A veto is coming on the council’s voting proposal. Here’s what you need to know. - By Elizabeth McCall, City Desk ABQ
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller plans to veto the City Council’s proposal to change the city’s voting system this week, but if councilors vote the same way they did initially, they will have enough votes to override it.
The council can override a veto with a majority — five — plus one vote.
At their last meeting, councilors on a 6-3 vote approved a proposal to put on the November ballot a measure to eliminate the threshold to win an election.
An initial proposal — sponsored by Councilors Dan Lewis and Klarissa Peña — would have allowed a mayor or city councilor to be elected with at least 40% of the total vote, instead of the current 50%, but then councilors approved allowing anyone with the most votes to win. The proposal would allow a plurality voting system rather than a majority voting system and eliminate run-off elections.
Councilor Louie Sanchez — who voted in favor of the proposal — did not directly answer questions about whether he would vote to override a veto and said instead he was “not the biggest fan of the 40%” proposal but said they “can’t continue to close the voters’ mouth.”
“I think it’s extremely important that the voter has a chance to chime in on things that we do,” Sanchez said. “So many times we as elected officials don’t give them that opportunity, and I want to give them that opportunity to say yes or no.”
Last week Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver sent a letter to Keller and council members calling the proposal a “big step in the wrong direction,” and saying she has deep concerns about its impact on the electoral process. She acknowledged that run-off elections “come with hefty price tags, and their timing typically means fewer eligible voters make their voices heard at the ballot box” but said they are still preferable to the council’s proposal.
In response, Lewis told City Desk ABQ the letter was a “power grab,” and Toulouse Oliver “does not want voters to vote.” Lewis said he plans to vote to override the mayor’s veto and at the council’s June 3 meeting, he said there “is nothing more undemocratic than run-off elections.”
Other councilors who voted for the proposal — Brook Bassan, Dan Champine, Renée Grout and Klarissa Peña — did not respond to emails and calls from City Desk ABQ.
In 2017, Lewis lost to Keller in a runoff election. The two were among eight candidates on the ballot in the general election, where Keller received 39.35% of the votes and Lewis received 22.93%.
If Albuquerque voters pass a plurality voting system, the city will be the only major municipality in the state to do so. In fact, officials from the Secretary of State’s Office and Common Cause New Mexico said they are unaware of any other municipalities that have implemented a plurality voting system. The Municipal League of New Mexico said the cities that have runoff elections (a category that includes ranked choice voting) are Albuquerque, Gallup, Las Cruces, Rio Rancho and Santa Fe.
Alex Curtas, director of communications for the Secretary of State’s Office, said Las Cruces and Santa Fe have a ranked-choice voting system, which Toulouse Oliver called in her letter the best solution to the city’s runoff structure.
At the council’s June 3 meeting, Councilors Tammy Fiebelkorn and Nichole Rogers introduced an ordinance to adopt a ranked-choice voting system, which allows voters to rank candidates by preference on a ballot. That measure failed on a 3-6 vote.
Fiebelkorn said she is thankful Keller is planning to veto the “disastrous proposal” and said she will vote against an override and hopes councilors will reconsider it after hearing the top election official’s concerns.
“I want the person who has the true majority of voters, whether it’s in a City Council district or city wide for the mayor, elected to represent the citizens, not some plurality,” Fiebelkorn said. “Looking back at all of the public comments from the last three council meetings, I don’t believe a single person has said ‘we want this.’”
Mason Graham, a policy director for Common Cause New Mexico, was one of the public commenters who spoke against changing the voting system at the last two council meetings.
Graham told City Desk ABQ that a plurality voting system in a city as large as Albuquerque is an ineffective way for elected officials to serve and Common Cause is working to educate voters about the potential impacts.
“We’ll be working on some public education and getting information out to Albuquerque and New Mexicans of how harmful this is,” Graham said. “With the 40% at least we could expect a runoff, but with this, there’s also a possibility that candidates could enter into races with the intent of splitting the votes so a particular candidate can win. Watering it down to anything less than a majority is nondemocratic.”
All NM police departments could report monthly gun violence stats under gov proposal - By Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham wants regular, statewide updates on gun violence from police departments across New Mexico.
A two-page draft discussed with lawmakers last week would require all police departments in New Mexico to turn in monthly reports on criminal activity and ballistic information to the Department of Public Safety.
The proposal is one of five that Lujan Grisham wants lawmakers to consider in the special session scheduled to begin July 18.
