U.S. Rep. Vasquez re-introduces immigration detention oversight bill in Congress- Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
Southern New Mexico’s representative in the U.S. House of Representatives said Thursday he is introducing updated legislation intended to require federal immigration authorities to report their activities to Congress.
U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.) held a news conference on Thursday alongside two community organizations to discuss what he called the “Humane Accountability Act 2.0,” which would require the federal Department of Homeland Security to report to Congress all immigration detentions, removals and encounters that have occurred since January.
Vasquez said the new version of the bill is updated to “reflect the times that we’re in today,” specifically the U.S. government deporting people to foreign countries. He said the legislation would require DHS to report, with legal justifications, each detention, removal or transfer to “non-traditional sites” like the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador or the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The bill also blocks surprise detentions at military bases, on tribal lands or overseas sites, requiring advanced notice with justification, including costs and care standards, he said.
The legislation would also mandate DHS to report on conditions in immigration detention centers for issues such as assaults, abuse, hospitalization and death, Vasquez said, along with complaints from detained people about access to legal representation or retaliation.
The congressman was joined by Lan Sena, policy director for the Center for Civic Policy, and Casey Mangan, a lawyer with the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center’s detention and asylum team.
Mangan said all three of New Mexico’s ICE detention facilities – the Otero County Processing Center, the Cibola County Correctional Center and the Torrance County Detention Facility — are full.
“On top of worsening conditions in the facilities, we’re seeing families and communities ripped apart by large-scale deportations, jamming people through the process without any due process,” he said.
Vasquez said detention centers like the one in Torrance County have shown substandard care for the people they hold, “and DHS has to be held accountable, as well as the private prison corporations that operate these centers.”
“Due process, transparency and accountability are not optional in a democracy,” Vasquez said.
Vasquez said seven people have died while in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since January. He said the agency is detaining more than 52,000 people, far above its 41,500-person capacity, and is on track to spend more than Congress has allowed.
Mangan said not much has changed as a result of his organization’s and the federal government’s own documentation of abuses, neglect and deaths caused by ICE negligence in New Mexico.
“If anything, things have gotten worse,” Mangan said. “There’s a reason for that: Under current state law, these facilities operate without state oversight and functionally without any federal oversight.”
Sena, the daughter of Vietnamese refugees, noted that May is Asian American, Pacific Islander and Native Hawaiian Heritage Month and said she is reminded of the deep history of injustices against immigrants in the U.S.
“Now, our community is facing dire threats as we are being detained without due process, nor receiving proper notification or information in their own languages, and potentially being sent to countries they have never lived in nor citizens of,” Sena said.
Sena said Vasquez’s legislation “shines a light on the darkest corners of our immigration system, and demands accountability from those in power,” and urged Congress to pass it.
Vasquez said he has very little faith that the Trump administration would sign the bill into law in the event Congress does pass it, but he will keep introducing it.
Mangan said the bill would be an important step toward guaranteeing the due process everyone has under the U.S. constitution, including migrants.
“Now, more than ever, we need to enforce the rule of law and support the important power that Congress has to provide a check on executive power,” he said.
First measles cases reported in Sandoval County, shoppers at Albuquerque grocery might have been exposed- Matthew Reisen, Albuquerque Journal
The first measles cases have been reported in Sandoval County, and state officials are warning that the infected residents traveled through Albuquerque and Cedar Crest.
The New Mexico Department of Health, in a news release Thursday, said the residents visited a Rio Rancho hospital, an Albuquerque Trader Joe's and a barbecue spot in the East Mountains.
An adult "of unknown vaccination status" and an unvaccinated child younger than 4 have tested positive for the disease, according to the release.
The cases, and possible exposure areas, mark the farthest north measles has moved in the state after 71 cases were reported across Chaves, Curry, Doña Ana, Eddy and Lea counties.
Officials said the Sandoval County residents visited four locations while possibly infected: the Presbyterian Rust Medical Center Emergency Department on April 30 and May 11; the Presbyterian Rust Oncology Clinic on May 1; the Trader Joe's off Paseo del Norte on May 6; and Ribs Hickory Pit BBQ on May 10.
The Department of Health said anyone at those locations on those days may have been exposed to the disease.
“If you have been exposed to measles and are vaccinated, your risk of getting sick is low,” Dr. Miranda Durham, NMDOH chief medical officer, said in the release Thursday. “Watch for symptoms, but know that the vaccine is very good at preventing measles.”
Anyone who believes they may have been exposed and begins to show symptoms of measles — a cough, runny nose, eye redness leading to fever and a rash that starts from the head and moves down — should call the DOH helpline at 1-833-SWNURSE.
NM Supreme Court rules alleged crime victims don’t need to disclose visa applications- Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
The New Mexico Supreme Court on Thursday ruled unanimously that criminal defendants are not entitled to visa applications from their alleged victims who are seeking protections from deportations as part of their testimonies.
So-called U and T visas allow non-citizen crime victims to report crimes and testify against perpetrators without fear of being deported. Approved visas allow victims temporary stays in the United States and also a potential avenue to lawful permanent resident status.
Last year, the court ordered judges in San Juan and Bernalillo counties to return or destroy victim visa application material that prosecutors had previously provided to defense teams. The court’s new ruling in an opinion issued today provides the legal reasoning for that order.
A rule requiring prosecutors to provide applications to defense teams could have a “chilling effect” on “immigrants’ willingness to report crimes,” the court’s opinion, written by Justice Shannon Bacon, said.
First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies recently told Source New Mexico that some immigrant crime victims have stopped answering her phone calls, potentially out of fear of being deported despite qualifying for U visas. About 25 alleged crime victims applied for the visa in her judicial district in the first two months of 2025.
One woman who stopped participating in the criminal justice process accused her partner, a United States citizen, of abusing her and two kids, both under age 11 and citizens themselves, Carmack-Altwies said in February.
While the court rules that visa applications are now confidential and protected against disclosure during discovery, there are instances when information in an application must be turned over.
For example, if the prosecution knows that a victim has applied for a U visa, they should turn that over to the defense team, “because the fact of a U/T-Visa application is relevant impeachment material,” the court wrote.
A crime victim’s credibility could reasonably be called into question, according to the court, because the benefits of a U or T visa are “significant and could provide ulterior motives.”
The court explained that “the defense may impeach the victim’s credibility by cross-examining the victim about the potential benefits that a U/T-Visa offers to a victim, acknowledging these benefits are significant and could provide ulterior motives.”
- When the U/T-visa application is relevant to the victim’s motive, the court wrote, a defendant can:
- Cross-examine witnesses, including victims, regarding their knowledge and participation in the U/T-Visa application process and their reasons for involvement;
- impeach a witness who has made “prior inconsistent statements on the topic”;
- educate the jury about what U/T visa is and their benefits by cross-examining the state’s witnesses or direct examination of defense witnesses”;
- and make related closing arguments
Also, if prosecutors have a copy of the visa application and material within it bears on the defendant’s guilt, then the information — “not the application” itself — must be disclosed, according to the court opinion. If the prosecution and defense disagree on whether information in the application is material, a judge may have to review it in private.
Water Quality Control Commission approves water reuse rule - Hannah Grover, nm.news
The Water Quality Control Commission approved a rule Wednesday outlining requirements for wastewater reuse, including how produced water — a byproduct of oil and gas production — can be handled for reuse.
The commission passed the rule on a 7-0 vote following two days of discussions.
During the first day, the body reversed course on its previous controversial move to allow produced water pilot projects to seek discharge permits, which would have allowed the projects to use treated produced water in ways that could result in it coming into contact with groundwater.
Advocacy groups and some state lawmakers expressed opposition to such actions and urged the Water Quality Control Commission to prohibit discharge permits for pilot projects.
During the Tuesday session, commissioners expressed concerns about what chemicals are in the produced water and said it may be too early to authorize pilot projects that require discharge permits.
“We decided not to allow pilot projects to discharge water outside of the industry,” Chairman Bruce Thomson said on Wednesday.
He said the commission also decided to ask the New Mexico Environment Department to establish a permit for pilot projects that use produced water.
Advocates praised the commission’s decision not to allow discharge permits for pilot projects.
“We are proud, pleased, and relieved that the Water Quality Control Commission removed the exemption to allow discharge, as we requested, and adopted a rule that will protect clean water, the New Mexicans who depend on it, and the ecosystems that would be harmed by introducing this fracking waste,” Tannis Fox, senior attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center, said in a press release. “Once an aquifer is polluted, it is difficult, costly and sometimes impossible to clean up.”
While the new rule doesn’t allow discharge permits for pilot projects, it allows pilot projects to move forward and includes guidance for people overseeing such efforts. The commissioners on Wednesday delved into what requirements should be in place for those pilot projects to ensure they do not result in any contamination and that the water is properly disposed of, whether it is treated or untreated.
The approved rule requires proper disposal of any materials that come into contact with either treated or untreated produced water during a pilot project’s operations. That includes plant materials, which is important because some of the existing pilot projects are experimenting with using produced water to irrigate plants in a greenhouse setting.
The hearing examiner is now working on a draft statement of reasons, which will be sent to commissioners for possible revisions. The commission authorized the chairman to sign the final statement of reasons.
Albuquerque adopts new rules, fines for 'problem motels' amid public safety push - Justin Garcia, Albuquerque Journal
Albuquerque motels with a track record of crime, code violations, or unpaid taxes in Albuquerque will soon face fines, restrictions on guest occupancy, and new record-keeping rules under a bill passed by the City Council.
The measure comes as Albuquerque continues its crackdown on motels it deems problematic, typically for code violations or because the motel sees a lot of criminal activity. The city has so far shut down six motels. The ordinance would allow the city to place additional hotels and motels on something like a provisional plan, according to Planning Department Director Alan Varela.
“The ordinance is very clear. It is targeted at problematic properties. This, hopefully, is a small minority of properties out there,” Varela said.
The bill was passed on a 5-4 vote on May 5, with Councilors Joaquín Baca, Dan Champine, Nichole Rogers and Louie Sanchez voting against it.
A spokesperson for Mayor Tim Keller’s office said he intended to sign the bill into law in the coming week, and it would take effect within the month.
Opposition to the bill at City Council varied. Rogers’ concern was how the measure would affect unhoused people seeking a room for a night. Sanchez’s concern stemmed from amendments that softened the blow to unhoused people.
Specifically, Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn introduced an amendment that inserted “if available” before some of the requirements for tenants to show a government issued identification and provide an address.
Fiebelkorn said that, without her amendments, the ordinance would force out unhoused people who might lack identification or a permanent address. Sanchez objected to that idea and voted against both of Fiebelkorn’s amendments.
“Overall, I think this bill will be beneficial to the citizens of Albuquerque,” Sanchez said.
What does the bill do?
The ordinance would create three triggers for a motel to be subjected to “enhanced operational requirements,” or “the bad list,” as councilors called it.
Those triggers are failure to make lodgers’ tax or hospitality fee payments to the city for three consecutive months, at least three violations of any city ordinance within a 12-month period, or at least one violation of the city’s Nuisance Abatement Ordinance.
Varela said these triggers were chosen because they’re often warning signs for motels with problematic activity.
“What we’ve noticed, especially in the last year when we’ve started shutting down these most problematic hotels in town — all of them at one point were very legitimate operations, probably in very good condition and a good and safe place for guests to stay,” Varela said, adding that these three issues would crop up as warning signs.
Varela said the city does not know how many motels might meet the criteria, and added that it will not seek out problematic motels.
“Code enforcement does all of its investigations based on complaints,” Varela said. “We do not drive around the city, putting our noses into businesses that are not on the complaint list.”
Once on the bad list, the city can issue civil fines of up to $500 per day, place liens on the property or prohibit occupancy. Additionally, motels on the bad list must keep information about their guests for 45 days, so the city can review it. That information includes a copy of the guest’s photo ID if available, or if not available, a picture of the guest’s full face; vehicle information like make, model and license plate number; and information about the source of payment.
The rationale behind this, Varela said, is to give police information.
“Each of the hotels that have been shut down so far has had some elements, whether it’s a large element or maybe to just a minor degree, of human trafficking,” Varela said. “And some of these items are designed entirely to help prevent human trafficking or make it much more difficult to do.”
Angelo Metzger, code compliance manager, added that many properties are also repeat code violators, leading to potentially dangerous conditions for tenants.
One of the most recent motels that Metzger’s office shut down was the Court John Motel at 2700 Fourth NW in the North Valley. In that case, the Albuquerque Police Department reported 940 calls from within two blocks of the motel, with 16 battery cases, 26 reports of stolen vehicles, two shootings, three sexual assaults and six drug-related offenses, according to a news release sent when the motel was shut down.
The motel was also accused of offering long-term stays to residents in rooms with failing plumbing, exposed wiring, pest infestations and structural damage, all while operating without a valid certificate of occupancy.
Metzger told the Journal that these properties can call the city to help get back into compliance.
“If you are having a problem with your property, please reach out to the city so we can go and assist you in getting it back to where it needs to be,” Metzger said.
Industry perspective
Dhawal Kholwadwala, president of the Greater Albuquerque Hotel and Lodging Association (GAHLA), said his organization played a role in helping craft the bill and hopes to continue that role as enforcement begins.
Kholwadwala said that GAHLA, which advocates for the interests of the hospitality industry, heard the bill was in the works and sought to get involved early. GAHLA agreed with the explicit goal of the bill, to make motels safer, but said some of the early details were concerning.
“At the end of the day, we support trying to make the community safer,” he said.
For one, they got the name changed from the “Hotel and Motel Accountability Ordinance” to the “Distressed Lodging Property Ordinance.” Kholwadwala said that mattered because the perception that this whole industry was somehow problematic was false.
Kholwadwala said his organization plans to pay close attention to how the new law is enforced moving forward. Specifically, he said GAHLA will review how the city uses and enforces the rules around collecting a guestbook.
“We just want it to be a fair process,” Kholwadwala said.
NM health officials: ‘One of the most severe’ flu seasons in recent years- Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
Mid-May marks the end of widespread influenza infections across the country, wrapping up a flu season New Mexico health officials described as “one of the most severe” in recent memory.
Hospitalizations and infection rates from influenza ran significantly higher this year, New Mexico Department of Health Chief Epidemiologist Dr. Chad Smelser told Source NM.
“The respiratory viruses following the pandemic are reestablishing themselves,” Smelser said, “We don’t want higher rates of these diseases in our populations because of the hospitalizations and deaths; it’s more important than ever that we recommend people stay up to date on immunizations, such as influenza, RSV and COVID.”
A contagious respiratory virus, influenza can infect people year-round, but often spreads further in late fall through the early spring. The virus has several types and can mutate rapidly, often requiring new vaccines to address the specific strains to be developed each year.
While not as high as last year’s rates, influenza-like illness reports to the New Mexico Department of Health peaked later, in January this year, mirroring the national flu trends. The flu spread intensely in the state’s Southeastern portion, notably in Lincoln and Lea counties, according to NMDOH data.
Between Sept. 29 and May 3, New Mexico reported 1,916 hospitalizations for influenza, with seniors older than 75 accounting for nearly one-third of the cases and adults ages 18 to 49-years old another 20% of them.
Deaths from influenza and pneumonia, which can be a complication of influenza, decreased from the prior year by 32.5%. Between September and May, New Mexico recorded 145 deaths from pneumonia, 76 adult influenza deaths and three pediatric influenza deaths.
About 27% of eligible New Mexicans received a flu shot this year and more than half of those were older than 65-years-old, according to NMDOH.
New Mexico’s flu season tracked with nationwide trends. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classified the 2024-2025 flu season as “high severity” overall for children, adults and seniors, the first high severity season since 2017-2018.
As of May 3, influenza had infected approximately 47 million people, hospitalized 610,000 people and caused 27,000 deaths nationwide — including 226 children.The CDC estimates the hospitalization rate was the highest in the last 15 years.
The CDC also notes a decline in influenza vaccinations nationwide with 147 million shots distributed this season — 10 million fewer than last year.
Smelser said consistent flu vaccination can protect against future strains of flu, as the virus mutates.
“We had a very severe year that caused a lot of impact both on the personal level and for their families, communities, loved ones but also economically, with missed days at work, at school,” Smelser said. “We really want people to stay up to date on all of their vaccines.”
New state study suggests homelessness far undercounted in New Mexico- Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
The number of people experiencing homelessness recently in New Mexico is two to four times higher than previous estimates, according to a new research paper from the state health department.
In findings researchers announced Wednesday, nearly 31,000 unhoused people, including 869 children under age 5, sought care at non-federal hospitals in New Mexico between 2019 and 2013. Researchers arrived at that number by analyzing certain fields within 10 million patient visit records, searching for patient addresses being listed as known homeless shelters or simply “homeless,” among other indicators.
Quantifying the number of people who live on the streets in New Mexico is a “pervasive” problem, the study notes. The annual “point-in-time” count, which the federal Housing and Urban Development department requires for certain federal grants, is an undercount and can vary based on numerous factors.
But it’s still considered an official count, and can be useful to detect trends, including huge increases in homelessness observed in Albuquerque and throughout the rest of the state in the most recent report. Read the study here.
In what they described as a novel approach to counting the state’s unhoused population, New Mexico Department of Health researchers Hayley Peterson and Dylan Pell determined that 30,882 patients experiencing homelessness visit hospitals nearly 183,000 times between 2019 and 2023, or nearly six visits each. The number of unhoused patients was about 8,000 in 2019 and hit a peak of a little more than 10,500 in 2022.
“Public health approaches that address infectious disease, environmental health, drug overdose, suicide and injury should include strategies to support [people experiencing homelessness] and promote stable housing,” said Miranda Durham, Chief Medical Officer for the Department of Health, in a news release. “Health system interventions like screening for housing needs and linking people to housing services can have positive health impacts.”
The new report’s numbers are far higher than the “point-in-time” counts for those years. In 2022, for example, volunteers counted about 2,600 people in homeless shelters and on the streets. In 2019, they counted 3,241.
The counties with the highest numbers of unhoused patients were Bernalillo, Santa Fe, Doña Ana and San Juan, according to the report.
Two-thirds of the patients were male, according to the report. Nearly 40% were Hispanic, another 40% were white, and 15% were American Indian or Alaska Native in a state where about 12% of the total population is Native American.
A little over 2,100 of the people counted, comprising 7% of the people the researchers counted, were under age 18.
The researchers also examined medical diagnoses the patients received, finding the top “comorbidity” along with homelessness, was alcohol-related disorders, with 17% of patients having that diagnosis. About 8% had a stimulant-related disorders, 7.1% had schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders and 4.8% were suicidal, among other common diagnoses, according to the report.
About 455 people were treated related to their pregnancy, a finding that indicates “additional supportive housing needs for families during a vulnerable life stage,” researchers wrote.
The researchers determined that their method of counting and analyzing homelessness could help present a clearer picture of an issue that has long plagued the state.
“These findings bolster understanding of homelessness in New Mexico and demonstrate that statewide healthcare system data can be used to report homelessness and its comorbidities,” the authors write.
Senators and students sound the alarm on National Institutes of Health cuts- Noah Alcala Back and Cathy Cook, Albuquerque Journal
A memo sent out to University of New Mexico researchers Friday urged them to spend all of their federal National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant funding as uncertainty looms over what income streams from Washington, D.C., to the largest college in New Mexico will remain.
That same day, a small crowd of citizens, students and faculty gathered at the UNM campus to send letters to their congresspeople asking them to “stand up” against funding freezes and cuts being implemented by the Trump administration. Approximately $36 million has been eliminated through NIH grant cuts at UNM in recent weeks, according to James Holloway, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs.
“These grants support our understanding of the health of New Mexicans and advance our capacity to improve health outcomes across our state. … Our dedicated faculty and research staff are assessing what work they can continue, but losses of this magnitude cannot be easily or quickly replaced,” Holloway said in a statement.
One of the students affected by those cuts was Khia Yang, a third-year Ph.D. student researching neurosciences via an NIH T32 Institutional Training Grant that she said was part of the federal funding slashes.
“This training program allowed students of underrepresented backgrounds to get three years of funding for their first three years of their Ph.D as part of the Biomedical Sciences graduate program,” Yang said. “It gives me a lot of concern for the future.”
The Trump administration has effectively cut $2.7 billion in NIH funding in the first three months of 2025, according to a new Senate committee report authored by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. New Mexico’s Democratic Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján criticized President Donald Trump’s preliminary budget request, which proposed cutting funds for the NIH by $18 billion.
Trump’s budget proposal says NIH has “broken the trust of the American people with wasteful spending, misleading information, risky research, and the promotion of dangerous ideologies.”
“NIH research would align with the president’s priorities to address chronic disease and other epidemics, implementing all executive orders, and eliminating research on climate change, radical gender ideology, and divisive racialism,” the budget proposal reads.
Researchers at the university are “perpetually bobbing and weaving,” in response to updates from funding agencies, according to the UNM memo. The latest change is extensions on deadlines for spending NIH grants have been temporarily disabled, so the university is encouraging its researchers to spend their grant money by the original deadlines.
Kalina Fahey was one of the event organizers and is a postdoctoral researcher at UNM focused on LGBTQ health.
“It’s a group that experiences a significant health burden because of their marginalization in society. So to just say that’s not a priority is really hard to hear and really frustrating,” Fahey said.
Because she doesn’t expect LGBTQ-related research grants to get approved over the next four years, Fahey is shifting gears, working on a grant application not focused on LGBTQ people. Instead, it looks at alcohol use in young adults.
Postdoctoral research fellow Nina Christie, another event organizer, is concerned about recruiting future scientists into the field.
“We’re now making it nearly impossible for early career people to see this as a stable or reasonable field to go into for their career,” Christie said.
While not a student, Jackie Hertel, a retired Albuquerque resident, came to UNM on Friday to support the effort.
“There’s not going to be much of a future for them, as far as having freedoms and democracy and having a government that they can vote in and hope to have some impact, if they don’t act now,” Hertel said.