Severe immigration policies intensify as Title 42 nears its end- Megan Gleason, Source New Mexico
Title 42, a measure that prevents migrants from getting asylum in the U.S. due to COVID, is expected to end next month as the country lifts its national public health emergency.
Meanwhile, federal immigration agencies are ramping up severe immigration policies ahead of the policy ending on May 11.
Title 42 is a federal code that allows the federal government to expel migrants who have come from a country with a communicable disease. Ending the policy means the U.S. has to process migrants under typical immigration laws, allowing them again to seek asylum instead of deportation.
Sophia Genovese is an attorney at the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center. She said it’s likely a rush of asylum seekers will come to the U.S. when the policy lifts.
While it’s a good thing that Title 42 is ending, she said, there are still overly strict immigration policies in place.
In January, with the end of Title 42 in mind, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced a string of new, strict border enforcement measures. One measure proposes rapidly kicking migrants out of the U.S. — known as expedited removal — who aren’t eligible for Title 42 under Title 8 instead.
Under Title 8, if asylum officers determine that migrants don’t have a credible fear back in their home country or migrants don’t ask for asylum, the federal government can remove them from the country. Genovese said this is a big issue.
“We’re wasting a lot of money on expulsions and deportations, instead of being rational and recognizing that migration is normal,” she said.
Genovese said there are expedited removal violations at the Torrance County Detention Center, one of three immigrant detention centers in New Mexico. It has a history of violating federal standards. Migrants have also repeatedly reported inhumane conditions, and one Brazilian asylum seeker being held at Torrance died by suicide last year.
Federal officials hold credible fear interviews to ensure that migrants have a reason to be afraid of returning to their home country. Genovese said some interviews at Torrance have been violating due process rights, with officers asking few questions in interviews, only asking yes-or-no questions when questions are supposed to be open-ended and speeding through interviews.
She said she’s working with a migrant from Ecuador who speaks Kichwa and was forced to proceed with an interview in Spanish, despite not even speaking that language.
TRYING TO CHANGE THE SYSTEM
Genovese said the U.S. deportation exodus only creates “a larger mess than what is necessary in the end.”
“No amount of border policies are going to limit migration,” she said. “What this causes instead is chaos, and it feels intentional.”
Genovese pointed out that providing accessible services to migrants, such as legal help, is less costly than detaining them.
“They are invested in the process, and simply need access to information and services to meaningfully participate in that process,” she said.
Genovese said the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center wants to see alternatives to detention, like Immigrant Customs and Enforcement check-ins and community-based models of assistance.
“People want to comply with court orders. They want to comply with the law,” she said. “People are here because they generally fear returning to their home countries, and they want what’s best for them and their family’s safety. “
Immigration is ultimately up to the federal government. Genovese said the state government can’t interfere with the enforcement of these policies.
However, New Mexico could show solidarity for migrants, she said, and employ strategies like welcoming centers. She brought up Portland, where an immigration welcome center provides access to legal services, food programs and language education.
“How powerful would that be, if perhaps the City of Albuquerque did that, or other cities within the state supported by the state government are able to establish these welcoming centers,” she said. “So that people have the tools that they need to get through their asylum process.”
NOT ALL ARE WELCOMING
One New Mexico representative is asking for the New Mexico National Guard to be sent to the southern border to help “stem the flow of illegal activity.”
Rep. Jenifer Jones (R-Deming) sent a letter to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham last week referencing a conversation the two had during the Legislature about potential federal funds to send the New Mexico National Guard to the border. Jones said state funds could be used if there’s no federal assistance.
Maddie Hayden, spokesperson for the governor’s office, said via email that the New Mexico National Guard is ready to assist with non-enforcement related work at the southern border, at the request of the federal government.
“Congress ultimately bears responsibility for finding a solution on federal immigration policy,” she wrote, “but until Republicans recognize that border security and humanitarian aid are not mutually exclusive, this fundamentally federal issue will continue to fester without a solution in sight.”
Hayden said Lujan Grisham agrees with Jones that public safety is paramount, including at the southern border. She added that the governor is “committed to dedicating whatever resources are needed to keep New Mexicans safe.”
In the letter, Jones said “the flow of illegal activity” will likely increase when Title 42 lifts, worsening a “crisis” of illegal drugs coming across the southern border and the threat of human trafficking.
Genovese said Democrats can’t fall victim to messages like the one from Jones and try to appease white nationalism.
“It’s fear-mongering by Republicans, predominantly, about the immigrants, the asylum seekers, the migrants, failures to recognize humanity in our neighbors,” she said. “It’s completely racist and xenophobic.”