The law already requires police departments to turn in monthly reports on crime in their jurisdictions to the department of public safety, but the bill seeks to add “ballistic information” to what must be included in the reports.
The department would have to “provide standards and procedures and related training” to state and local police departments as needed for them to turn in reports every month under the draft bill.
That information would be used “to formulate responses, to make informed presentations on the current situation,” Lujan Grisham’s senior public safety advisor Benjamin Baker told lawmakers.
“I think that is statistical data for helping inform us what’s good policy, what’s good lawmaking, and what’s good advice to bodies such as this,” Baker told the Courts, Corrections & Justice Committee on June 26.
Rep. Alan Martinez (R-Rio Rancho) asked if the crime reporting is not already being done.
“No, it is not being done in a way that is enforceable by anybody else,” Baker responded. “We have worked towards getting it.”
Baker said the National Incident-Based Reporting System run by the FBI is a “functional, great way that it specifically categorizes crime, but it is voluntary.”
“It is very difficult to pull together relevant and contemporary data that paints a picture statewide,” Baker said.
Bernalillo County started to provide the data to the state eight months ago, Baker said, but there are 193 “public safety agencies” throughout New Mexico. Only 95 agencies in New Mexico reported their data to the national system in 2022, according to FBI data.
“Getting them to share and collaborate on the data piece is critical from our perspective,” he said.
Rep. Jared Hembree (R-Roswell) pointed out New Mexico law already requires a “uniform crime reporting system,” and every police department “shall” submit crime incident reports to DPS each month.
“So that doesn’t seem voluntary, and seems to be very similar to this draft we have right here,” Hembree said.
Baker said the administration thinks the law needs to be revisited to also include ballistic data, because there is new technology related to ballistic information which wasn’t considered by previous legislation.
“Technology has changed, the reporting repository has changed, and I think what we need is a new way of getting that information to us so we will be able to use it on our level,” Baker said.
He said the goals of the legislation would be to make it easier for local departments to get plugged into the FBI reporting system, and to get more specific information about “what we would call a violent crime gun epidemic that is happening within our state.”
Martinez asked what would happen if police departments do not comply with the law.
“What do we do when the cops don’t do what we tell them to do?” Baker asked. “I think there are a number of things that, when legislation is passed by this legislature, particularly as it relates to any government agency that receives funding, there is an appropriate mechanism to hold to account folks who do not comply with laws that have been passed by this Legislature.”
It’s official: A new superintendent takes the reins at APS — Rodd Cayton, City Desk ABQ
The transition of leadership at Albuquerque Public Schools is now official.
Gabriella Durán Blakey, who had been the district’s acting superintendent since March, took over Monday as the head of an organization with 141 regular public schools, more than 70,000 students and a staff of more than 10,000.
“I’m honored to step into this position and to have the opportunity to reimagine the way we do things at APS,” Blakey said in a news release.
After a national search, in February the APS Board of Education tabbed Blakey as the new superintendent, replacing Scott Elder, whose retirement became official Sunday.
“The Board of Education heard loud and clear from our community that they want a superintendent who has the experience and know-how to improve student outcomes, who understands our community and culture, and who will listen to and prioritize community voice,” Board President Danielle Gonzales told City Desk ABQ Monday. “I am so proud that we have all of that and more in Dr. Blakey. We are excited about her leadership and ready to see her get to work to serve, challenge, and support our students.”
SHIFTING FOR BETTER STUDENT OUTCOMES
Blakey also launched an administrative reorganization that went into effect Monday.
She said the shift is designed to better position APS to meet the goals identified in its Emerging Stronger strategic plan: improving reading and math proficiency rates, preparing students for life after graduation, and equipping them with life skills needed for future success.
“I’m prepared to do whatever it takes to make that happen,” Blakey said.
As acting superintendent, APS says, she has visited more than a dozen schools to hear from staff and students about what the district is doing well and where it could improve.
She plans to host additional listening sessions in the coming weeks and months.
In an April conversation with CityDesk ABQ, Blakey said her priorities include students learning five new things in each grade, aligning APS’ goals to the strategic plan and building trust in the school system.
THE RISE OF A FORMER PUPIL
Prior to her latest promotion, Blakey worked at APS for more than 20 years, serving as a teacher, assistant principal, principal and associate superintendent. She most recently was the district’s chief operations officer. Blakey was also assistant superintendent for curriculum and professional development with Santa Fe Public Schools.
