FRI: Fearing ICE, Native Americans rush to prove their right to belong in the US + More
By KUNM News
January 30, 2026 at 5:42 AM MST
Fearing ICE, Native Americans rush to prove their right to belong in the US - By Graham Lee rewer, Savannah Peters, and Stewart Hutington, Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement flooded Minneapolis, Shane Mantz dug his Choctaw Nation citizenship card out of a box on his dresser and slid it into his wallet.
Some strangers mistake the pest-control company manager for Latino, he said, and he fears getting caught up in ICE raids.
Like Mantz, many Native Americans are carrying tribal documents proving their U.S. citizenship in case they are stopped or questioned by federal immigration agents. This is why dozens of the 575 federally recognized Native nations are making it easier to get tribal IDs. They're waiving fees, lowering the age of eligibility — ranging from 5 to 18 nationwide — and printing the cards faster.
It's the first time tribal IDs have been widely used as proof of U.S. citizenship and protection against federal law enforcement, said David Wilkins, an expert on Native politics and governance at the University of Richmond.
“I don’t think there’s anything historically comparable,” Wilkins said. “I find it terribly frustrating and disheartening.”
As Native Americans around the country rush to secure documents proving their right to live in the United States, many see a bitter irony.
“As the first people of this land, there’s no reason why Native Americans should have their citizenship questioned,” said Jaqueline De León, a senior staff attorney with the nonprofit Native American Rights Fund and member of Isleta Pueblo.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in an email that “our agents are properly trained to determine alienage and removability.”
“Under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, DHS law enforcement uses ‘reasonable suspicion’ to make arrests. The Supreme Court recently vindicated us on this question,” the email read.
In September, the Supreme Court allowed ICE agents to use a person's apparent race and ethnicity as a factor in deciding whether to detain them.
Native identity in a new age of fear
Since the mid- to late 1800s, the U.S. government has kept detailed genealogical records to estimate Native Americans’ fraction of “Indian blood” and determine their eligibility for health care, housing, education and other services owed under federal legal responsibilities. Those records were also used to aid federal assimilation efforts and chip away at tribal sovereignty, communal lands and identity.
Beginning in the late 1960s, many tribal nations began issuing their own forms of identification. In the last two decades, tribal photo ID cards have become commonplace and can be used to vote in tribal elections, to prove U.S. work eligibility and for domestic air travel.
About 70% of Native Americans today live in urban areas, including tens of thousands in the Twin Cities, one of the largest urban Native populations in the country.
There, in early January, a top ICE official announced the “largest immigration operation ever.”
Masked, heavily armed agents traveling in convoys of unmarked SUVs became commonplace in some neighborhoods. By this week, more than 3,400 people had been arrested, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. At least 2,000 ICE officers and 1,000 Border Patrol officers were on the ground.
Representatives from at least 10 tribes traveled hundreds of miles to Minneapolis — the birthplace of the American Indian Movement — to accept ID applications from members there. Among them were the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Ojibwe of Wisconsin, the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate of South Dakota and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa of North Dakota.
Turtle Mountain citizen Faron Houle renewed his tribal ID card and got his young adult son's and his daughter's first ones.
“You just get nervous,” Houle said. “I think (ICE agents are) more or less racial profiling people, including me.”
Events in downtown coffee shops, hotel ballrooms, and at the Minneapolis American Indian Center helped urban tribal citizens connect and share resources, said Christine Yellow Bird, who directs the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation’s satellite office in Fargo, North Dakota.
Yellow Bird made four trips to Minneapolis in recent weeks, putting nearly 2,000 miles on her 2017 Chevy Tahoe to help citizens in the Twin Cities who can’t make the long journey to their reservation.
Yellow Bird said she always keeps her tribal ID with her.
“I’m proud of who I am,” she said. “I never thought I would have to carry it for my own safety.”
Some Native Americans say ICE is harassing themLast year, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said that several tribal citizens reported being stopped and detained by ICE officers in Arizona and New Mexico. He and other tribal leaders have advised citizens to carry tribal IDs with them at all times.
Last November, Elaine Miles, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon and an actress known for her roles in “Northern Exposure” and “The Last of Us,” said she was stopped by ICE officers in Washington state who told her that her tribal ID looked fake.
