Albuquerque City Council passes ban on sitting, sleeping on sidewalks - Gillian Barkhurst, Albuquerque Journal
Sitting, sleeping or lying on public sidewalks will soon be illegal in some parts of Albuquerque under a controversial ordinance passed by the City Council late Monday.
Opponents say the law unfairly targets people experiencing homelessness, while supporters say the law will clean up Albuquerque’s streets and bring back foot traffic to Downtown and Central Avenue.
“This helps us clean up our house,” said real estate developer Adam Silverman during public comment. “Right now we can’t invite guests because the house is messy.”
The Enhanced Service and Safety Zone Ordinance, which passed on a 6-3 vote, allows the mayor to create designated areas for police and city sanitation workers to patrol more frequently. It also gives police the ability to issue a $500 fine or 30 days of jail time to anyone sitting, sleeping or lying on a public sidewalk in those zones after a written warning is ignored.
This ordinance marks a renewed effort to crack down on homelessness using law enforcement, a tactic that has landed the city in legal trouble in the past. It also comes as the city faces an ongoing lawsuit before the state Supreme Court in which homeless plaintiffs argue that the city’s enforcement of public camping laws constitutes “cruel and unusual punishment.”
Councilors Renée Grout, Brook Bassan, Dan Lewis, Dan Champine, Klarissa Peña and Joaquín Baca all voted for the ordinance. Newly elected Councilor Stephanie Telles, as well as Councilors Tammy Fiebelkorn and Nichole Rogers, voted against the ordinance and, while outnumbered, proposed numerous failed amendments in attempts to soften the law.
For and against
David Ellis is one of nearly 3,000 people living on Albuquerque’s streets.
Ellis can often be found sitting on a curb around Downtown with a pit bull puppy named Cuddles in his lap and a stroller full of belongings by his side. This day-to-day activity will be criminalized if the mayor designates that area as an “enhanced safety zone.”
“We’re talking about discrimination,” Ellis said during the meeting’s public comment. “We're talking about setting rules for a class of individuals because of their social status and that is discrimination all the way across the board.”
Ellis is just one of many people to criticize the city’s approach to homelessness.
Telles called the ordinance the "easiest" but “least effective solution.”
According to a Journal poll, Albuquerque voters consider homelessness to be the city’s second biggest issue, just below crime. But how to address the issue is much less certain.
Multiple public commenters said the ordinance will only make conditions worse for those on the street and discourage people from engaging with city shelter and housing resources. Meanwhile, others noted that the city already runs additional patrols in areas where homeless people gather in greater numbers like East Central.
“These laws are on the books already,” said public commenter Marceline Kostiner. “You’re sweeping every single day. This is actively happening. Do you really think more enforcement is actually going to fix this?”
Such criticisms go back nearly a decade.
In 2017, the city was accused of causing overcrowding at the Metropolitan Detention Center by conducting routine encampment sweeps of what the Albuquerque Police Department called the “homeless mentally ill.”
That legal fight ended in a settlement, which the city tried to dismiss in March. In response, the plaintiff’s attorneys argued that the city, rather than fulfilling its end of the bargain, had actually “turned back the clock” and resumed pre-settlement strategies to reduce visible homelessness.
According to court filings, the number of people identified as “transient” in MDC jumped from 3,670 throughout 2022 to nearly 12,000 last year. Additionally, charges for misdemeanor sidewalk obstruction have increased. Last year, 1,256 people were charged with sidewalk obstruction misdemeanors; which is nearly six times the number of cases from the previous eight years combined.
Despite mounting court challenges, Albuquerque Police Department officials don’t see the ordinance as being in conflict with the settlement terms.
“The city has a comprehensive encampment response policy that includes outreach and supportive services,” said APD spokesperson Franchesca Perdue. “Prior to arrest, individuals are provided outreach, warnings and are issued citations. Additionally, we are in compliance with the McClendon settlement and this new ordinance, which is limited to specific locations, will not impact our ability to comply.”
Baca, the bill’s sponsor, defended the ordinance as a necessary step to bring back business and a sense of safety to his district.