She said Biden also shouldn’t try to appease these Republicans. His administration has expelled more people under Title 42 than the Trump administration that enacted it, according to the government statistics. Genovese said too often, Democrats like Biden try to placate Republicans by showing force around the southern border.
“It’s caused a tremendous amount of chaos and more harm,” she said.
Biden’s stance on Title 42 has swayed over the years, with the administration often denouncing inhumane immigration policies while still keeping them in effect.
Congressional members pointed out Biden’s mixed messages in January. They sent a letter to Biden arguing against the expansion of Title 42. New Mexico’s U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján and Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández signed that letter along with 75 other officials.
The Biden administration as well as immigration advocacy centers have failed to end Title 42 numerous times.
As a result of that and Title 8 being in effect, Genovese said there have been and still are thousands upon thousands of migrants and asylum seekers waiting in Mexico. Many are often in very dangerous situations, she added.
When asylum seekers rush into the U.S. when Title 42 lifts, she said, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol won’t have the capacity to hold everyone, meaning some will get through undetected and officials will just have to allow others through.
Text messages last year urged N.M. voters to support a ballot measure. An ethics settlement unraveled who was behind the campaign- By Albuquerque Journal
A New York-based advocacy group has paid an $11,000 civil penalty and disclosed the donors behind a text-messaging campaign after it was accused of violating New Mexico’s campaign finance law.
The payment and disclosure come after the State Ethics Commission filed a lawsuit just before Election Day last year alleging the Working Families Organization Inc. had tried to conceal its role in text messages urging voters to support a ballot measure to boost education funding.
Newly filed campaign finance documents outline $22,590 in spending late last year. The bulk of the funding originated with 11 national advocacy groups.
“New Mexicans deserve to know who is funding political advertisements that seek to influence their votes,” ethics commission spokeswoman Suha Musa said Monday in a written statement to the Journal.
The settlement, she said, is the commission’s latest action “enforcing the disclosure of contributions and expenditures by wealthy and out-of-state organizations that fund political advertisements in New Mexico.”
The ethics commission lawsuit sought to enforce 2019 amendments to New Mexico’s campaign finance law designed to shine light on “dark money” in state political campaigns.
The Working Families Organization, according to the lawsuit, violated the law by launching an advertising campaign that suggested “Unemployed Workers United” paid for the text messages and by failing to file disclosure reports with the Secretary of State’s Office.
In February, the Working Families Organization said it settled the case to put the issue to rest and focus on its advocacy work. The group, based in Brooklyn, described Unemployed Workers United as a “hosted project.”
“We feel strongly about complying with campaign finance and disclosure rules and always do our best to meet the requirements,” Neidi Dominguez, executive director of Unemployed Workers United, said in a written statement.
A spokesman for the group also said that while Unemployed Workers United is affiliated with the Working Families Organization in New York, Unemployed Workers United itself is headquartered in New Mexico and committed to ensuring “children across our state have access to the resources they need to thrive.”
Independent expenditure reports filed with the Secretary of State’s Office offer a peek at the source of funding for the texting campaign.
For spending on a “peer-to-peer voter text” program, Working Families Organization — doing business as Unemployed Workers United — reported drawing on funds provided by a host of left-leaning groups, many dedicated to worker rights.
The largest donation — of $690,000 — came from the State Democracy Project, a nonprofit group that supports efforts to “promote a thriving multi-racial American democracy,” according to GuideStar, a website that tracks nonprofit groups.
Other donors listed in the New Mexico disclosure report include Jobs with Justice Education Fund; Center for Popular Democracy; Proteus Action League; National Domestic Workers Alliance; National Employment Law Project; Mijente PAC; Colorado Jobs with Justice Inc.; Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO; and the Tides Foundation.
The settlement is the State Ethics Commission’s first case centering on the requirement in state law for a political advertisement to disclose who paid for and approved the ad. But the commission has demanded and obtained financial disclosure from other political committees in recent years.
In this case, the text-messaging campaign sought support for a constitutional amendment on the Nov. 8 ballot to boost annual withdrawals from New Mexico’s largest permanent fund from 5% to 6.25%.
It passed with 70% support, expanding funding for early childhood education and public schools.
BernCo Sheriff’s Office creates new position for behavioral health and compliance - Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News
A new position has been filled that’s meant to oversee policies of behavioral health and people in crisis at the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office.
As the Albuquerque Journal reports, John Sheriff Allen announced the new position will go to retired law enforcement officer Diane Dosal.
At a news conference Thursday, Allen said the new gig will help expand the mobile crisis team, build better connections with the community, update their policies, and potentially avoid other mistakes made by police forces across the country.
According to the Journal, Dosal started as an officer with the Gallup Police Department and then retired as a sergeant in the Albuquerque Police Department’s Crisis Intervention Unit.