The Oglala Sioux Tribe this week banned ICE from its reservation in southwestern South Dakota and northwestern Nebraska, one of the largest in the country.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North and South Dakota said a member was detained in Minnesota last weekend. And Peter Yazzie, who is Navajo, said he was arrested and held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Phoenix for several hours last week.
Yazzie, a construction worker from nearby Chinle, Arizona, said he was sitting in his car at a gas station preparing for a day of work when he saw ICE officers arrest some Latino men. The officers soon turned their attention to Yazzie, pushed him to the ground, and searched his vehicle, he said.
He said he told them where to find his driver's license, birth certificate, and a federal Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood. Yazzie said the car he was in is registered to his mother. Officers said the names didn’t match, he said, and he was arrested, taken to a nearby detention center and held for about four hours.
“It’s an ugly feeling. It makes you feel less human. To know that people see your features and think so little of you,” he said.
DHS did not respond to questions about the arrest.
Mantz, the Choctaw Nation citizen, said he runs pest-control operations in Minneapolis neighborhoods where ICE agents are active and he won't leave home without his tribal identification documents.
Securing them for his children is now a priority.
“It gives me some peace of mind. But at the same time, why do we have to carry these documents?” Mantz said. “Who are you to ask us to prove who we are?”
___
Brewer reported from Oklahoma City and Peters from Edgewood, New Mexico.
NM National Guard chief says operation on Central Avenue 'didn't change much' - Colleen Heild & Gillian Barkhurst, Albuquerque Journal
A mission impossible?
When the New Mexico National Guard hit the streets around the once-famed Route 66/Central Avenue corridor in October, the task was to create a "measurable difference" in the area's chronic crime problem.
The team, dispatched by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, got an eyeful, but the results were mixed, according to New Mexico National Guard Maj. Gen. Miguel Aguilar, who gave a post-mortem of the operation to the state Senate Finance Committee earlier this week.
"It's just overloaded with crime," Aguilar said of the Central Avenue corridor. "Absent structural changes, current outcomes are predictable and self-sustaining."
The National Guard was deployed after Lujan Grisham issued an executive order in the spring of last year. About 80 guardsmen were contemplated for the assignment but at times that number climbed to 130, he said. They were trained by the Albuquerque Police Department to perform duties that would free up sworn officers to make arrests. Instead of uniforms, the guardsmen wore polo shirts and khaki pants.
"Everybody who got on this assignment wanted to be there," Aguilar said. Currently, a group of the National Guard is assisting law enforcement in the Española area. And the guard also has members deployed in Africa on federally assigned duties.
"What we were tasked to try to do was to create a measurable difference over a prolonged period of time along the Central corridor," Aguilar told the committee. "The frustrating part for probably all of us, including my boss, was it didn't look different, right? What we came to realize is that no matter how much criminal enforcement we're doing, and we could have done more in those initial weeks, we really weren't having the effect that we wanted to have."
Albuquerque's 18-mile stretch of Route 66 on Central Avenue is in the spotlight, especially this year because of the roadway's centennial anniversary.
Aided by the guardsmen, nearly 1,000 individuals were arrested by the APD and New Mexico State Police during the deployment, in the period from after the Balloon Fiesta to after Thanksgiving. The contingent ended its mission in December.
In the 2.75 square mile area of the corridor designated for intense law enforcement, roughly Louisiana to Wyoming, those committing low-level crimes were disproportionately responsible for the city's total crime problem, he said.
According to Aguilar, about 74% were arrested on warrants, such as failing to appear for court. Some 40% were arrested for "public order" crimes; 29% for drug offenses; 19% for violent crimes, and the rest for property crimes, he said.
Over the 60-day period of concentrated focus on Central Avenue, 80% of those arrested were released on pretrial conditions and 50% were released from custody within 48 hours, Aguilar said. Of those cases that reached "resolution," 3o% ended in a conviction and 70% were resolved when they were dismissed by prosecutors "within one or two days of arrest."
The rapid release from jail, according to the National Guard's assessment, "undercuts deterrent and incapacitation," Aguilar said. Those addicted to drugs, such as fentanyl that goes for 50 cents a pill, are likely still under the effects of the narcotic and haven't had a chance to withdraw before being released back on the streets, he said.
The low price of fentanyl, Aguilar said, is a sign that "we're not having an effect on the supply and that's problematic."
