New emails allege New Mexico probation officer ICE referrals more widespread than previously known — Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
New documents in a lawsuit against New Mexico Corrections Department Secretary Alisha Tafoya Lucero allege that state probation officers’ practice of referring undocumented probationers to federal agents for deportation occurred more extensively than previously known, and continued well after state lawmakers banned such referrals in 2025.
Emails between federal agents and state probation officers, as well as other records attached as exhibits to a State Ethics Commission court filing last week, also allege the probation officers referred their probationers to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency at the behest of their supervisors at the Corrections Department.
Initially, in its September lawsuit prompted by a whistleblower complaint, the Commission alleged that probation officers lured three undocumented probationers under false pretenses to various statewide probation offices, where ICE agents were waiting to arrest them for potential deportation.
The probation department referred at least 20 additional probationers to ICE between October 2024 and May 2026, based on a Source NM review of emails in the new filing, and regularly tipped off ICE agents when a probationer was scheduled for a probation appointment.
In at least seven of the cases, ICE ultimately deported the probationers to Mexico or elsewhere, according to the emails. In five cases, probation officers mistakenly believed people they supervised were undocumented, and referred United States citizens or lawful permanent residents to the agency.
At least five referrals occurred after July 1, 2025, when a state law went into effect prohibiting state employees from providing immigration or other sensitive personal information to anyone outside of the agency except in limited circumstances.
The Ethics Commission included the new text messages, emails, deposition transcripts and other evidence in a 225-page filing July 2 that urges a state district court judge to allow the Commission to enforce the 2025 state law, known as the the Nondisclosure of Sensitive Personal Information Act, which empowers the Commission to bring action against potential violators. That would allow the Commission to bring a second lawsuit against Tafoya Lucero under the state’s new law.
First Judicial District Court Matthew Wilson’s approval is necessary, Commission Executive Director Jeremy Farris wrote, especially since the Commission recently received information showing the violations occurred at all levels.
The Ethics Commission declined to comment on the filing, citing ongoing litigation.
In addition to the new details about referrals, the Commission’s lawsuit also relays a whistleblower account alleging that the Correction Department’s in-house counsel, in a meeting in mid-May of this year with probation supervisors, told them to conduct certain communications “telephonically,” potentially to evade the Commission’s continued investigation into the department.
At the same meeting, according to the filing, the department’s deputy cabinet secretary said that when she finds out the identity of the whistleblower who prompted the Commission’s September lawsuits, “They are going to get it.”
Corrections Department spokesperson Brittany Roembach told Source NM that the department declined to comment on the litigation.
“Generally speaking, however, we meet with and train probation and parole staff on a regular basis, to ensure that they are aware of current laws, policies, and expectations while supervising individuals in our communities,” she said in an email.
Most of the emails revealed in the filings transpired between probation officer Joanna Bojorquez-Cárdenas and ICE deportation officer Matthew Salcido between November 2024 and May of this year.
Bojorquez-Cárdenas did not respond to Source NM’s request for comment Thursday. Salcido declined to comment.
In addition to the exchanges about individual probationers, the emails reveal a close working relationship between the two, including discussions of vacations and job opportunities, and suggest that ICE agents like Salcido were under pressure to arrest and deport as many immigrants as possible shortly after President Donald Trump was inaugurated for a second term in January 2025.
“Have any more for us?” Salcido asked Bojorquez-Cárdenas via email Feb. 4, 2025. “They’re pushing us pretty hard for arrests.”
Bojorquez-Cárdenas replied that she didn’t. “But I will let you know!” she wrote.
In a deposition transcript contained in the filing, Bojorquez-Cárdenas testified that NMCD Probation Supervisor Brent Hopper instructed her and fellow probation officers to “reach out to ICE regarding your probationers who are undocumented,” although she didn’t recall when he had done so.
Hopper declined to comment Thursday.
The filings contain text messages and emails from two other probation officers and ICE to coordinate federal arrests of New Mexico probationers.
An ICE spokesperson also declined to comment Thursday, citing the pending litigation.
Sen. Antoinette Sedillo-Lopez, who sponsored the bill making such referrals illegal, reviewed the filing Thursday and told Source NM she was “disturbed and shocked” at the joy probation officers seemingly experienced when they succeeded in deporting a probationer.
She noted that Salcido wrote “Oh damn!” when he discovered that a Mexican probationer Bojorquez-Cárdenas referred his way was protected from deportation under federal law because he was a Lawful Permanent Resident and his conviction was “only a misdemeanor.”
