Doña Ana County scrambles to line up health provider for detention center - Algernon D’Ammassa, Albuquerque Journal
With a week or even less to find a new healthcare provider for the Doña Ana County Detention Center, county commissioners were aghast Tuesday as staff pulled a contract approval from consideration and told commissioners they were back at square one.
YesCare, previously known as Corizon Health, provides medical care services in correctional facilities in nine states, including the county facility in Las Cruces.
This month, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and failed to meet payroll in multiple states, including New Mexico.
After employees in Las Cruces missed their May 8 paychecks, the county stepped in with an emergency approval of $170,000 to cover the workers’ back pay. The money came from funds already appropriated for YesCare’s contract.
Meanwhile, county staff proceeded with an emergency procurement, as YesCare indicated it would discontinue operations at the detention center. The current contract was set to expire on June 30.
“We had asked them to give us three weeks to get somebody new in, and they could not guarantee that,” Deputy County Attorney Cari Neill said Tuesday.
At Tuesday’s session, commissioners expected to consider a $4.5 million contract with WellPoint LLC and avoid an interruption to services. But when the agenda item came up, County Purchasing Manager Michael Perez told them the deal was off after their finalized cost proposal came in much higher than expected.
“On Sunday evening, we received the cost proposal from the entity and it is significantly different than what they anticipated… At this time, we do not want to make an award,” Perez said.
However, there was no backup proposal for commissioners to consider.
“We have one more week and we don’t have an emergency procurement contract or confirmation that these (workers) are going to get paid or that services will continue at the detention center?” Commissioner Christopher Schaljo-Hernandez asked, and Perez confirmed that that was the case.
Adding confusion to the process was that WellPath and other providers interviewed wanted a full-year contract, Perez said, which can’t be done through the emergency procurement process. The county’s preferred approach was to cover the emergency and put a regular contract, which would begin next January, out for a conventional bid.
Perez and Neill recommended the commissioners authorize the county manager’s office to enact a stopgap agreement with one of the other vendors interviewed and get the commissioners’ approval at a subsequent meeting, but no commissioner made a motion.
“I feel like we are woefully unprepared bringing this forward,” County Chairman Manny Sanchez said. “We need to have a path forward, guys, and we just don’t have that.”
Further questions from Schaljo-Hernandez and Commissioner Susie Kimble revealed that the county had not yet notified the state health or corrections departments about the situation.
“It appears we haven’t,” County Manager Scott Andrews said. “We’ll jump right on it.”
That added a new layer of uncertainty to the situation, as Schaljo-Hernandez pointed out when he said, “The county can continue to do the back pay for YesCare … but if their license to operate at the detention center is revoked or no good, then that’s not going to help us.”
“They are still licensed at this point,” Neill replied.
Wednesday, the county manager’s office said it planned to bring a finalized proposal to the board as quickly as possible.
“We remain committed to ensuring our inmates at the Detention Center can receive adequate healthcare services while at the facility,” the county said in a statement to the Journal.
Inmates accused of beating and using stun gun on Doña Ana County jail guard - Nakayla McClelland, Albuquerque Journal
Three inmates face federal charges after they allegedly beat a Doña Ana County Detention Center corrections officer and used the officer’s stun gun on him, officials announced Wednesday.
Juan Gabriel Torres, Sergio Seanez and Josiah McGaw Bulger are charged with assault involving a dangerous weapon and infliction of bodily injury on a person assisting officers of the United States. If convicted, all three men face up to 20 years in prison.
On May 11, a corrections officer at the Doña Ana County jail entered a pod to do an inspection, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court.
The officer, whom court records identified as John Doe, walked up to the top level of the pod around 10 p.m. to check on six inmates who were supposed to be locked in their cells. The list included one federal inmate the officer had to monitor on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service, the complaint states.
When the officer arrived, he saw Torres, Seanez and Bulger standing at the top of the staircase, even though they were not allowed on the second floor, according to the complaint.
“The instant John Doe reaches the top of the stairs, Torres lunges at John Doe and tries to punch him,” the complaint states. “John Doe then ducks down to defend himself and grabs Torres near the waist and begins to push him backward.”
Seanez and Bulger grabbed the corrections officer and punched him before throwing him to the ground, according to the complaint. Bulger stomped on his head and neck an estimated 15 times, holding a rail for “additional leverage" as he continuously kicked the man.