“A lot of folks think that this is an anti-housing bill, which I disagree with vehemently,” Baca said. “This is about businesses, community, access to food — we already lost a pharmacy Downtown.”
The city has spent millions to provide options for people experiencing homelessness, from the Gateway shelters to funding Albuquerque Community Safety, Baca said. But that alone isn’t working.
“There’s no lack of compassion,” Baca said. “The lack of compassion is indifference by letting people just sit out there while we do nothing; letting them eat through garbage cans, letting them do drugs, letting them suffer and commit slow suicide.”
Downtown business owner Zane Vigil agreed, waiting in the packed chambers for a vote he believes will make his daily life a little easier.
“Every morning I have to pick up feces in the parking lot because somehow that’s compassion,” Vigil said during public comment. “And so while I can see other people's perspectives, I have a 2-year-old and a wife and I would love to be able to take them Downtown and feel like that's safe.”
Vigil owns Catalyst Cowork on Second and Central, a coworking space for remote workers, entrepreneurs and freelancers. Multiple times a day, Vigil said he escorts women from the office to their cars because they don’t feel safe to walk alone Downtown.
Vigil routinely picks up feces and bought a hazmat-like suit to wear while power-washing urine off the sidewalk in front of his business.
“I want people to be proud to live and work Downtown,” Vigil said. “But right now that's not what’s happening.”
What’s next
With the ordinance approved by the City Council, Mayor Tim Keller will be responsible for next steps. First, he must sign the ordinance; next, the administration will pick out problem areas around the city and justify imposing the new law there.
To be eligible, the area must be a concentrated commercial center, like Downtown, Uptown or Nob Hill. It also must have a documented high crime rate compared to the rest of the city and “recurring issues” with public camping or people living on the sidewalks.
The administration must submit a detailed plan to the City Council for approval, including the boundaries of the enhanced safety zone, evidence that the area meets the criteria and how the city plans to pay for it.
While city leaders work out the finer details, the day-to-day uncertainty will continue for people like Ellis.
Governor calls universal childcare a workforce tool, says she's 'confident' it will survive legal challenge - Dan Boyd, Albuquerque Journal
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said Tuesday a universal childcare initiative implemented by her administration is here to stay, expressing confidence the first-of-its-kind program will withstand a lawsuit filed by a GOP gubernatorial candidate.
In her final post-legislative session speech to the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, the outgoing governor described the New Mexico childcare assistance program as a workforce investment measure.
“It is not babysitting,” Lujan Grisham said. “If we don’t build the workforce in the future and give parents real choices, you will not have a workforce in the future.”
The governor announced last fall New Mexico would be the first state to provide universal childcare by removing previous income limits for receiving state-subsidized childcare. A state early childhood agency then adopted rules governing the program before its November launch.
But Republican gubernatorial candidate Duke Rodriguez filed a lawsuit last month arguing the governor’s administration illegally launched the childcare program before getting approval from the Legislature to do so.
In response, a state judge last week gave the secretary of the state’s Early Childhood Education and Care Department a 30-day deadline to show why rules governing the universal childcare program should not be struck down.
Lujan Grisham said in an interview after her Tuesday speech she’s not worried about potential interruptions by what she described as a “political stunt” by Rodriguez, who is one of three GOP candidates vying for the party’s nomination in next month’s primary election.
“I’m as confident as you could be,” she told the Journal, citing previous state laws establishing the state’s early childhood department and creating an early childhood trust fund.
Some key legislators initially expressed misgivings about the Lujan Grisham administration’s rollout of the universal childcare initiative — along with the program’s price tag.
However, the Democratic-controlled Legislature ultimately approved a bill codifying the program in state law and setting financial safeguards — including possible copays and wait lists — during this year’s 30-day session. The law is set to take effect May 20 and authorizes up to $700 million to be taken from an early childhood trust fund over the next five years to help pay for universal childcare.
The initiative could continue generating debate in coming years, especially since Lujan Grisham is barred under the state Constitution from seeking a third consecutive term in office and will step down at the end of 2026.
Some Republican candidates have expressed concerns about possible fraud as the state moves quickly to scale up its child care provider system.
During a televised debate last week, GOP gubernatorial candidate Gregg Hull expressed concern about the future sustainability of the program, while fellow candidate Doug Turner suggested income limits should be reimposed.
“An extremely wealthy person shouldn’t have the state paying for their childcare,” Turner said.
Meanwhile, past research by Legislative Finance Committee analysts has found that state-provided childcare has led to increased wages for parents, but has not found it improves educational outcomes for children.
But Lujan Grisham and other backers of universal childcare say the initiative will build off the state's recent efforts to create a cradle-to-career pathway, while also making New Mexico a more attractive state for working families.
“If you want families to succeed, give them a path,” the governor said during her Tuesday speech.
She also said New Mexico is making progress in national child poverty rankings and hinted the state will report improved high school graduation rates this year.
Lujan Grisham said future state leaders will have to be willing to upset the status quo to sustain those trends, saying, “Sometimes you’ve got to crack a few eggs to make an omelet.”
Indigenous people honor and raise awareness for relatives who are missing or have been killed - By Savannah Peters and Nancy Marie Spears, Associated Press/The Imprint
Across the country, Indigenous people are gathering this week to honor loved ones who are missing or have been killed and to call for better data collection, law enforcement response and reforms to make their communities safer.
From U.S. state capitols and tribal community spaces to the streets of major cities, hundreds of marches, rallies, talking circles, self-defense classes and candlelight vigils are planned for the week of May 5, which is observed as a national day of awareness for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples movement.
The day reflects both the collective grief and the resilience of Indigenous communities, where the federal government has a legal responsibility to ensure public safety. All too often, resources to prevent and respond to violence are in short supply.
Many events call for participants to wear red, a color that has become synonymous with honoring Indigenous victims of violence in the U.S. and Canada.
A hidden crisis
Native Americans face disproportionate rates of violence in the U.S., a crisis that advocates say is rooted in the systematic removal of Native people from their land and the federal government's efforts to rid them of their cultures.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Native Americans and Alaska Natives are more than twice as likely than the general population to be victims of a violent crime, and Native women are twice as likely to be victims of homicide. At the end of 2025, the FBI's National Crime Information Center recorded just under 1,500 active federal cases involving missing Native Americans.
Experts say that's likely an undercount because of jurisdictional confusion, racial misclassification and inconsistent data collection.
Abigail Echo-Hawk, director of the Urban Indian Health Institute, said that there's been progress in accounting for the true scope of the crisis but that law enforcement resources have been slow to follow.
"Don't look at the numbers and feel sorry for us," Echo-Hawk said, a citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma. "Look at the numbers and say, 'How do we ensure that this doesn't continue?'"
Federal action
In 2020, President Donald Trump signed Savanna's Act and the Not Invisible Act into law, both aimed at solving and preventing cases of violent crime in Indian Country with improved data collection and law enforcement reforms.
But implementation of those laws has been slow and erratic. Under the Biden administration in 2022, a federal commission to study the crisis convened two years behind schedule. Its extensive recommendations — ranging from expanding authority for tribal law enforcement to improving communication with the victims' families — were made public in 2023.
The recommendations were removed from government websites last year amid the Trump administration's purge of initiatives it associates with diversity, equity and inclusion.
Federally recognized tribes are sovereign nations within the U.S.
Meanwhile, Trump's Department of Justice has continued its Operation Not Forgotten initiative, surging dozens of FBI agents, analysts and other personnel to field offices near tribal lands on a rotating, temporary basis. The FBI says those assignments have yielded more than 200 arrests and convictions in homicide, domestic abuse and sexual assault cases since 2023.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Interior Department announced the creation of a task force to prevent violent crime in Indian Country. Among other things, officials say the effort aligns investigative resources to improve case management and prosecution outcomes, while refocusing efforts on solving missing persons and homicide cases.
Michael Henderson, director of public safety for the Navajo Nation, said there are "pros and cons" to a bigger FBI footprint in Indian Country. Federal officers can bring fresh eyes and high-tech forensic tools to cold cases. But Henderson said many of these agents arrive with little experience working in tribal communities or investigating violent crime.
"More manpower from the FBI on reservations, that's not a good solution in my mind," Henderson said, adding that federal funds could be better spent staffing and funding tribal police departments.
Families advocate for their relatives
At a Saturday prayer walk in Colorado Springs, Colorado, marchers chanted, "No more stolen lives on stolen land" and carried signs with the photos and stories of dozens of Indigenous people who have been killed or have disappeared.
Among the marchers was Denise Porambo. Her daughter, Destiny Jeriann Whiteman, was killed last August where she lived on the Ute Mountain Ute reservation in southwest Colorado. She was 24 and had an infant son.
"It hurts every day," Porambo said, her voice breaking.
Crowds gathered in Madison, Wisconsin, and in Duluth, Minnesota, to raise awareness. Outside City Hall in Duluth, trees were decorated with red dresses.
In Oklahoma, family members and supporters donned red shirts and ribbon skirts to mark the day, and carried photographs of their loved ones. Some painted red hands over their mouths — a symbol of solidarity.
At a prayer walk in Albuquerque, marchers shouted the names of Emily Pike, Ella Mae Begay, Zachariah Shorty and others who have gone missing or been killed.
Jessica Montoya drove three hours from the Jicarilla Apache Nation to highlight her son Jamian Reval's 2023 killing. He was 16 when family members say he was robbed and shot by a classmate on the first day of his junior year of high school.
"He had a lot of goals. He had a lot to look forward to," Montoya said, carrying a sign calling for an end to gun violence.
Navigating a maze of tribal and federal law enforcement agencies has left Montoya and her family feeling ignored and left out, compounding their grief.
In the absence of a nationwide strategy for handling these cases, advocates in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples movement say the burden of searching for loved ones and investigating their disappearances often falls to family members.
Grace Bulltail's 18-year-old niece, Kaysera Stops Pretty Places, was found dead several days after she disappeared from her home on the Crow Reservation in Montana in August 2019. Her family organizes marches, vigils and courthouse demonstrations and tirelessly pesters law enforcement for action and answers.
No arrests have been made, and the cause of death was ruled inconclusive.
"We have had to advocate for ourselves and for Kaysera every step of the way," Bulltail said.
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This story has been updated to correct the day of the event in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Saturday.
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Spears reported from Colorado Springs, Colorado. Leah Lemm with MPR News in Duluth, Minnesota; Sarah Liese with KOSU in Oklahoma City; Erica Ayisi with ICT in Madison, Wisconsin; and AP writer Susan Montoya Bryan contributed to this report.
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This story is published through the Global Indigenous Reporting Network at The Associated Press.
Senators, auditor dropped from WNMU former president's lawsuit - Algernon D’Ammassa, Albuquerque Journal
Three lawmakers named in a lawsuit brought by Western New Mexico University’s former president have been dismissed as defendants by a state judge’s order last week.
Joseph Shepard sued the university along with state Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, state Sen. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, and former state Sen. Siah Correa Hemphill of Silver City, alleging a conspiracy to “destroy his reputation” after Shepard questioned a $1 million appropriation for a charter school located on WNMU’s main campus in Silver City.
The lawsuit also named State Auditor Joseph Maestas, whose office oversaw a special audit addressing the handling of public money by Shepard and the former university regents. Current regent John Wertheim is a defendant as well.
But state District Judge Jarod Hofacket ruled that the actions attributed to the senators are covered by the state Constitution’s guarantee of immunity to lawmakers for legislative activity.
Shepard filed a motion Friday asking Hofacket to reconsider his order, as well as a separate order dismissing Maestas as a defendant.
Shepard served as WNMU’s president from 2011 through 2024, leaving the post amid controversy after multiple state probes into spending at the university as well as a $1.9 million severance payment and $200,000 faculty appointment at WNMU’s business school, approved by the former regents shortly before Shepard’s departure.
The golden parachute prompted Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to request the resignations of WNMU’s entire board of regents at the start of 2025.
A newly appointed board subsequently voided Shepard’s faculty appointment, prompting Shepard to claim breach of contract in a separate pending lawsuit.
Shepard claimed that Muñoz, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, hatched a plan with Correa Hemphill, who sat on the committee, to appropriate $1 million to WNMU that would actually be spent on the Aldo Leopold Charter School without disclosing that Correa Hemphill — a psychologist — had worked for the school and had children enrolled there.
Shepard is seeking damages under New Mexico’s Whistleblower Act, claiming ethics investigations into his use of public funds and termination as a faculty member were in retaliation for his objections to the appropriation. Shepard also sought triple damages through New Mexico’s anti-racketeering statute.
Hofacket ruled that, even if Shepard’s claims about the senators were assumed to be true, “they occurred in the course of legislative budgeting, deliberation, committee inquiry, or oversight,” and are therefore covered by legislative immunity, regardless of whether their intent was proper or not.
Correa Hemphill filed to run for reelection in 2024 but later withdrew, citing the financial burden of serving in New Mexico’s unsalaried Legislature.
After Hofacket’s ruling, Correa Hemphill issued a statement saying the ruling “brings an enormous sense of relief and closure.”
She also denied any impropriety, writing, “As legislators, we often face difficult decisions and challenging appropriations processes, but I always carried out my duties with honesty, transparency, and deep respect for the people I served.”
“I am of course pleased by the recent ruling, but as the case is still ongoing, I don’t have further comments at this time,” Stewart told the Journal.
Muñoz was unavailable for comment Monday afternoon.
In a separate order, Hofacket granted a motion to dismiss Maestas as a defendant, ruling that Shepard had not made a factual claim implicating Maestas in criminal acts supporting a racketeering claim.
The rulings leave the university and Wertheim as defendants.
Shepard is himself a defendant in a lawsuit brought by the New Mexico State Ethics Commission, set for trial in 2027 unless a settlement is reached.
Mediation is ongoing in still another lawsuit brought in 2025 by state Attorney General Raúl Torrez against Shepard and the university. In that case, Shepard filed a counter suit against the university.
WNMU’s new president, Jose Coll, was selected in March with an official start date of July 1.
Highlands president placed on leave by regents - Natalie Robbins, Albuquerque Journal
New Mexico Highlands University President Neil Woolf has been removed from his post by the school’s Board of Regents amid faculty dissatisfaction.
Woolf was placed on paid administrative leave effective immediately after a special regents meeting Friday, according to an email sent to NMHU faculty and staff.
In a Facebook post, Woolf said the board provided no explanation for the decision and that he hadn’t heard any indications that there were concerns.
“Since day one, my focus has been clear: strengthening Highlands for the students and communities we serve,” Woolf wrote. “Together, we have made measurable progress — improving the university’s financial position, achieving record fundraising, launching new academic programs aligned with regional workforce needs, increasing enrollment, and building meaningful partnerships across New Mexico.
“I remain committed to that work. I welcome the opportunity to address this situation directly and to continue moving Highlands forward.”
Woolf was appointed to the presidency in 2024 after a national search. He most recently served as the executive vice president at Southern Oregon University.
NMHU has just over 2,800 students. The public, state-run university’s flagship campus is in Las Vegas, with satellite locations in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Farmington and Santa Fe.
Kimberly Blea, who most recently served as vice president of student affairs at NMHU, has been appointed interim president, according to the email.
"I am deeply honored by the trust the Board of Regents has placed in me to lead New Mexico Highlands University during this period of transition,” Blea said in a statement. “My commitment to every member of this campus community is simple: I will lead with transparency, compassion, and an unwavering focus on our students and our mission.”
Blea will hold an open forum Wednesday to answer questions, the email said, and the Board of Regents will reconvene on June 2 to consider further action.
Doajo Hicks, NMHU’s general counsel, declined to comment on personnel matters when reached about Woolf’s dismissal.
Kathy Jenkins, professor of exercise science and president of the NMHU Faculty and Staff Association, said university employees had problems with Woolf for the past two years.
“We’ve had union issues. They’re not following our (collective bargaining agreements),” Jenkins said. “We wrote the Board of Regents two months ago expressing our concern, and they told us to basically stay in our lane and that they supported the president. And then all of a sudden this happened.”
Jenkins said discontent worsened after faculty and staff raised workplace safety issues at the university’s Ivan Hilton Science Building, which closed for several months starting Sept. 3, 2024, after reports of a chemical spill, the Las Vegas Optic reported.
Marty Lujan, a custodian at NMHU who worked in the building, died 11 days later. An autopsy report obtained by the Optic found Lujan died of complications from diabetes, though union officials said he showed signs of chemical exposure.
“We’ve been really upset,” Jenkins said. “That was awful, with the storage of chemicals being so bad.”
Jenkins said faculty had been “left in the dark” about whether anyone else from the administration had been let go as the university’s commencement ceremony approaches later this week, featuring U.S. senator and alumnus Ben Ray Luján as the keynote speaker.
“What’s really surprising is this is graduation week,” Jenkins said. “These are the people that do graduation.”
First day of early voting includes ‘hiccup’ for same-day registration - Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
The first day of early voting on Tuesday for New Mexico’s June 2 primary election included some problems in a handful of counties with the state’s same-day voter registration system.
Secretary of State Director of Communications, Legislative and Executive Affairs Lindsey Bachman confirmed to Source NM that at around 11:30 a.m., the state’s “website firewalls incorrectly determined that traffic between some county computers and the website was unsafe,” and blocked the traffic.
The same-day registration systems “were operational during the event,” she wrote, “but the communications interruptions did not allow them to work together as needed for normal availability in a few affected counties.”
She said the issue was resolved by 1 p.m.
“We are continuing to monitor the situation, but do not expect any recurrence,” Bachman said. She said she did not have confirmation of the specific counties impacted as of Tuesday afternoon.
Sandoval County was one of them, however. Deputy County Clerk Joey Dominguez described the problem as a “hiccup.”
Roosevelt County also had temporary issues with same-day voter registration, but Clerk Mandi Park told Source NM that was because she had a “user-error issue” and forgot her password for the same-day registration application. That problem also was short-lived.
Both county officials said only one person requested same-day registration while the systems were down, and both were able to cast provisional ballots.
State’s first ‘semi-open’ primary underway
Anecdotally, voting began quietly Tuesday morning in Bernalillo County, officials told Source NM. (Bachman said the Secretary of State’s Office will begin reporting voter turnout and same-day registration data on Friday.)
However, Bernalillo County Clerk Michelle Kavanaugh told Source NM she anticipates an uptick in participation in response to the state’s new semi-open primaries.
Under the new law created by Senate Bill 16, passed last year, independent voters can now cast ballots in either the Republican or Democratic primaries while remaining unaffiliated with either party.
As of Tuesday morning, Kavanaugh said only a handful of “decline to state voters” had voted. Of Bernalillo County’s approximate 447,000 registered voters, 44% are registered as Democrats, 27% as Republicans and another 27% as “decline to state” voters. Of the state’s approximately 1.4 million registered voters, 40% are Democrats, 31% are Republicans and 26% are independent voters. Remaining voters are registered to the state’s minor parties.
“We’ve had some time to prepare and we’re hoping to see a growth in the number of people voting in primaries,” Kavanaugh said outside the Clerk’s Annex on Lomas Road, an “I Voted” sticker on her lapel.
Democratic voter Sheila Mahoney, a retired nurse midwife with Indian Health Services, told Source NM she supported the inclusion of “decline to state voters” in New Mexico primaries.
“I think it’s great,” Mahoney, 71, told Source NM. “Why should they be left out of the primary, they vote, they’re citizens.”
Democratic voter Lance Chilton, 81, a retired pediatrician from Albuquerque said he had “mixed feelings” on the recent expansion.
“I prefer that everybody get a chance to vote, I just think they should have to determine which group they’re part of, which party, when they do,” he said.
Election watch expansion
Carmen López, a co-leader of the nonpartisan group Observe New Mexico Elections, said the group is training coordinators to observe the primary elections for the first time in all 33 counties.
“In 2024, we only attempted to observe in three or four counties,” López told Source NM.
The observers watch poll worker training, election machine checks and election result certifications and compile a report to assess election quality, to “heighten transparency and strengthen voter confidence” in the process López said. For the general election, the group plans to seek up to 300 observers across the state, she said.
Expanded early voting, with additional primary election sites, will begin May 16 and end on May 30 in advance of Election Day on June 2.