New Mexico AG co-signs letter asking Congress to legislate tariff refunds for businesses, citizen - Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez on Wednesday signed on to a letter with 17 other attorneys general asking Congress to pass a law that would issue refunds to Americans over President Donald Trump’s “illegal tariffs.”
The U.S. Supreme Court in February ruled that Trump’s tariffs, enacted under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, were illegal. American consumers and businesses paid an estimated $166 billion as a result of the tariffs, the coalition of AGs argued in the Wednesday letter to majority and minority leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.
“Congress must act quickly to establish a fair, automatic refund system so that New Mexico small businesses and working families aren’t forced to navigate complex and costly processes just to recover money they never should have been charged in the first place,” Torrez said in a Wednesday statement. “Households in every corner of our state have been burdened by President Trump’s illegal tariffs, hitting low-income families the hardest and straining budgets that were already stretched thin.”
The letter Torrez co-signed along with AGs from New York, California, Arizona and more estimates that 330,000 American businesses and citizens paid the price for Trump’s tariffs. A report from Yale University’s Budget Lab indicates that Americans fronted the cost of 76% of tariff costs in the form of price increases.
“Small businesses and low-income households have been disproportionately burdened by the tariffs, which raised prices on groceries, clothing, household items, and machinery and equipment,” the letter says. “We urge you to take action to protect businesses and consumers and ensure that they swiftly receive the compensation to which they are entitled following the Supreme Court’s decision.”
Like many state AGs across the nation, Torrez has spent much of the past year engaged in litigation against Trump’s White House. He previously told Source NM he meets with other elected attorneys general multiple times a week to discuss federal policies that could negatively impact their states.
“My job is to fundamentally protect the people in this state,” he said in a December interview. “None of the institutions in our government have been built to respond and react to the scale and speed of the destruction that’s being wrought by the Trump administration.”
ACLU-NM announces settlement over asylum seeker’s death at ICE immigration jail in Estancia - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico on Thursday announced it had reached a wrongful death settlement with private prison operator CoreCivic following the 2022 suicide of a Brazilian asylum seeker at the company’s detention facility in Estancia.
Kesley Vial, 23, died by suicide in August 2022 at the Torrance County Detention Facility, which CoreCivic owns and operates. The facility is one of three in New Mexico in which the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement houses detainees.
Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, in a lawsuit filed in September 2023, alleged that Vial’s death resulted from inadequate staffing at the facility, as well as failures by medical staff to place Vial under suicide watch as his mental health deteriorated.
According to the lawsuit, Vial grew increasingly desperate to be deported home to Brazil as ICE officials repeatedly prolonged his detention in Estancia. His depression and suicidal ideation noticeably worsened after he was inexplicably removed from a flight home to Brazil and returned to the facility four weeks before he died, according to the lawsuit.
Immigrant legal advocates, as well as U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) have repeatedly called on ICE to remove its detainees from the facility due to poor conditions. A month before Vial’s transfer to the facility, the U.S. Office of Inspector General issued a report demanding all detainees be removed due to “safety risks and unsanitary living conditions.”
A news release Thursday from the ACLU of New Mexico said CoreCivic agreed to pay a settlement to Vial’s estate, though attorneys said the size and terms of the settlement are confidential. A January state court filing confirms that parties in the lawsuit reached a settlement, though it does not provide further details.
“This settlement is a milestone in New Mexico and the nation, not only because Kesley’s loved ones deserve justice, but also because it sends a clear message that the harms that people face in immigration detention will not be tolerated,” said Becca Sheff, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of New Mexico, in a statement Thursday.
Brian Todd, a CoreCivic spokesperson, confirmed to Source NM on Thursday that a settlement had been reached but declined to comment further. In a response to the lawsuit, the company’s lawyers argued that jail staff could not have predicted or prevented Vial’s suicide.
Irlaine Vial, Vial’s cousin, said in the statement from the ACLU that Vial’s family misses him “deeply every single day.”
“While nothing can bring him back, we take some comfort in knowing that he will never be forgotten and that this case has brought us a sense of justice,” Irlaine Vial said. “Our hope is that no other family has to endure the same grief we have experienced.”
Jurors wade through daunting evidence in high-stakes Meta trial about social media risks to children - By Morgan Lee, Associated Press
A daunting stream of testimony and evidence has been presented in a New Mexico case that explores what social media conglomerate Meta knew about the effects of its platforms on children.
State prosecutors allege Meta failed to disclose the risks that its platforms pose for children, including mental health problems and sexual exploitation. Meta's attorneys have said the company has built-in protections for teenagers and weeds out harmful content but acknowledged some dangerous content gets past its safety nets.
The trial is approaching its seventh week. Jurors aren't deliberating yet. But if they find that Meta — which owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp — violated New Mexico's consumer protection laws, prosecutors say sanctions could add up to billions of dollars. Meta, however, says it would seek a different calculation.
The trial that started Feb. 9. is one of the first in a torrent of lawsuits against Meta and comes as school districts and legislators want more restrictions on the use of smartphones in classrooms.
A slated second phase of the trial, possibly in May before a judge with no jury, would determine whether Meta created a public nuisance with its social media platforms and should pay for public programs to fix matters.
Here's what to know about the possible outcomes of the trial:
A reckoning in courts for social media platforms
Meta is confronting three counts of violating the New Mexico Unfair Trade Practices Act that protects consumers from deceptive or predatory business practices.
After closing arguments, jurors will weigh whether Meta knowingly misrepresented the risks on its platforms — by omission or active concealment at the least.
The case could sidestep or challenge immunity provisions that protect tech companies from liability for material posted on their social media platforms under Section 230, a 30-year-old provision of the U.S. Communications Decency Act, as well as a First Amendment shield.
In California, a jury already is sequestered in deliberations on whether social media companies should be liable for harms caused to children using their platforms, in one of three bellwether court cases that could set the course for thousands of similar lawsuits.
New Mexico's case is built on a different foundation — including a state undercover investigation where agents created social media accounts posing as children to document sexual solicitations and the response from Meta.
The lawsuit, filed in 2023 by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, also says the dangers of addiction to social media haven't been fully disclosed or addressed by Meta. Meta hasn't agreed that social media addiction exists, but executives acknowledge "problematic use" and say they want people to feel good about the time they spend on Meta's platforms.
Among thousands of pages of documents, the New Mexico trial examines a raft of internal Meta documents and communications. Jurors also heard testimony from Meta executives, platform engineers, whistleblowers who left the company, psychiatric experts and tech-safety consultants.
The jury also may be influenced by testimony from local public school educators who have struggled with disruptions linked to social media, including the exchange of violent and sexually explicit images, along with sextortion schemes targeting children in New Mexico.
Questions of unconscionable and willful conduct
The two additional counts of consumer protection violations allege that Meta engaged in "unconscionable" trade practices that were grossly unfair.
In opening statements, prosecution attorney Donald Migliori emphasized accusations that Meta targeted social media engagement with children in an unconscionable way as a source of long-term profit while knowing children were at risk of sexual exploitation on social media. Meta disputes that argument by highlighting platform safety features and content filters for teenagers, who are seen by Meta as trendsetters with limited purchasing power to satisfy advertisers.
The jury would decide whether the conduct was "willful" and merits civil penalties of up to $5,000 per violation, and may help calculate the number of violations.
Torrez says those penalties could add up, given the number of people in New Mexico using Meta's platforms. Meta, however, has asked to cap those sanctions at one penalty per misleading statement or fair-trade violation — and not the number of social media views or users.
Nuisance allegations to be decided by judge
State District Judge Bryan Biedscheid is overseeing both phases of the trial. He would decide nuisance allegations as the case advances — and whether the company is on the hook financially to repair damage.
Prosecutors have accused Meta of carelessly creating a marketplace and "breeding ground" for predators who target children for sexual exploitation. They allege Meta's platforms also undermine the mental health of teenagers in a variety of ways — from sleep deprivation and depression to self-harm.
Attorneys for Meta accuse prosecutors of cherry-picking evidence as well as shoddy investigative work that may have made matters worse.
At trial, Meta executives described robust systems for detecting child sexual abuse material on its platforms and notifying law enforcement — but said the company also cautions users that its enforcement isn't flawless.
"We believe it's important to disclose the risks, but to do so in a consistent and rigorous way," Instagram head Adam Mosseri said, describing a philosophy that extends to blog posts, service agreements and more.
In a video deposition played at trial, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that "safety is extremely important for the service and having it be something that people trust and want to use over time." He said Meta in 2017 stopped linking business performance goals directly to the extended amount of time users spend on its platforms.
Torrez says he will request court-ordered relief to make Meta change the way it does business and remedy the harm to children from social media.
"We're going to have meaningful investments in targeted strategic programming around how you use the internet and how you use social media in ways that are responsible and healthy," he said on the opening day of the trial.
ABQ to start process of removing Cesar Chavez's names off buildings, street signs - Gregory R.C. Hasman, Albuquerque Journal
The city of Albuquerque will begin the process of removing Cesar Chavez’s name from street signs, murals and buildings, Mayor Tim Keller said Thursday.
The announcement came a day after allegations surfaced that the civil rights leader raped and sexually assaulted underage girls. His alleged victims included longtime farmworker activist Dolores Huerta, who issued a statement saying she experienced coerced and forced sexual encounters with Chavez that resulted in pregnancies in the 1960s.
The city, and the state as a whole, has numerous places named after Chavez.
A number of New Mexico leaders spoke out against Chavez on Wednesday, among them state House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, who said, “Chávez’s name should be removed from any and all public entities, swiftly.”
On Thursday, during a news conference on the opening of a new animal habitat at the ABQ BioPark, Keller announced City Councilor Joaquín Baca “has expressed his intent to change the name” of Avenida Cesar Chavez.
Keller said he will work with Baca but it will “take a little bit of time and council action to change that name.”
“I remember changing it to Dolores Huerta, one half of it, and I remember you have to notify every landowner and actually get some consent because, again, there are address changes (to make),” the mayor said.
Keller then discussed murals around town bearing images of Chavez.
“I want to let folks know that murals can be changed in different ways,” he said. “... It depends if it’s a public art mural. If it was funded by public arts … there is a process with which that can be changed that also involves talking with the artist. If it’s a private mural, typically the artist or the landowner can change it. But the city cannot because it is a private mural.”
The mayor did say the city will begin the process of removing Chavez’s name from the community center at 7505 Kathryn SE, east of Louisiana.
“But the next question is, ‘Well, what are you going to call it?’” Keller asked.
While he mentioned a couple of options, including naming it after Huerta, or the International District Community Center, he said, “We’re going to work with (the) community and with city councilors on this and it’s going to be up to us as a community.”
City Council President Klarissa Peña is going to create a group consisting of Hispanic leaders and other councilors who will discuss “what direction to go,” he said. The National Hispanic Cultural Center will host the meetings, Keller said.
“It will be up to the community in terms of what’s best for Albuquerque and what’s best for New Mexico,” he said. “And of course, we want it to reflect in some way the movement. Whether it’s the movement for labor rights, immigrant rights, or it’s the farmworkers.”
California's Gov. Newsom supports move to rename César Chavez Day over alleged sexual abuse - By Trân Nguyễn, Haven Daley and John Seewer, Associated Press
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he supports a proposal to rename César Chavez Day as Farmworkers Day following stunning allegations of abuse against the revered labor leader.
Political leaders in states and cities are considering similar moves after the allegations became public, accusing Chavez of sexually abusing girls and the co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America union, Dolores Huerta, decades ago.
There also have been calls to alter memorials honoring the man who in the 1960s helped secure better wages and working conditions for farmworkers and had been admired by many Democratic leaders.
Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson's office said Thursday that he won't issue a proclamation honoring César Chavez Day this year while Denver officials plan to rename their annual celebration. Events in Texas and in his home state of Arizona have been canceled at the request of the César Chavez Foundation.
In 2000, California became the first state to designate Chavez's birthday as a holiday. Schools were required to teach students about his involvement in the labor movement in California. Chavez died in California in 1993 at age 66.
Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Senate President pro Tempore Monique Limón, the leaders of the California Legislature, said Thursday they would pass a bill renaming the holiday before the end of the month. The legislation would need Newsom's approval.
Advocates grapple with Chavez's legacy
Latino leaders and community groups quickly condemned the alleged abuse by Chavez but emphasized that the farmworker movement was never about one person.
Mary Rose Wilcox and her husband marched alongside Chavez, helped him open a radio station in Phoenix and plastered their Mexican restaurant with his photos and a mural.
By Wednesday morning, they had taken down Chavez's photos and were making plans to cover the mural.
"We love César Chavez. But we cannot honor him and we cannot even love him anymore," said the former Phoenix City Council member.
Visitors to the Chavez National Monument in central California, where the labor leader is buried, were also contemplating how he should be remembered.
"I don't think you want to erase everything he did," Nell O'Malley, from Corvallis, Oregon, said Thursday. "But I don't think you want to honor him the same way knowing what we know now."
Dolores Huerta stamped her own legacy on the fight for justice
Huerta, who is a labor rights legend in her own right, said in a statement Wednesday that she stayed silent for 60 years for fear her words could hurt the farmworker movement. She said she did not know Chavez had hurt other women.
Huerta described two sexual encounters with Chavez; one in which she was "manipulated and pressured" and another when she was "forced against my will." She said both led to pregnancies, which she kept secret, and that she arranged for the children to be raised by other families.
The New York Times first reported Wednesday that it found Chavez groomed and sexually abused young girls working in the movement. Huerta, too, revealed to the newspaper that she was a victim of abuse in her 30s.
She joined Chavez in 1962 to co-found the National Farm Workers Association, which became the United Farm Workers of America.
Huerta's resolve and dedication to women's rights and social justice won wide admiration. Some, including a group of Democrats in Texas, are calling for Huerta's name to replace Chavez's on places that bear his name.
Some knew about Chavez's abusive behavior, biographer says
Chavez is known nationally for his early organizing in the fields, a hunger strike, a grape boycott and eventual victory in getting growers to negotiate with farmworkers for better wages and working conditions.
His place in history grew after his death. Schools, streets and parks pay tribute to him not only in the Southwest and California but also in places far away where he remained an inspiration.
In Milwaukee, there's a statue of Chavez near a street bearing his name while a colorful mural of his likeness adorns a building in a Toledo, Ohio.
In 2014, President Barack Obama proclaimed March 31 César Chavez Day. President Joe Biden had a bronze bust of Chavez installed in the Oval Office when he moved into the White House.
But Chavez was full of contradictions even as a union leader, said Miriam Pawel, a California journalist who wrote a biography of him. There was abusive behaviors within the union, but people didn't speak out because they believed the union was the best way to protect farmworkers, she said.
"For many, many years, for most of those people, even when they saw things that they found disturbing, they did not wanna talk about it," Pawel said.
Chavez's family and foundation voice support for the victims
Born in Yuma, Arizona, Chavez grew up in a Mexican American family that traveled around California picking produce.
His family said in a statement that they are devastated by the allegations.
"We wish peace and healing to the survivors and commend their courage to come forward. As a family steeped in the values of equity and justice, we honor the voices of those who feel unheard and who report sexual abuse," the family said.
The César Chavez Foundation pledged support for the labor leader's victims, saying — with the Chavez family's support — the organization will figure out its identity going forward.
The United Farm Workers union quickly distanced itself from annual celebrations of its founder.
Its president, Teresa Romero, said Thursday that the many people who have dedicated years to fighting for workers' rights should know their work is recognized.
"We have in one hand César Chavez, the man who committed horrible acts that we're not going to justify, that we don't condone," she told The Associated Press. "On the other hand, we have César Chavez, the organizer who brought thousands and thousands of people together to be able to work for farm workers, and improve their lives and working conditions."
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This story has been corrected to show Wilcox and her husband did not participate in a hunger strike with Chavez but did march with him.
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Daley reported from Keene, California, and Seewer from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press writers Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Dorany Pineda in Los Angeles; Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix; Fernanda Figueroa in Austin, Texas; Hallie Golden in Seattle; Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho; and Colleen Slevin in Denver contributed.
Secretary of State disqualifies Republican gubernatorial candidate Lanier from June ballot - Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico The crowded Republican race to be the next New Mexico governor got a little thinner Thursday morning. First-term state Sen. Steve Lanier (R-Aztec) did not turn in a new declaration of candidacy and will not make the June 2 primary ballot, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.
Although Lanier failed to garner his party’s support at its March pre-primary convention, he previously told Source NM he was confident he’d still make the ballot because he turned in some 6,000 signatures in February — much more than the 2,351 required for Republicans who don’t earn pre-primary convention designation. Lanier did not participate in the convention’s debates.
However, online Secretary of State records show he has been disqualified from appearing on the June 2 ballot. A spokesperson for the office said Lanier failed to file a new declaration of candidacy by Tuesday’s deadline as required.
“Because of a paperwork mix up, our campaign didn’t refile on Tuesday. I own that,” Lanier said in a statement. “I believe we qualify to be on the ballot. We are looking at legal options and may file a challenge, given that we filed with all the necessary signatures from the start.”
That leaves the Republican party with three candidates. Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull and public relations professional Doug Turner both earned more than enough pre-primary delegate votes to make the ballot.
Cannabis CEO and former state cabinet secretary Duke Rodriguez said he filed some 8,000 signatures back in February and filed a new declaration of candidacy with the Secretary of State, though as of Thursday morning the Secretary of State’s candidate portal still listed his ballot qualification as “pending.”
He told Source NM on Wednesday that he is “fully qualified” to make the ballot.
Lack of funding forces Samaritan House to close its doors - Las Vegas Optic
In Las Vegas, the Samaritan House shelter has closed.
The Las Vegas Optic reports shelter director Michael Drumm said the closure was made due to a lack of federal funding. The shelter stopped providing services at the beginning of March.
Drumm told The Optic that, due to the amount of time since an application was made for federal funding, the Samaritan House’s access to such funding has expired.
He said the last time an application for such assistance was made was in February 2023.
Drumm said without federal funding, the Samaritan House only had enough funds to stay open until April.
The Samaritan House still has a small group of volunteers at the shelter but is not open for people who are homeless unless there is a weather emergency.
The Samaritan House also continues to do food distribution.
Valencia County scammed out of $2 million - Valencia County News-Bulletin
The Valencia County government has been scammed for $2 million.
The Valencia County News-Bulletin reports the Valencia County finance director sent a little more than $2.02 million in taxpayer dollars to someone posing as a county contractor.
Valencia County Manager Jhonathan Aragon told the News-Bulletin the county received two emails in April 2025 — one marked as spam but the other was forwarded to the county’s finance department.
The email came from someone posing as Andy Auger, chief finance officer for Bradbury Stamm, the contractor building the county hospital.
The fraudster wanted to arrange for payments to the company be made via Automated Clearing House, an electronic transfer system that processes transactions between financial institutions. Banks commonly use an ACH network to process electronic payments, such as when a customer sets up and uses a bill payment feature with their bank to pay monthly bills.
Up through November 2025, Aragon said Bradbury was paid by a physical check, like the majority of the county’s other contractors and vendors.
Aragon told the News-Bulletin when the actual contractor didn’t receive an online payment made in January, he knew there was trouble. Aragon says county commissioners were told about the fraud immediately, as well as the county’s bank and the New Mexico State Auditor’s Office.
Aragon says the county’s current insurance policy does cover this kind of fraud, but the coverage is “very limited,” and the county is in communication with the insurance company to determine how to move forward with a claim.