The group allegedly beat the officer around 30 times in less than 22 seconds as he lay unconscious, the complaint states.
“Near the end of this violent assault, while John Doe’s unconscious and motionless body is lying on the floor, Torres unholsters John Doe’s Taser and then tases his unconscious body,” according to the complaint.
At some point, other guards entered the pod to stop the assault, the complaint states. The corrections officer was taken to a hospital and regained consciousness sometime later.
US Supreme Court settles long-running water dispute over dwindling Rio Grande - Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
The U.S. Supreme Court has approved a settlement package designed to rein in groundwater pumping along one of North America’s longest rivers and ensure enough water reliably makes it from New Mexico to Texas, ending a long-running dispute over management of the Rio Grande.
In a brief order Tuesday, the court accepted the recommendation of a special master to move forward with agreements first proposed last year by New Mexico, Texas and Colorado.
The settlement calls for reducing groundwater pumping along the dwindling river and retiring water rights from irrigated farmland in southern New Mexico. The states held up the proposal as a promise to restore order to an elaborate system of storing and sharing water between two vast irrigation districts in southern New Mexico and western Texas.
“We're very excited to be redirecting resources from costly and lengthy litigation to solutions on the ground,” Hanna Riseley-White, director of the Interstate Stream Commission, said Wednesday.
Those solutions will include everything from long-term fallowing programs and more efficient irrigation infrastructure to developing new sources of water, like tapping brackish supplies or importing water, and improving stormwater management so more runoff can be captured and stored.
Researchers have warned that unsustainable use of the Rio Grande — which originates in Colorado and stretches south into Mexico — threatens water security for millions of people who rely on the binational river basin.
Farmers in southern New Mexico increasingly have turned to groundwater to irrigate pecan orchards and chile crops as hotter, drier conditions have reduced river flows and storage over recent decades. That pumping is what prompted Texas to sue in 2013, claiming the practice was cutting into water deliveries.
While the Colorado River gets all the headlines, experts say the situation along the Rio Grande is just as dire. Stretches of the river as far north as Albuquerque are expected to go dry again this year, marking the third time in five years.
The settlement package provides for a detailed accounting system for sharing water with Texas. New Mexico could rely on credits and debits from year to year to navigate through drought and wet periods, though it could be responsible for additional water-sharing obligations if deliveries are deferred too long.
Under the settlement, New Mexico must reduce annual groundwater depletions by 18,200 acre-feet, or about 5.9 billion gallons (22.3 billion liters) within the next 10 years. The commitment includes completing half of that within the next five years.
Riseley-White said that represents about 5% to 7% of current groundwater use in the lower Rio Grande. The settlement doesn't dictate what sector the water savings comes from, so she said industry and municipalities could also partner with the state to meet the mandates.
Still, officials expect to achieve most of the necessary reductions from buying water rights from the agricultural industry, meaning more farmland would be retired.
Riseley-White said listening sessions are underway this week and the first acquisitions are expected to begin later this year. New Mexico has secured more than $40 million in federal funding to support the effort, she said.
NM AG Torrez sues Torrance and Curry counties, sheriffs over ICE agreements violating new state law - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez on Wednesday filed lawsuits against two local counties and their sheriffs for maintaining agreements enabling the transfer of local immigrant arrestees to federal custody despite a new state law.
According to the lawsuit, sheriffs in Torrance and Curry counties have recently entered agreements with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency — often called “287(g) agreements” after the relevant section in federal immigration law — that authorize local law enforcement to serve ICE warrants on arrestees held in local jails.
House Bill 9, the Immigrant Safety Act, which the Legislature passed earlier this year, prohibited local sheriffs from entering or implementing those agreements. The law also prohibited counties from contracting with ICE for immigrant detention at local facilities.
In a statement Wednesday, Torrez said neither sheriff has the authority to defy House Bill 9.
“The Legislature enacted the Immigrant Safety Act after careful deliberation, the Governor signed it, and it is now the law of New Mexico,” Torrez said. “No county sheriff has the authority to nullify a statute simply because he disagrees with it. That is not how our constitutional system works, and this office will not allow it to stand.”