Blakey, who attended Sandia Base Elementary and Van Buren Middle School and graduated from Highland High School, is the 30th APS superintendent in the district’s 133 years.
“I want our schools to challenge and nurture students,” Blakey said Monday. “I want to work with families and the community to give children what they need to be successful in the classroom. Above all, when the time comes for our students to graduate, I want them to be ready and have the skills to succeed no matter what they choose to do after high school.”
Much of New Mexico is under flood watch after 100 rescued from waters over weekend — Associated Press
Weather forecasters warned Monday that much of New Mexico faces two more days of elevated threats of dangerous flooding like the walls of water over the weekend that caused severe damage, forced the rescues of 100 people and left parts of one town recently ravaged by wildfires covered in mud and debris.
The body of one person was recovered from the Rio Grande in Albuquerque on Sunday, but it wasn't immediately clear if the death was flood related, according to Albuquerque Fire Rescue and Bernalillo County Fire Rescue. The death remained under investigation and no other details had been released.
Most of central New Mexico remained under a flood watch into Tuesday, including Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Las Vegas and Ruidoso.
"Very few parts of the state have been immune from the impacts," said Daniel Porter, the senior meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service office in Albuquerque. "Unfortunately the threat is most likely to continue to be really elevated for the next couple of days, at least through Wednesday," he told reporters during a briefing Monday.
The threat should briefly subside on Thursday for the Fourth of July, but begin to ramp up again by the weekend, Porter said.
The downpours have caused the most damage in areas of New Mexico where wildfires have left mountainside void of trees, brush and grass -- including in northern New Mexico where a historic blaze burned through numerous communities in 2022 and in the village of Ruidoso where residents were forced to flee fast-moving flames just weeks ago.
"Some of the damage I saw was really, just genuinely shocking. Some of it just took your breath away," said Andrew Mangham, the weather service's senior hydrologist said Monday after visiting some of the hardest hit areas on Sunday.
"Just absolutely complete devastation" in parts of Ruidoso, he said.
There have been no reports of any serious injuries.
National Guard spokesman Hank Minitrez confirmed troops had assisted over the weekend in the rescue of at least 100 people stranded by flood waters in vehicles or otherwise, mostly in the Ruidoso area,
Ruidoso Mayor Lynn Crawford said he'd "never seen anything like that."
"It was insane," he told KRUI Radio on Monday.
Ruidoso spokesperson Kerry Gladden said there had been 26 swift water rescues in their village alone on Saturday and 51 on Sunday.
"We were incredibly lucky we did not have any injuries. We didn't have to transport anyone to the hospital," she said. She said they had no immediate estimate on flood damage.
"That will take days," she said late Monday.
The Albuquerque Police Department headquarters and City Hall both suffered flood damage over the weekend, Mayor Tim Keller said Sunday.
According to the National Weather Service, quarter-sized hail and 60 mph (97 kph) wind hit the Albuquerque area late Saturday night.
Heavy rain from a severe thunderstorm brought flash flooding to many parts of the city and downed power poles, leaving up to 20,000 residents without electricity for hours.
Keller said basements of City Hall and the Albuquerque police flooded, but there was no immediate damage estimate.
NM governor wants more prison time for people convicted of felonies who face new gun charges - By Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is proposing to once again extend how long someone can be put in prison for possessing a gun when they have already been convicted of a felony.
New Mexico law prohibits someone from having a gun if they’ve been convicted of a felony, battery or property damage against a loved one, stalking, or federal gun charges; or if they’re under a protection order for rape or domestic violence.
If someone has a felony conviction or has served any part of their probation for a felony in the last decade, it is a third-degree felony to be found in possession of a firearm under the current state law.
Other third-degree felonies in New Mexico carry a three-year sentence; being convicted under this part of the law can land someone in prison for up to six years.
A five-page draft bill presented to the Courts, Corrections & Justice Committee on June 26 would make the crime a second-degree felony. That would bring a nine-year sentence on a person’s first conviction, and a 12-year sentence for a second one.
“Creating a statute in New Mexico that can be effective at safely incarcerating dangerous previously convicted offenders, we believe, is a part of the overall solution that cannot wait,” said Benjamin Baker, the governor’s senior public safety advisor.
If lawmakers pass Lujan Grisham’s proposal during a special session on July 18, it would be the fifth time in six years that they’ve amended the felon in possession statute.