Sedillo-Lopez said she is going to refer the filing, which she was unaware of until Source NM’s inquiry Thursday, to the interim legislative Courts and Corrections Committee for review at an upcoming hearing. The committee drafts criminal justice policy and exercises oversight of state law enforcement agencies.
“To me, it just looks really bad for the supervisors and for the whole agency,” she said.
New Mexico childcare providers push back on proposed universal childcare wage mandate — Natalie Robbins, Albuquerque Journal
The state of New Mexico is seeking to include wage and reporting requirements with its universal childcare program, though some providers are at odds with the proposed rules.
The potential changes could require childcare providers who opt into the universal childcare model to put 57% of their revenue toward wages for teachers and administrators, a move some business owners say could affect their financial health.
At a public hearing in Santa Fe on Thursday, business owners said this requirement would make it challenging for them to operate as they have been.
Amanda Baca, who is opening a new childcare center in Los Lunas, told the audience that the 57% requirement could make it difficult for her business to remain solvent.
“This should be one of the most exciting times in my career,” Baca said. “Instead, I find myself asking a question I never thought I’d have to ask: Can I really afford to do this?”
Not included in the 57% are additional employees like cooks, janitors or maintenance workers, said Barbara Tedrow, president of the New Mexico Early Childhood Association and owner of A Gold Star Academy childcare centers in Farmington.
“A one-size-fits-all of just randomly saying 57% doesn’t work,” Tedrow said. “We have such a wide variety of centers, homes, small, large, nonprofit, for-profit.”
Tedrow said the association is advocating for a lower minimum of 45% to be paid toward wages.
“Then you can make sure that we’re at least meeting a minimum, knowing that some centers are going to be at 57%, some are going to be at 50%, but it doesn’t mean that we’re not paying the wages to the teachers,” she said.
The proposed changes are intended to bring the state in compliance with Senate Bill 241, a piece of legislation passed earlier this year that enshrined universal childcare into state law with a set of provisions.
The bill includes certain “triggers” in the event of worsening economic conditions, such as allowing copays for higher-income families and instituting childcare waitlists. The legislation also includes the framework for a wage-and-career ladder, funded by a $60 million allocation to the state budget, which dictates that childcare employees be paid in accordance with their experience or education. Under current guidelines, providers that opt into the universal childcare program must agree to pay employees at least $16 an hour.
Since its inception in November, at least 44,000 children have enrolled in New Mexico’s universal childcare program, the first of any state in the nation. The program will cost the state $606 million in fiscal year 2027, according to a state news release.
Providers also spoke out against a new proposed rule that would require providers to submit employee data to a public portal called the Professional Development Information System for the purpose of analyzing pay trends, which would make personal information like employee wages available to the public through an Inspection of Public Records Act request.
Jacob Vigil of child welfare nonprofit New Mexico Voices for Children said that while the organization supported collecting the data, it urged the state Early Childhood Education and Care Department to put privacy safeguards in place, since many childcare workers are undocumented.
“I think transparency has always been important for accountability with public dollars,” Vigil said.
ECECD officials have said reporting wage information helps the state make data-driven decisions about wage requirements. Olga Grays, a childcare provider in Las Cruces, said pay mandates like the wage-and-career ladder are good for childcare workers.
“I think that’s a beautiful thing, because it gives a clear goal,” Grays said of the proposed wage requirements. “It makes it more of a profession…I have an employee who’s been with me for over 15 years, and I’ve learned everything from her, and she doesn’t have an education, but she taught me everything I know.”
Grays, a member of the advocacy group OLÉ New Mexico, said she hopes the rollout of the new rules will be clear and easy for the public to understand.
“The biggest concern is the transparency,” she said.
Grays said the childcare providers in her hometown of Sunland Park, near the Mexico border, many of whom speak only Spanish, had no idea about many of the specifics of the universal childcare program until she told them.
“I think there was a big disconnect with the information getting all the way to Sunland Park,” she said.
ECECD spokesperson Julia Sclafani said in a statement that the department would take into account all the comments it received at Thursday’s hearing.
“The thoughtful participation from providers, advocates and families plays an essential role in shaping policies that support positive outcomes for children, enhance family wellbeing and strengthen New Mexico’s early childhood system,” Sclafani said. “ECECD will review all feedback received as part of the department’s commitment to a transparent and collaborative rulemaking process.”
Sclafani said the new rules will be determined in the coming weeks.
Natalie Robbins covers education for the Journal. You can reach her at nrobbins@abqjournal.com.