The position would also be partly dedicated to officer mental health and crisis resource management –– particularly for the night shifts, where Dosal says resources are “scarce.”
FEMA is opening offices this week for New Mexicans affected by last year's wildfire - Associated Press
The Federal Emergency Management Agency Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Claims Office, charged with administering nearly $4 billion in emergency financial aid for survivors of last year's record-breaking wildfire in New Mexico, is expected to open its three regional offices to the public Wednesday.
The wildfire was the most destructive in state history, burning 533 square miles between early April and mid-June in San Miguel, Mora and Taos counties.
It destroyed more than 900 structures, including several hundred homes, according to authorities.
Ben Akers, external affairs officer for the FEMA claims office in New Mexico, told the Santa Fe New Mexican that the agency has hired 43 people to staff the offices in Mora, Santa Fe and Las Vegas, N.M.
He said all FEMA employees serving as "navigators" — those who will take claimants through the claims process — are New Mexico residents, and many of them are from communities affected by the wildfire.
FEMA wants to offer that personal connection to help claimants as they deal with the loss and grief that followed the fire, Akers said.
As of last Friday, the FEMA claims office had received 548 notices of loss associated with the fire.
So far, FEMA workers have reached out to 518 of those claimants to start the process of reviewing and processing claims.
FEMA is sympathetic to those who incurred losses or damages in the fire and wants to begin making partial payments as soon as next month, Akers said.
Lawsuit challenges NM law that criminalizes disclosure of child abuse case information — Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News
A lawsuit recently filed in federal court challenges the constitutionality of a New Mexico law that mandates all information and records related to abuse and neglect cases remain confidential.
The Albuquerque Journal reports the suit was filed by attorney Harold Atencio who represents relatives of an infant involved in such a case.
Atencio says he became aware of ongoing conduct by the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department while representing his client that he characterizes as “egregious.”
That includes policy violations, possible corruption, and plans to do things that would have threatened the life and well-being of the infant, according to the lawsuit.
Despite Atencio’s knowledge of these allegations, the lawsuit states New Mexico law bars him from disclosing them publicly under threat of criminal penalties, even if he keeps any identifying information under wraps. It argues this “enables and encourages” the misconduct and violates free speech rights.
The federal appeals court that would hear the case to reach that stage struck down a similar Colorado law last year.
The office of Attorney General Raúl Torrez told the Journal that it’s aware of that ruling and is reviewing the New Mexico lawsuit before determining next steps.
What the new COVID vaccine guidance means for you or your loved ones - By Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
Only one in five New Mexicans who are eligible for the Omicron booster have received the updated shot as of Thursday, according to a news release by the New Mexico Department of Health.
This news comes as the federal government retires the vaccine used for the original wild-type strain of SARS-CoV-2 and instead authorizes just the vaccine commonly known as the Omicron booster.
Guidance on when to get vaccines and if a person is eligible is discussed below, adapted from a series of flowcharts created by Dr. Elisabeth Marnik, assistant professor at Husson University. Before you get there it’s important to understand two terms, monovalent and bivalent.
“Monovalent” means the dose is for the original wild-type strain of SARS-CoV-2, the most common vaccine Americans received and the one that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is retiring.
“Bivalent” means the dose is split between the RNA sequence for the wild-type, and the remainder is the sequence for the more recently evolved Omicron variant. This will be the vaccine most people will receive for the foreseeable future.
The dosage will depend on someone’s age and their immune status.
There is not yet CDC guidance for immunocompromised children under the age of 6.
OVER 65 YEARS, NOT IMMUNOCOMPROMISED
Anyone that’s gone at least four months since they got the bivalent vaccine is eligible for another dose.
Same goes for anyone that received a monovalent COVID-19 vaccine but hasn’t gotten the booster. They can sign up to get a bivalent.
6 TO 65 YEARS, NOT IMMUNOCOMPROMISED
Anyone in this group who received a bivalent booster is not eligible at this time for another shot.
People who have not received any vaccine can get one dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna bivalent.
Anyone unvaccinated that was infected in the last three months, is eligible for a bivalent, but may want to consider waiting.
If you haven’t got a bivalent, but have got any monovalent, and it’s been at least three months since you’ve been infected, and at least eight weeks since your last monovalent, then you’re eligible for a bivalent, but you may want to consider waiting a longer interval.
If you haven’t got a bivalent, but have got any monovalent, and it’s been at least three months since you’ve been infected, but your last monovalent was less than eight weeks ago, then you should wait for a longer interval.
5 YEARS, NOT IMMUNOCOMPROMISED
Children who received the booster will have to wait, they are not eligible under the guidelines.
Children without any vaccine are eligible to get one dose of the Pfizer bivalent or two doses of the Moderna bivalent.
If they haven’t got a bivalent but got any monovalent, and it’s been at least eight weeks since their last monovalent, then they’re eligible for one bivalent Moderna or Pfizer.
If they haven’t got a bivalent but got any monovalent, and it hasn’t been at least eight weeks since their last monovalent, then they’ll be eligible after eight weeks.
6 MONTHS TO 4 YEARS, NOT IMMUNOCOMPROMISED
Any child in this age range is up to date with their vaccine if they received at least two doses of the Moderna bivalent.
If they got a Pfizer bivalent, and have at least three doses including at least one bivalent, then they’re up to date.
If they got a Pfizer bivalent, but have not got at least three doses with at least one being bivalent, then they’re eligible for a third bivalent dose, which should be at least eight weeks after the first one.
Any children in this age range that are unvaccinated can get three Pfizer bivalent doses or two Moderna bivalent doses.
If they haven’t got a bivalent but do have one Pfizer monovalent, then they’ll be eligible for two more bivalent doses, three to eight weeks between doses one and two, and at least eight weeks between doses two and three.
If they haven’t got a bivalent but do have two Pfizer monovalent doses, then their third dose should be bivalent and at least eight weeks after their last dose.
If they haven’t got a bivalent but do have a Moderna monovalent, then they’re eligible for a bivalent at least four weeks after their first monovalent dose.
OVER 6 YEARS, IMMUNOCOMPROMISED
If they got a bivalent, and have been infected or vaccinated in the last two months, then they will be eligible once it’s been at least two months.
If they got a bivalent, and it’s been at least two months since their last infection or vaccination, then they’re eligible for a bivalent every two months.
If they haven’t got a bivalent, but have got any monovalent, then they’re eligible for a bivalent every two months or at least two months after their last infection.
If they haven’t got a bivalent nor a monovalent, then they can get one dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna bivalent.
HOW TO REGISTER
People can sign up for their vaccine appointment by calling 1-855-600-3453 (option 3, option 9 for Spanish), online at vaccineNM.org, vaccineNM.org/kids, vaccines.gov, or through their medical provider or pharmacist.
New Mexico residents can still receive mail order free at-home COVID tests through DOH’s partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation’s Project Act program while supplies last at accesscovidtests.org/.
Free at-home tests are available until May 11, or while supplies last at covid.gov/tests.
NMSU gives AD extension despite hoops problems - By Eddie Pells Ap National Writer
New Mexico State athletic director Mario Moccia signed a five-year contract extension earlier this month, on the same day his boss and a staunch defender, chancellor Dan Arvizu, stepped down nearly three months earlier than scheduled.
Moccia oversees a basketball program with former players who are suing the school's board of regents and two former coaches. The players claim administrators did nothing after they tried to tell them they had been sexually assaulted by teammates.
Both the AD and Arvizu signed the contract on April 7, the date Arvizu announced he would leave immediately instead of at the end of his contract on June 30.
The Las Cruces Sun-News acquired the contract, which calls for Moccia to get nearly a $72,000 raise from his current deal and make $351,800 in the first year of the new contract. His pay will escalate to $425,000 in the last year, which ends June 30, 2028.
School spokesman Justin Bannister told KTSM-TV that the timing of the deal was a coincidence.
"It had been in the works for quite some time," Bannister said. "The timing just so happened to be on Arvizu's last day."
In a February news conference held after Arvizu canceled the Aggies' basketball season and fired coach Greg Heiar in the wake of hazing allegations — the details of which came out in the lawsuit filed earlier this week — the chancellor staunchly defended Moccia's performance in his eight years as AD at New Mexico State.
And Moccia defended his record as athletic director, saying "I made a list of every coach I've hired ... and, you know, we have an excellent batting average. Nobody bats a thousand."
One of the allegations in the lawsuit was that one of the player's father tried to reach Moccia to discuss the alleged assaults, but the AD did not return the calls. That led to the player taking his story to campus police, who opened an investigation.
The basketball program is also the subject of multiple investigations stemming from the fatal shooting of a University of New Mexico student by former player Mike Peake. Video of the shooting suggests Peake was acting in self-defense. He has not been charged. Police had to stop the team bus on Interstate 25 to question witnesses after the team left Albuquerque the morning after the shooting.
In a meeting late last year, the NMSU board of regents declined to renew Arvizu's contract, which was set to expire at the end of June. On April 7, he announced he was leaving early to allow the school to focus on a search for his replacement.
Arvizu had previously drawn concerns in the NMSU community after police body camera video came out from a dispute at his home. The chancellor was accused by his wife, Sheryl, of having an affair with a NMSU staff member. He denied the affair.