In an email Wednesday to Source NM, Curry County Sheriff Michael Brockett said he “stand[s] behind my decision in cooperating with our federal law enforcement partners.” He said he had no further comment due to the litigation.
Torrance County Sheriff David Frazee did not respond to Source NM’s phone call seeking comment Wednesday.
According to an ICE database, Brockett signed the Curry County agreement in May 2025, and Frazee signed the Torrance County agreement in December 2025. Both agreements are still in effect a week after House Bill 9 went into effect.
Torrez’s office filed the lawsuits in two state court judicial districts overseeing both counties, whose commissions also are named as defendants.
According to recent data from the Deportation Data Project, three New Mexico ICE arrests occurred through the use of 287(g) agreements. The data shows the arrests occurred between August and October of last year and involved detainees who had not been convicted of a crime.
The data as of mid-December, which researchers obtain periodically via public records requests to ICE, notes that two of the detainees remained in ICE custody at that time. A third voluntarily left the country to Mexico.
Brockett, in a previous statement to Source NM, said maintaining agreements with federal law enforcement was important for public safety.
“As conservators of the peace, we must maintain these strong relationships, as keeping our communities safe is a team effort,” he said in a statement last June.
NM judge rules Republican Party of New Mexico Chair Barela must leave post - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
A New Mexico judge on Wednesday ruled that Republican Party of New Mexico Chair Amy Barela must vacate her position, siding with Republican candidates who said she broke party rules by continuing to serve as chair while also running for office.
Thirteenth Judicial District Judge Cindy Mercer issued a preliminary injunction that prohibits Barela from continuing to serve as chair and also orders party officials not to publicly support any of the Republicans running for office during the ongoing primary.
The eight-page ruling sided with the three Republican plaintiffs — gubernatorial candidate Duke Rodriguez, lieutenant governor candidate Aubrey Blair Dunn and Otero County Commission candidate Jonathan Emery — who said that Barela and other officials were breaking party rules and contributing to an unfair primary.
Barela is running for re-election as Otero County commissioner against Emery. The plaintiffs argued that Republican Party rules bar party chairs from running for office. They also alleged the party was unfairly picking favored candidates through implicit endorsement on the party’s Facebook page.
Mercer agreed with the plaintiffs on all counts in her ruling Wednesday. In the ruling, she said that Barela serving as both a candidate and party chair constitutes a conflict of interest.
“Her position as party chair gives her a higher profile and may lend her an aura of greater party legitimacy than her challenger,” Mercer wrote.
Mercer determined that not only did the Barela and other party leaders break the rules, but the party also has insufficient processes for handling alleged rule violations. As a result, the court needed to intervene, she wrote.
RPNM attorney Carter Harrison conceded at the end of a court hearing last week that the rule regarding whether Barela can serve as both party chairwoman and candidate is “ambiguous,” but he said the party — not a court — should retain control over resolving the issue.
Barela, reached Wednesday by phone, told Source NM that she had not seen the ruling and declined to comment until she could speak to her attorney.
On Wednesday afternoon, Republican Party of New Mexico Executive Director Leticia Muñoz-Kaminski issued a statement saying the party still “strongly contends” that the judge’s order impinges on the defendants’ freedom of speech. She also raised questions about the order to remove Barela, saying it was “unclear” how long that order would remain in effect.
“However, the Party will comply fully with what it understands the order to require, for as long as it remains in effect, and we are in the process of appealing to a higher court,” she said.
Dunn on Wednesday praised Mercer for her ruling, which he said thoroughly addressed the legal issues at play, including whether a court should intervene on alleged violations of party rules.
“It really is simple, and as she lays it out: Follow your bylaws. Since Amy wouldn’t do it voluntarily, this was the appropriate way to do that,” he said. “That’s the point of having fair and open elections, isn’t it? It should be fair and open, even from within your own party.”
If Barela exits the post as ordered, the Republican Party of New Mexico’s First Vice Chair Mike Nelson will take over until the party’s State Central Committee convenes to officially vote on a replacement.
Muñoz-Kaminski, during her testimony last week regarding the lawsuit, said it would be “very difficult” to replace Barela before the primary, which takes place June 2.
4:20 pm - This story was updated following publication to include a statement from Republican Party of New Mexico Executive Director Leticia Muñoz-Kaminski.