State legislators increased the penalty for violating the law in 2018, and expanded the category of who can be charged with the crime in 2019. They lengthened the possible prison sentence in 2020, and then did so again in 2022.
Rep. Micaela Lara Cadena (D-Las Cruces) asked Baker to explain why the governor proposes to increase the maximum sentences compared to the proposal considered in the last regular session that ended in February.
“This problem continues to increase despite actions made by this Legislature to increase penalties and expand the scope,” Baker said.
PROPOSED PRISON TERMS FUNCTION AS MANDATORY MINIMUMS
The draft proposal from Lujan Grisham would also make any sentence ineligible for “good time,” meaning no matter how that person behaves in prison, no matter what programs they take part in, they could not get out early.
Cadena asked Baker about the intent behind the proposed change, and whether it is meant to function as a mandatory minimum sentence. Baker said yes.
Criminal justice advocates have long argued making people serve longer prison sentences does not reduce crime, citing studies showing sentence enhancements and the creation of new crimes, as the governor is proposing here, have little or no deterrent effect on crime.
“While I accept that those studies exist, and I’m aware of their existence, I also believe that there’s multiple facets to the criminal justice system, and deterrence is not the only one,” Baker said. “The community’s safety due to incarceration and separation from the community, so that one can’t reoffend, are an important point that I’d like to raise to the committee.”
Sen. Moe Maestas (D-Albuquerque) said the mandatory minimums as a policy disincentivizes “any good behavior” by incarcerated people.
“Being cognizant of the plight of our corrections officers, our Department of Corrections is thin with regard to workers,” Maestas said. “Our workers are working overtime, and that tiny bit of incentive for the inmate to behave is in the interest of public safety.”
The proposed sentence could result in someone convicted of felon in possession being in prison for longer than someone convicted of vehicular homicide, Maestas said.
“It’s just completely inconsistent with good public policy,” Maestas said.
‘IT IS A STATEWIDE CONCERN’
Baker said “we are failing to both prevent and provide the community safety necessary that exists when a person is incarcerated, instead of being free in the community, to choose to reoffend.”
Baker walked lawmakers through data he cited from the Administrative Office of the Courts showing all felon in possession charges in New Mexico between 2017 and May 31, 2024.
In 2017 and 2018, there were about 1,400 cases per year across the state, Baker said.
In 2019, there were significantly fewer cases, and there were nearly no cases in 2020 and 2021, which Baker attributed to “COVID and the situation that existed there.”
There were 202 cases in 2022, he said.
The most recent annual data from 2023 shows 1,378 cases, “a return statewide in New Mexico to pre-pandemic numbers,” Baker said.
As of May 31, there were 864 cases filed so far in 2024. Baker said he projects by the end of the year there will be a rate “higher than any of the previous seven years.”
“Statewide charging events have increased,” Baker said. “It is a statewide concern.”
Between 2017 and May 31, 2024, 52% of the charges were dismissed in two ways, Baker said.
State prosecutors dismissed 36% of those cases.
In the remaining 14% of the cases, people pleaded guilty to another crime associated with the same incident, in exchange for getting the gun charge dismissed, he said.
Following Sackett, questions remain about what waters are protected - By Hannah Grover, New Mexico Political Report
As the impacts of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Sackett decision of 2023 unfold, New Mexico water advocates are pushing for increased protections of waterways that are no longer protected under the Clean Water Act.
Advocates from groups like Trout Unlimited and Amigos Bravo partnered with EcoFlight to help a group of legislators get a better picture of the landscape and how many waterways lost their protections due to the Sackett decision.
The plane flew over areas like the Caja del Rio, Valles Caldera National Preserve and parts of the Jemez River watershed.
Dan Roper with Trout Unlimited said that the Jemez River watershed is a “great place to think about the risks to our water resources right now.”
He said, since the Sackett decision, there are a lot of questions about what level of protections are in place for streams, rivers and wetlands in that watershed. Those waterways include rivers like the San Antonio Creek and the Rio Guadalupe that run year long and are popular places for anglers to fish. Some of the rivers and streams even originate in the Valles Caldera National Preserve.
“We don’t know if they’re protected,” Roper said.
One reason that New Mexico’s waters are at risk due to the court ruling is because the state is one of three that do not have their own surface water permitting program.
Another reason is the arid nature of New Mexico. The Sackett decision ruled that the Clean Water Act does not apply to waterways and wetlands that aren’t adjacent to a navigable water or are not perennial.
That places areas like New Mexico that have a lot of ephemeral and intermittent streams and wetlands at risk, despite the fact that those waterways are critical to ensuring clean drinking water and irrigation water.
Some of the threats to waters in New Mexico include road building, development, mining, oil and gas extraction and even forest management, Roper said.
He said that some of the modeling that has been done following the Sackett decision has led to concerns that many of the streams no longer have the level of protections that they once did.
“If they aren’t protected by the feds, they don’t have protections right now,” Roper said.
The streams around Los Alamos National Laboratory, for example, may not be protected by the Clean Water Act, according to a map provided by Trout Unlimited. These waterways have documented pollution including mercury, cyanide, selenium and other metals, according to a state report.
Since Sackett, there have been questions about who, if anyone, has the authority to regulate discharges of pollutants from Los Alamos National Laboratory into the ephemeral streams that are often dry.
Tannis Fox with the Western Environmental Law Center said one thing that New Mexico can do in light of the Sackett decision is to get statutory and regulatory authority over discharges that are currently regulated by the federal government. That includes discharges from industrial sources and wastewater treatment plants. Currently, those are permitted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and certified by the New Mexico Environment Department to satisfy the state’s water quality standards.
New Mexico has taken steps to begin a surface water permitting program and the initial program rollout could occur in 2027.
The state also joined the America the Beautiful Freshwater Challenge, which aims to reconnect wetlands and waterways.
Some of the streams that lost their protections, like the San Antonio Creek do flow year round, but go dry before reaching a larger waterway that is within the EPA’s jurisdiction. Because of that, the Sackett decision may have left them unprotected.
Fox said it is uncertain if protections could be restored through efforts to keep water in a waterway that currently goes dry before its confluence with a larger river.
“A little bit of this still is up to interpretation of the courts of the Supreme Court’s decision,” she said.
Fox said the Supreme Court ruled that, in order to be protected, rivers like the Rio Grande and San Juan have to flow “relatively permanently;” however, the justices did not define what that means and did not provide any guidance in determining what streams remain under the EPA’s jurisdiction.
“When we’re talking about streams at risk, we are looking at these waters that potentially do not run permanently, that are potentially at risk, which is a wide swath of waters in New Mexico,” she said.
While the U.S. Congress could change the Clean Water Act to ensure all waterways are protected, Fox said there is not the political will to do so at this time.
That leaves a patchwork of protections that change from state to state despite the fact that waterways cross state lines.
While Fox hopes that New Mexico will take robust measures to ensure its waters are protected, she said not all the states in the arid west will make those efforts. One reason that the Clean Water Act was needed in the first place was that state efforts were not adequate to protect the waterways, she said.
“It’s important from a national perspective, that you not have a patchwork of protection of rivers and streams, but that you have protection throughout the nation,” Fox said. “And so, the Supreme Court, in my view, has really taken us back 50 years.”
Fortunately for New Mexico, many of the waters crossing into the state are coming from Colorado, which, Fox said, is also looking at “beefing up” surface water and wetland programs.
Roper said that, when it comes to water, everything’s connected.
“When we talk about the health of our watersheds, it’s our perennial streams…it’s our ephemeral drainage, a lot of those are arroyos,” he said. “But everything’s connected. Everyone lives downstream. So we really need to take a watershed approach to those issues.”
Flying objects and shrunken heads: World UFO Day feted amid surge in sightings, government denials - By Ben Finley Associated Press
For those of you who don't celebrate World UFO Day, consider this:
A former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer told Congress last summer about a government program that retrieves and reverse engineers unidentified flying objects.
The Mexican Congress held an unprecedented session in September during which supposed mummies were presented as "nonhuman beings that are not part of our terrestrial evolution."
And NASA now has a director of research for unidentified flying objects, or what it calls "unidentified anomalous phenomena."
Never mind that the Pentagon denied the former intelligence officer's claims; that Mexican researchers said the mummies "made no sense;" and that a NASA study found no evidence of extraterrestrials.
There's still never been a better time to mark World UFO Day.
A look at the history of World UFO Day:
Aliens? Or just balloons and crash test dummies?
World UFO Day has its roots in the so-called Roswell Incident on July 2, 1947. On that date, something crashed at what was then the J.B. Foster ranch in New Mexico. There were reports that the U.S. military had recovered a "flying disc." But officials later said the debris was merely the remnants of a high-altitude weather balloon.