"The Central corridor functions as an open-air drug market," he told the committee. "As our guardsmen and the city of Albuquerque has found as well, when you try to do outreach with those that are unhoused who are also addicted, they will not take advantage of sheltering because it takes them out of the area from which the narcotics are available to them and they tell us, 'I'm not going to leave here because this is where I get my drugs.'"
Aguilar said he wasn't blaming any particular agency for what is occurring on the Central Avenue corridor area, but he said the criminal justice system, "just can't keep up with it."
"None of this is intended from my perspective to blame anybody in the system," Aguilar said. "What we found in the operation was no matter what we did from a criminal enforcement perspective, the environment didn't change much. We kept seeing the same people and the same level of activity on the streets."
A 'disaster relief area'
Local leaders have also expressed some discontent with the mission.
City Councilor Nichole Rogers, who represents the bulk of the mission's focus area, said that she wanted the National Guard to lead humanitarian efforts using their built-in training for national disaster response.
"In my opinion, there's parts of my district that feel like a Third World disaster relief area," Rogers said.
Though grateful for the assist, Rogers said that lasting change along East Central won't happen with a focus on policing.
If she was at the helm, Rogers said she would have directed the Guard to survey those living on the street, escort children to school through the walking school bus program and set up warming tents.
She added, "And that, I think, would have gotten us closer to what the governor wanted, which is get people out of the streets (and) get the streets cleaned up."
Rogers said that the misstep could be an opportunity for the Guard and other state agencies to reconsider their approach, regroup and return in a more united front.
Meanwhile, APD Director of Communications Gilbert Gallegos told the Journal that police are constantly performing enforcement operations along the Central corridor.
"We have one right now focusing on public transportation platforms such as bus stops, ART platforms and transit transfer stations," he said. "Last week, we made 186 arrests for new charges and offenders being taken in on warrants. Three guns were seized. The Narcotics Unit conducted an operation that resulted in the arrest of three individuals for trafficking."
On Thursday, he added, APD conducted an operation between Louisiana and Pennsylvania in which nine people were arrested for patronizing prostitutes.
Last year's $9 million National Guard operation wasn't in vain, Aguilar said.
"It's not the effects we wanted, but now we have the data set," he said, "if we can come here and tell that story, then it's not in vain."
State Sen. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, who is Senate president pro tempore, said parts of the Central Avenue corridor are within her legislative District 17.
"Central is bad, but the street south of Central is worse, that's where they throw up their tents," Stewart said at Wednesday's meeting. "After the National Guard came, you don't see the level of trash and people and their stuff. I think it has made a difference. But now that you're gone, things could get worse."
Committee Chair Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, who invited Aguilar to speak, thanked him for the "objective perspective."
"I've driven the Central corridor," Cervantes said. "It motivates me to try to do something about it. At times it feels like the part of New Mexico that time forgot; where law and order have no place. My kids refer to it as Gotham."
Sponsors pull NM constitutional ‘green amendment’ legislation - Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
A proposed “green amendment” to New Mexico’s constitution will not proceed in the current legislative session. Its sponsors said Thursday they would pull the bill following a three-hour hearing in which several Democrats said they would not support the measure.
This marks the sixth year New Mexico lawmakers have brought forward legislation to enshrine a right to “clean and healthy air, water, soil and environment” in the New Mexico Constitution. Had the legislation passed, the proposed amendment would have ultimately required approval by voters. The legislation is part of a national movement started by Pennsylvania attorney Maya van Rossum in 2017. So far, only three states have adopted such an amendment: Pennsylvania, Montana and New York.
Opposition and support for the bill were robust in the House Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee hearing, which included an hour of public comment.
New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association President Tom Paterson said the amendment would invite judges to overturn permitting or other decisions made by small governments.
“Cattle growers oppose HJR3 because we believe it will invite a wave of lawsuits that will hurt communities, taxpayers and job growth in New Mexico,” said Paterson, who is also a cattle rancher and retired attorney.
Advocates, on the other hand, said the bill provides a legal framework for the state to address impacts from climate change. Chase Jacques-Maynes, director of the New Mexico Legislators’ Environmental Caucus, urged lawmakers to approve the amendment, saying “environmental harm is not abstract” for young people.