District attorney launches criminal investigation into Highlands
—Natalie Robbins, Albuquerque Journal
The 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office and the state attorney general have launched a criminal investigation into allegations of fraud and forgery at New Mexico Highlands University, officials announced last week.
The turmoil at the Las Vegas university began May 1, when NMHU officials placed President Neil Woolf and several high-level administrators on leave and terminated multiple other faculty members, seemingly without explanation.
The Office of the State Auditor announced on May 12 it had launched an investigation into the university after the multiple terminations, citing “substantial concerns” about leadership and finances.
In a lengthy response to the state auditor dated May 27, Highlands administration accused Woolf of financial mismanagement, nepotism, retaliation, procurement code violations and a pattern of religious preferential treatment with employees who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Regents allege Woolf, who is a member of the Latter-day Saints church, created new positions for Latter-day Saints candidates and showed favoritism toward employees who were members of the church. The letter alleges terminated men’s basketball coach Zach Settembre and Vice President of Advancement Paul Grindstaff were selected via inappropriate hiring methods because of their Latter-day Saints faith.
The district attorney’s criminal investigation involves allegations of fraud and forgery of Settembre’s new contract — which had been renewed April 22, days before he was placed on leave — and a falsified immigration form, both included in the letter to the state auditor.
“This office takes criminal allegations very seriously, particularly when it involves public institutions like New Mexico Highlands University,” District Attorney Thomas Clayton said in a news release. “When allegations involve potential fraud, forged documents and the integrity of a public university, the public deserves clear answers backed by evidence.”
Woolf, along with Settembre and Provost Dann Brown, were officially terminated June 2.
The letter from NMHU administration alleges Athletic Director Scott Noble — whose signature was required on Settembre’s new contract — was against the extension because of NCAA violations “and other personnel issues.” Regents allege Grindstaff forged Noble’s signature on the contract electronically, which would mean Settembre is not entitled to his $22,500 severance payment.
Grindstaff was terminated in May, along with Vice Presidents Johnny Montoya and David Lepre.
Settembre told the Journal last month that the allegations of forgery were false, as far as he knew.
“It was a Docusign agreement,” Settembre said, referring to a software that allows users to sign documents electronically. “No one could forge a signature on a Docusign. It goes to someone’s email. … That’s impossible to do.”
Settembre said he committed no NCAA violations, but was asked by Woolf to sit out one game because of “a handful of technical fouls.”
“We were all terminated without cause,” Settembre said. “They’ve removed an extremely popular president, a president that worked extremely hard.”
The allegations of a falsified immigration form come from the letter, which claims the university submitted a forged document on behalf of a Mexican student who had been recruited for the NMHU men’s basketball team after graduating from a New Mexico high school.
Regents allege the university found the forged signatures of Financial Aid Director Lara Barela and Associate Athletic Director Jim Deisler on the document, a Form I-20, one of the records required for a student visa. The form was submitted to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, then subsequently cancelled once the alleged falsification was discovered.
Woolf fired back against NMHU officials with a lawsuit, claiming that his firing was in retaliation for declining to follow an order from Board of Regents Chair Frank Sanchez to award a contract to a local firm operated by a friend of Sanchez and his brother in law.
The Board of Regents, in a statement, said the allegations were “without merit.”
Nicholas Hart, an attorney for Woolf, said in an email to the Journal that the letter to the auditor from Highlands administration containing the alleged criminal violations was retaliatory and “full of inaccuracies and misrepresentations.”
“To be absolutely clear, the allegations against Dr. Woolf are false,” Hart said. “Dr. Woolf will be amending his complaint to include this as a retaliatory attack, and he will also add a religious discrimination claim for the letter’s disgusting attack on his faith.”
Woolf was appointed president of NMHU in 2024 after a national search. He most recently served as executive vice president at Southern Oregon University.
Kimberly Blea, who most recently served as vice president of student affairs at NMHU, has been serving as interim president.
Wally Funk, aviation pioneer who was the oldest woman to travel into space, dies at 87
—Associated Press
Wally Funk, an aviation pioneer who was the oldest woman to launch into space, has died. Funk was from New Mexico. She was born in Las Vegas in 1939, and grew up in Taos.
Funk was one of 13 female pilots who went through the same tests as NASA’s all-male astronaut corps in the early 1960s but never made it into space. In 2021, she got her chance aboard Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin rocket. At the time, the 82-year-old was the oldest person to go into space.
Funk died at an assisted living facility in Grapevine, Texas. She was 87.