The Air Force investigated the incident in 1994 amid charges that it was covering up the truth. It concluded that the supposed alien spacecraft was likely a secret Army Air Force balloon designed to monitor Soviet nuclear testing.
The material found near Roswell consisted of foil-wrapped fabric, wooden sticks, rubber pieces, and small I-beams with strange markings on them. A local newspaper headline described the find dramatically and unequivocally: Air Force Captures Flying Saucer On Ranch.
"The Air Force research did not locate or develop any information that the 'Roswell Incident' was a UFO event," wrote Col. Richard Weaver, author of the report.
The Air Force released another report addressing UFO claims in 1997, stating that alleged alien bodies found near Roswell were just dummies used in parachute tests.
Some UFO researchers pushed back against that explanation, noting that such dummies weren't used until 10 years after the Roswell Incident. And they said it would be a stretch for people who claimed to see alien bodies to mix up their dates so badly.
The life-size dummies were used in high-altitude parachute drops from 1954 to 1959. The majority landed outside the confines of military bases in eastern New Mexico, near Roswell, according to the Air Force report.
The dummies had a skeleton of aluminum or steel, skin of latex or plastic, a cast aluminum skull, and an instrument cavity in the torso and head.
The Air Force said the existence of such dummies was not widely known outside of scientific circles and "easily could have been mistaken for something they were not.''
UFOs are a national security concern
In 2022, Congress held its first hearing on UFOs in half a century as the Pentagon investigated hundreds of unexplained sightings in the sky.
The spotted objects appeared to be aircraft flying without any discernible means of propulsion. They have been reported near military bases and coastlines, raising the prospect that what witnesses actually spotted was secret Chinese or Russian technology.
A 2021 government report reviewed 144 sightings of aircraft or other devices that were apparently flying at mysterious speeds or trajectories. It found no extraterrestrial links but drew few other conclusions and called for better data collection.
Lawmakers from both parties have said the UFOs are a national security concern. But the sightings are usually fleeting. Some appear for no more than an instant on camera — and then sometimes end up distorted by the camera lens.
Ronald Moultrie, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, said during a 2022 hearing that the Pentagon was trying to destigmatize the issue and encourage pilots and other military personnel to report anything unusual they see.
Then things got a little strange last year.
During a congressional hearing in late July, retired Air Force Maj. David Grusch testified that the U.S. is concealing a longstanding program that retrieves and reverse engineers unidentified flying objects.
Asked whether the U.S. government had information about extraterrestrial life, Grusch said the U.S. likely has been aware of "nonhuman" activity since the 1930s.
The Pentagon denied Grusch's claims of a cover-up and denied the existence of any such program.
Shriveled bodies with shrunken heads
Unlike the hearings in the U.S., the testimony before lawmakers in the Mexican Congress included alleged evidence of aliens.
During an unprecedented session in September, Mexican journalist José Jaime Maussan presented two boxes containing shriveled bodies with shrunken, warped heads — supposed mummies found in Peru.
"It's the queen of all evidence," Maussan claimed. "That is, if the DNA is showing us that they are nonhuman beings and that there is nothing that looks like this in the world, we should take it as such."
The apparently desiccated bodies date back to 2017 and were found deep underground in the sandy Peruvian coastal desert of Nazca. Most attribute the famous Nazca Lines to ancient Indigenous communities.
Julieta Fierro, researcher at the Institute of Astronomy at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, was among those to express skepticism, saying that many details about the figures "made no sense."
She noted that scientists would need more advanced technology than the X-rays they claimed to use to determine if the allegedly calcified bodies were "nonhuman".
At another hearing in November, Maussan made the case again, citing a "nonhuman" that did not have lungs or ribs.
NASA chief: 'Show me the evidence'
The Pentagon released a study in March that had examined the many UFO sightings over nearly the past century and found no evidence of aliens or extraterrestrial intelligence.
The report analyzed U.S. government investigations since 1945. It also found no evidence that the U.S. or private companies had reverse-engineered extraterrestrial technology.
The Pentagon's report arrived about six months after NASA released a report on UFOs, which also found no evidence of extraterrestrials.
But NASA Administrator Bill Nelson did acknowledge that another Earth-like planet could exist within the billions of galaxies in the universe.
"If you ask me, do I believe there's life in a universe that is so vast that it's hard for me to comprehend how big it is? My personal answer is yes," Nelson said at a news conference.
When pressed by reporters on whether the U.S. or other governments are hiding aliens or otherworldly spaceships, Nelson said: "Show me the evidence."