“The Green Amendment does not dictate specific policies, it sets a moral and constitutional floor that says when tradeoffs are made, the health and dignity of New Mexicans must matter, especially those who have been asked to sacrifice the most,” Jacques-Maynes said. “Supporting this amendment is not radical, it is responsible and forward-looking.”
Democratic Reps. Nathan Small (D-Las Cruces) and Meredith Dixon (D-Albuquerque) joined Republicans on the committee in questioning the language of the amendment and said they worried it would curb economic development or expose the state to court fights.
“Ultimately, while I am deeply sympathetic, my conclusion is that investment, timelines and opportunities are much more questionable,” Small said. “We can point to examples when timelines are extended, clean energy investment or investment in environmental remediation goes elsewhere.”
After the meeting, the legislation’s two sponsors, Reps. Patricia Roybal Caballero (D-Albuquerque), Joanne Ferrary (D-Las Cruces), told Source NM they would bring forward another proposal in 2027.
“This offers us more time to have more discussions, flesh out the concerns that have been raised and see whether we can come together,” Roybal Caballero said.
NM governor’s office backs medical malpractice reform bill to cap punitive damages - Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
As New Mexico lawmakers in both major political parties propose reforms to the state’s medical malpractice laws, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office has thrown its weight behind a measure that would set a cap on punitive damages, pay for plaintiffs’ medical costs as they’re incurred and increase the standard of proof needed to award punitive damages.
House Bill 99, sponsored by Rep. Christine Chandler (D-Los Alamos), seeks to address the state’s physician shortage by limiting the amount of punitive damages that can be awarded by juries. Lujan Grisham identified medical malpractice reform as a priority on the first day of the 30-day legislative session. Lawmakers in recent years raised the limit on how much hospitals can owe for non-medical losses like pain and suffering from $600,000 to $6 million. No cap currently exists on how much a hospital can be ordered to pay in punitive damages.
The state Legislative Finance Committee earlier this month published a report that found all but one of New Mexico’s 33 counties constitute “health professional shortage areas.” In a statewide survey of physicians, LFC analysts found two out of three were considering leaving the state and the majority of them cited medical malpractice as the reason.
The bill’s supporters say it is one of many steps — including interstate medical compacts and programs that would help health care professionals buy a house — needed to fix the state’s physician shortage.
“This isn’t the only fix, but this is a big piece of it,” New Mexico Department of Health Secretary Gina DeBlassie told reporters Thursday morning. “Doctors are retiring early. Doctors are looking to perhaps move [out of] this state. They don’t feel like they’re practicing in a supportive environment.”
HB99 has enjoyed wide bipartisan support. As of Thursday afternoon, more than two dozen co-sponsors — Republican and Democrat — had signed on as co-sponsors. In a statement to Source NM, New Mexico Hospital Association President and CEO Troy Clark said he believes it could signal “a meaningful difference to begin to address the access-to-care crisis.”
Some Republican lawmakers think any amount of punitive damages is too much, though. Senate Republicans on Wednesday introduced Senate Bill 175, which would stop the practice of awarding punitive damages all together.
“New Mexico today is a prime destination for out-of-state lawyers to prey on in-state doctors. We have allowed our state to become a playground for trial lawyers, and New Mexicans are losing their doctors because of it,” co-sponsor Sen. Pat Woods (R-Broadview) wrote in a statement. “When a doctor faces a single uncapped punitive judgment that can bankrupt their family and their practice, they don’t stay in New Mexico — they move to friendlier states.”
Second Senate committee OKs $50M for uranium mine cleanup - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
The New Mexico Senate Conservation Committee on Thursday unanimously endorsed a bill that would continue funding the state’s efforts to remediate abandoned uranium mines and other contaminated sites.
Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D-Las Cruces) told lawmakers Senate Bill 66 provides necessary funding to maintain momentum and finally remediate more than 1,000 abandoned uranium mine sites in the state, particularly along the Grants Mineral Belt and on the Navajo Nation.
The Legislature last year approved $20 million for the effort, and late last year the New Mexico Environment Department announced it had begun, with the help of contractors, remediating four of them.
One of the four mines, Steinborn told lawmakers Thursday, exposed those nearby to one year’s worth of radiation every 13 days.
“So it’s a very good thing that we’re doing this,” he said.
