buses and planes to Democratic strongholds.
"These were children, they were moms, they were fleeing communism," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at the time.
Biden's new policy has drawn swift criticism from immigrant advocates, many of them quick to point out the Trump parallels.
"Rather than restore the right to asylum decimated by the Trump administration ... the Biden administration has dangerously embraced the failures of the past and expanded upon them by explicitly enabling expulsions of Venezuelan migrants," said Jennifer Nagda, policy director of the Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights.
The administration says the policy is aimed at ensuring a "lawful and orderly" way for Venezuelans to enter the U.S.
Why the turnaround?
For more than a year after taking office in January 2021, Biden deferred to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which used its authority to keep in place the Trump-era declaration that a public health risk existed that warranted expedited expulsion of asylum-seekers.
Members of Biden's own party and activist groups had expressed skepticism about the public health underpinnings for allowing Title 42 to remain in effect, especially when COVID-19 was spreading more widely within the U.S. than elsewhere.
After months of internal deliberations and preparations, the CDC on April 1 said it would end the public health order and return to normal border processing of migrants, giving them a chance to request asylum in the U.S.
Homeland Security officials braced for a resulting increase in border crossings.
But officials inside and outside the White House were conflicted over ending the authority, believing it effectively kept down the number of people crossing the border illegally, according to senior administration officials.
A court order in May that kept Title 42 in place due to a challenge from Republican state officials was greeted with quiet relief by some in the administration, according to officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions.
The recent increase in migration from Venezuela, sparked by political, social and economic instability in the country, dashed officials' hopes that they were finally seeing a lull in the chaos that had defined the border region for the past year.
By August, Venezuelans were the second-largest nationality arriving at the U.S. border after Mexicans. Given that U.S. tensions with Venezuela meant migrants from the country could not be sent back easily, the situation became increasingly difficult to manage.
So an administration that had rejected many Trump-era policies aimed at keeping out migrants, that had worked to make the asylum process easier and that had increased the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. now turned to Title 42.
It brokered a deal to send the Venezuelans to Mexico, which already had agreed to accept migrants expelled under Title 42 if they are from Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador.
All the while, Justice Department lawyers continue to appeal a court decision that has kept Title 42 in place. They are opposing Republican attorneys general from more than 20 states who have argued that Title 42 is "the only safety valve preventing this Administration's already disastrous border control policies from descending into an unmitigated catastrophe."
Under Title 42, migrants have been expelled more than 2.3 million times from the U.S. after crossing the country's land borders illegally from Canada or Mexico, though most try to come through Mexico.
The administration had announced it would stop expelling migrants under Title 42 starting May 23 and go back to detaining and deporting migrants who did not qualify to enter and remain in the U.S. — a longer process that allows migrants to request asylum in the U.S.
"We are extremely disturbed by the apparent acceptance, codification, and expansion of the use of Title 42, an irrelevant health order, as a cornerstone of border policy," said Thomas Cartwright of Witness at the Border. "One that expunges the legal right to asylum."
A separate lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union also is trying to end Title 42, an effort that could render the administration's proposal useless.
"People have a right to seek asylum – regardless of where they came from, how they arrive in the United States, and whether or not they have family here," said ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt.