Protestors, ICE clash at Albuquerque DHS facility
—Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
A protest of approximately 20 people outside of a federal immigration detention center Friday afternoon on Albuquerque’s south side sparked several physical confrontations, resulted in the detention of two protestors and ended after federal officials threatened the crowd with arrest if they didn’t disperse.
Dare to Struggle New Mexico organized the protest outside of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in response to the fatal shooting by an ICE officer in Minnesota of 37-year-old Renee Good.
“We’re here to let them know we’re here, we’re angry, that we want to block and get crazy for them,” said one organizer Lizzie Nutig said through a megaphone in front of the gates. “We need to be loud, we need to be brave, we need to be doing things to block them.”
She continued. “We need them to know that people are mad.”
Using a megaphone, Nutig and organizer Brian McQuaid led chants including “Be like Renee and Get in the way;” “Fuera ICE;” “Smash the mass deportation machine;” along several others that contained profanities.
About five minutes into the protest, several demonstrators approached the gates outside of the facility and hung photos of the immigration agent who shot Good, and a photo of President Donald Trump with a hand-printed expletive.
DHS officials, who had been watching the protests from the office, exited the building and shoved protestors away from the fence, and told them they were required stay on the sidewalk to protest. Officers also detained one person who Source NM has not yet been able to identify.
Additional agents wearing camouflage and Enforcement and Removal Operations patches filed outside, carrying non-lethal firearms and Saber Red pepper spray. No members of DHS identified themselves when asked by protestors or the news media.
Protestors yelled, sometimes using expletives: “Do you like hurting people?” “Get out of here,” and “go to h-ll.”
Agents rushed at one of the protesters who yelled profanities, Adeo Herrick and, as protestors attempted to intervene, one of the agents in fatigues fired pepper spray hitting himself and at least one protester.
Herrick was then dragged to the ground and provided their name to Source NM while being carried away by multiple agents into the building.
Shortly after 12:40 p.m., a car emblazoned with the Federal Protective Service pulled forward, blasting the loudspeaker message: “This is deemed an unlawful assembly,” ordering the protestors and media to disperse or face arrest.
When reached by phone after the protest, Nutig and McQuaid said they had not yet heard if charges were being filed against the two protestors detained and said they were in contact with attorneys. In a statement, they requested the release of the two detained protestors and the “arrest of the officers who assaulted protestors today.”
A request for comment to the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement remains pending.
Gov Michelle Lujan Grisham earlier in the day released a statement calling for a “thorough and transparent investigation,” into Good’s death.
The governor’s statement also expressed her support for “those raising their voice in protest. Protest is fundamental to democracy — it’s how we make our government listen when something goes terribly wrong. But protests must remain peaceful.”
The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding Friday’s protest.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham selects CYFD official for state child advocate job
—Santa Fe New Mexican
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has selected an official with the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department as the first state child advocate.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that Dawn Walters was named to the office. Walters is the current head of the Children, Youth and Family Department’s Office of Advocacy. That office handles issues and complaints from families involving the department. Walters will now lead the state's newly created Office of Child Advocate.
The newly created office will be administratively attached to the state Department of Justice and will be tasked with providing third-party oversight over New Mexico's troubled child welfare agency.
Walters has worked as director of CYFD's Office of Advocacy for more than a year. Before that, she worked as a children's court attorney with the agency.
Previously, Walters worked for seven years as a staff attorney with KidsVoice, a Pittsburgh-based organization that provides legal representation for children who have faced abuse or neglect in foster care.
Quirky Books encampment court ordered to clear out
—Gillian Barkhurst, Albuquerque Journal
People living in a homeless encampment outside a local bookstore will have to pack their bags in the next two weeks, thanks to a court order released Thursday.
That homeless encampment, located in the parking lot of Quirky Books a block off Central, has drawn controversy as neighboring businesses decry it as enabling drug use and violence, while supporters defend it as a humanitarian act.
“I am disappointed by the court’s ruling and am saddened that we will no longer be able to shelter our unhoused neighbors,” said Gillam Kerley, the bookstore’s owner.
During a court hearing Thursday, state 2nd Judicial District Court Judge Nancy Franchini ordered that the encampment clear out by Jan. 20.
The order upheld an emergency injunction sought by the city of Albuquerque two days after a fatal shooting was reported outside the bookstore in November. That request alleged that the encampment's presence was causing “irreparable harm.”
Kerley said he plans to meet with his attorneys Friday to discuss how to move forward.
The court-ordered eviction comes just weeks after a large fire tore through the encampment, destroying several tents and the belongings of homeless people living there. No one was injured in the blaze.
The fire also blackened a telephone pole, knocked out the internet and damaged a neighboring business’ fence.
Local business owners said that the court order marks an end to years of strife with the neighboring encampment.
“Thank goodness, hallelujah,” said Alfredo Barrenechea, who owns Absolute Investment Realty, which shares a property line with Quirky. “Two years of literal hell will be coming to an end soon.”
As for the city, it hopes to use the order as an opportunity to get people into shelters and treatment through the Albuquerque Community Safety department.
“The City has built hundreds of shelter beds, and there is no need for anyone to remain in these circumstances,” according to a statement sent by the city and attributed to a city legal department spokesperson.
New Mexico poised to enter physician medical compact — one lawmaker says that’s not enough – Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
After weeks of bipartisan negotiations, state lawmakers this week unveiled legislation intended to make it easier for doctors to practice in New Mexico by entering a multistate medical compact for physicians.
Advocates have lobbied for years that entering the compact — which would allow doctors licensed in other states to practice in New Mexico — will help address the state’s physician shortage, but have faced pushback from some Democratic lawmakers.
Now one lawmaker from the working group on the issue, Rep. Marian Matthews (D-Albuquerque), said the proposals intended for this session don’t go far enough.
This week, she introduced three bills that would enter the state into three additional health care compacts and is urging her colleagues to at least consider them.
“Our health system is in really bad shape right now,” she told Source NM. “I can’t think of a higher priority for us in the coming session but to address solutions to the problem, and compacts are a part of that.”
Unlike 44 jurisdictions, including New Mexico’s five border states, New Mexico is neither a member of the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact for physicians, nor part of eight other major compacts for paramedics, audiologists, dentists and other specialties, according to Think New Mexico, a nonpartisan advocacy group.
In response to ongoing pressure from advocates and state Republican lawmakers to allow medical compact legislation a full hearing at the Roundhouse, Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth (D-Santa Fe) in November convened a six-lawmaker working group composed of Democrats and Republicans in both chambers.
Members were tasked with crafting legislation that would enter the state into health care licensure compacts amid public outcry over growing wait lists and long drives to access health care across the state. The state lost close to 250 doctors between 2019 and 2024.
Wirth told Source New Mexico that the group, after multiple meetings, succeeded in crafting licensure compact legislation for doctors and social workers, but that other potential compacts need more work and remain “in the pipeline.” Lawmakers are expected to introduce the social worker compact legislation soon.
Wirth has previously described joining compacts as a complex process that requires lawmakers to work closely with managers of each of the licensure organizations individually to ensure legislation meets their requirements but also ensures the state maintains its autonomy.
But Matthews said she emerged from the working group convinced that joining the compacts is relatively easy and that reconciling the state’s legislation with compact requirements is often a matter of “stylistic” versus “substantive” changes.
She also is increasingly persuaded the compacts work. She provided Source a list of studies that show immediate increases in health care workers for states that join compacts.
Matthews said she faced pushback in the working group about introducing additional compact bills, but decided, “We need to move forward on this.”
Her legislation would enter New Mexico into compacts for paramedics, counselors and psychologists.
She told Source she is actively working with managers for each of those compacts, sharing the legislation and seeking assurances that the language meets their requirements. She expects to amend each bill soon after the session starts with any additional notes they provide, she told Source.
Still, Sen. Linda Trujillo (D-Santa Fe), one of the sponsors for the physician compact bill, told Source this week that she doesn’t think the Legislature will have enough time to carefully consider each of Matthews’ compacts.
As evidence, she pointed to the amount of work the doctor compact took, saying the lawmakers and compact managers had to toil over language about, for example, liability for compact board members; the state Medical Board’s subpoena power; and protection of health records, particularly for women and transgender people. Doing that for three other compacts during a 30-day session would be impossible, she said.
“They’re not ready,” she said of Matthews’ compacts. “We have not had any comprehensive meetings with the organizations on that to make sure that any changes that we make will be accepted.”
Change in City Hall: Women now hold supermajority – Gillian Barkhurst, Albuquerque Journal
A new year means new leadership in City Hall.
Newly elected Councilor Stephanie Telles has joined other district leaders behind the dais, meaning that women now hold six of the nine seats for the first time in the Albuquerque City Council’s history.