Steinborn said he is working with state appropriators on the state’s funding for ongoing cleanups. But said he and other senators are also trying to find a way to get the federal government to pay for most of it.
The $50 million Steinborn is seeking for the upcoming fiscal year would fund NMED cleanups at both uranium sites and other contaminated sites, including from decades-old defunct dry cleaners and oil and gas operations.
Patricia Cordona, policy analyst for the Southwest Alliance for a Safe Future, spoke up during the public comment period to say that she applauded the bill’s intent but has questions about how effectively the sites will be remediated and where crews will transport radioactive waste.
“We want to make sure that we are supporting the right type of technology, or we are being given realistic expectations for the communities, of what the cleanup and the remediation consists of,” she said.
Republicans and Democrats supported the measure after some discussions of which types of sites — uranium or otherwise — would be prioritized. Steinborn said the goal is to split state funds roughly 50-50 between uranium and other contaminated sites.
Just before the unanimous vote, Sen. Angel Charley (D-Acoma) noted that new uranium mine projects in New Mexico are “charging forward” even as the state tries to fund legacy cleanup. She mentioned that companies are seeking approval for new mines near Mount Taylor, a mountain sacred to Navajo people and other local tribes and pueblos.
“It is imperative that we learn from our history, so that we have a responsible future going forward,” she said.
SB66 heads next to the Senate Finance Committee.
MINNEAPOLIS — When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement flooded Minneapolis, Shane Mantz dug his Choctaw Nation citizenship card out of a box on his dresser and slid it into his wallet.
Some strangers mistake the pest-control company manager for Latino, he said, and he fears getting caught up in ICE raids.
Like Mantz, many Native Americans are carrying tribal documents proving their U.S. citizenship in case they are stopped or questioned by federal immigration agents. This is why dozens of the 575 federally recognized Native nations are making it easier to get tribal IDs. They're waiving fees, lowering the age of eligibility — ranging from 5 to 18 nationwide — and printing the cards faster.
It's the first time tribal IDs have been widely used as proof of U.S. citizenship and protection against federal law enforcement, said David Wilkins, an expert on Native politics and governance at the University of Richmond.
“I don’t think there’s anything historically comparable,” Wilkins said. “I find it terribly frustrating and disheartening.”
As Native Americans around the country rush to secure documents proving their right to live in the United States, many see a bitter irony.
“As the first people of this land, there’s no reason why Native Americans should have their citizenship questioned,” said Jaqueline De León, a senior staff attorney with the nonprofit Native American Rights Fund and member of Isleta Pueblo.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in an email that “our agents are properly trained to determine alienage and removability.”
“Under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, DHS law enforcement uses ‘reasonable suspicion’ to make arrests. The Supreme Court recently vindicated us on this question,” the email read.
In September, the Supreme Court allowed ICE agents to use a person's apparent race and ethnicity as a factor in deciding whether to detain them.
Native identity in a new age of fear
Since the mid- to late 1800s, the U.S. government has kept detailed genealogical records to estimate Native Americans’ fraction of “Indian blood” and determine their eligibility for health care, housing, education and other services owed under federal legal responsibilities. Those records were also used to aid federal assimilation efforts and chip away at tribal sovereignty, communal lands and identity.
Beginning in the late 1960s, many tribal nations began issuing their own forms of identification. In the last two decades, tribal photo ID cards have become commonplace and can be used to vote in tribal elections, to prove U.S. work eligibility and for domestic air travel.
About 70% of Native Americans today live in urban areas, including tens of thousands in the Twin Cities, one of the largest urban Native populations in the country.
There, in early January, a top ICE official announced the “largest immigration operation ever.”
Masked, heavily armed agents traveling in convoys of unmarked SUVs became commonplace in some neighborhoods. By this week, more than 3,400 people had been arrested, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. At least 2,000 ICE officers and 1,000 Border Patrol officers were on the ground.
Representatives from at least 10 tribes traveled hundreds of miles to Minneapolis — the birthplace of the American Indian Movement — to accept ID applications from members there. Among them were the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Ojibwe of Wisconsin, the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate of South Dakota and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa of North Dakota.
Turtle Mountain citizen Faron Houle renewed his tribal ID card and got his young adult son's and his daughter's first ones.
“You just get nervous,” Houle said. “I think (ICE agents are) more or less racial profiling people, including me.”