“People tend to assign this idea of soft leadership to women,” Telles said. “But what I think it is is more effective leadership that comes from our experience as women who do a lot day to day. We’re multitaskers.”
Telles said as much while multitasking herself, looking for her child’s toy under a couch and pulling out a pot to make an early dinner of macaroni and cheese, all while discussing her first formal week in office.
The council’s gender makeup reflects the state at large, which has a female majority Legislature and has been led by a female governor for more than a decade.
With Telles entering the fray the council has flipped from a narrowly held conservative-leaning majority to a liberal-leaning majority, though council seats are intended to be nonpartisan.
Albuquerque’s City Council is again being led by a woman after councilors voted to appoint longstanding Councilor Klarissa Peña as council president during the first meeting of the year on Monday.
Peña, who represents District 3 in the southwest corner of Albuquerque, was elected in a 5-4 vote.
She was close to losing her seat entirely in December when she won by 71 votes in a runoff election against Teresa Garcia, according to results from the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office.
Still, Peña is no stranger to council leadership, having served as council vice president last year and council president in 2019.
However, rather than taking up the gavel, Peña deferred to former council President Brook Bassan and asked her to lead one last meeting Monday night.
“I think you’ve done an incredible job and it’s gonna be some hard shoes to fill because of your timeliness and your efficiency,” Peña said.
Peña now sits in the second-highest position within City Hall, according to the City Charter. That effectively makes Peña second-in-command and the next-in-line to lead the city should the mayor resign, die, or move out of town, according to the City Charter.
As council president, Peña is also responsible for leading biweekly council meetings and assigning councilors to various committees, thus shaping the legislative body's priorities for the year.
Coming in next in line, councilors elected Dan Champine, District 8, to lead alongside Peña as vice president and Renée Grout, District 9, to oversee the budget as chair of the Committee-of-the-Whole in dual 5-4 votes.
Also nominated for these leadership positions were Councilors Joaquín Baca, District 2, Nichole Rogers, District 6, and Tammy Fiebelkorn, District 7, though all three failed to secure a majority.
Those three councilors, joined by newcomer Telles, voted against the new leadership cohort, hinting at where loyalties may lie and how the bloc of more liberal-leaning councilors might vote as the year goes on.
'Breaking Bad'-themed anti-littering campaign leads to removal of more than 10.5 million pounds of trash – Dan Boyd, Albuquerque Journal
A "Breaking Bad"-themed anti-litter campaign succeeded in removing more than 10.5 million pounds of trash around New Mexico last year, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's office announced Thursday.
The mountain of litter — equivalent to about 4.8 million kilos — was cleaned up by more than 19,000 volunteers, most of whom took part in organized cleanup efforts.
State agencies, community groups and public schools are among the groups that have taken part in more than 250 trash pickup challenges across New Mexico. The governor herself participated in at least one such event last year.
"New Mexicans showed up — more than 19,000 volunteers rolled up their sleeves and cleaned up their communities,” Lujan Grisham said in a Thursday statement. “That's what pride in our state looks like.”
Lujan Grisham first announced the "Breaking Bad Habits" anti-littering campaign in October 2024. The $3 million campaign has included billboards, signs on Albuquerque city buses and TV ads featuring stars of "Breaking Bad," which generated a cult following over its five seasons before concluding in 2013.
An initial ad featuring Bryan Cranston, who played the show's protagonist Walter White, and a second Spanish-language installment released last year that featured the Salamanca brothers, twin brothers referred to on the show as The Cousins.
The Governor's Office said the latest ad installment has been viewed nearly 25 million times and has generated hundreds of thousands of online engagements.
However, it's unclear exactly how much litter remains along New Mexico roadways and in other nooks and crannies of the state — and how much more might be dumped in the coming year.
State transportation officials said in 2021 the COVID-19 pandemic had led to an abundance of litter around New Mexico, in part because the state Corrections Department had temporarily halted the practice of having inmates clean up roadside trash.
While littering is a petty misdemeanor punishable by a $50 fine under state law, the governor and other state officials have acknowledged that enforcing the statute is difficult.
In addition, recent proposals at the Roundhouse to prohibit retailers from using plastic bags have failed to win approval. However, the city of Santa Fe does have a plastic bag ban ordinance that also requires stores to charge a 10-cent fee for every paper grocery bag provide to customers.