Events in downtown coffee shops, hotel ballrooms, and at the Minneapolis American Indian Center helped urban tribal citizens connect and share resources, said Christine Yellow Bird, who directs the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation’s satellite office in Fargo, North Dakota.
Yellow Bird made four trips to Minneapolis in recent weeks, putting nearly 2,000 miles on her 2017 Chevy Tahoe to help citizens in the Twin Cities who can’t make the long journey to their reservation.
Yellow Bird said she always keeps her tribal ID with her.
“I’m proud of who I am,” she said. “I never thought I would have to carry it for my own safety.”
Some Native Americans say ICE is harassing themLast year, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said that several tribal citizens reported being stopped and detained by ICE officers in Arizona and New Mexico. He and other tribal leaders have advised citizens to carry tribal IDs with them at all times.
Last November, Elaine Miles, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon and an actress known for her roles in “Northern Exposure” and “The Last of Us,” said she was stopped by ICE officers in Washington state who told her that her tribal ID looked fake.
The Oglala Sioux Tribe this week banned ICE from its reservation in southwestern South Dakota and northwestern Nebraska, one of the largest in the country.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North and South Dakota said a member was detained in Minnesota last weekend. And Peter Yazzie, who is Navajo, said he was arrested and held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Phoenix for several hours last week.
Yazzie, a construction worker from nearby Chinle, Arizona, said he was sitting in his car at a gas station preparing for a day of work when he saw ICE officers arrest some Latino men. The officers soon turned their attention to Yazzie, pushed him to the ground, and searched his vehicle, he said.
He said he told them where to find his driver's license, birth certificate, and a federal Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood. Yazzie said the car he was in is registered to his mother. Officers said the names didn’t match, he said, and he was arrested, taken to a nearby detention center and held for about four hours.
“It’s an ugly feeling. It makes you feel less human. To know that people see your features and think so little of you,” he said.
DHS did not respond to questions about the arrest.
Mantz, the Choctaw Nation citizen, said he runs pest-control operations in Minneapolis neighborhoods where ICE agents are active and he won't leave home without his tribal identification documents.
Securing them for his children is now a priority.
“It gives me some peace of mind. But at the same time, why do we have to carry these documents?” Mantz said. “Who are you to ask us to prove who we are?”
___
Brewer reported from Oklahoma City and Peters from Edgewood, New Mexico.
NM National Guard chief says operation on Central Avenue 'didn't change much' - Colleen Heild & Gillian Barkhurst, Albuquerque Journal
A mission impossible?
When the New Mexico National Guard hit the streets around the once-famed Route 66/Central Avenue corridor in October, the task was to create a "measurable difference" in the area's chronic crime problem.
The team, dispatched by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, got an eyeful, but the results were mixed, according to New Mexico National Guard Maj. Gen. Miguel Aguilar, who gave a post-mortem of the operation to the state Senate Finance Committee earlier this week.
"It's just overloaded with crime," Aguilar said of the Central Avenue corridor. "Absent structural changes, current outcomes are predictable and self-sustaining."
The National Guard was deployed after Lujan Grisham issued an executive order in the spring of last year. About 80 guardsmen were contemplated for the assignment but at times that number climbed to 130, he said. They were trained by the Albuquerque Police Department to perform duties that would free up sworn officers to make arrests. Instead of uniforms, the guardsmen wore polo shirts and khaki pants.
"Everybody who got on this assignment wanted to be there," Aguilar said. Currently, a group of the National Guard is assisting law enforcement in the Española area. And the guard also has members deployed in Africa on federally assigned duties.
"What we were tasked to try to do was to create a measurable difference over a prolonged period of time along the Central corridor," Aguilar told the committee. "The frustrating part for probably all of us, including my boss, was it didn't look different, right? What we came to realize is that no matter how much criminal enforcement we're doing, and we could have done more in those initial weeks, we really weren't having the effect that we wanted to have."
Albuquerque's 18-mile stretch of Route 66 on Central Avenue is in the spotlight, especially this year because of the roadway's centennial anniversary.
Aided by the guardsmen, nearly 1,000 individuals were arrested by the APD and New Mexico State Police during the deployment, in the period from after the Balloon Fiesta to after Thanksgiving. The contingent ended its mission in December.
In the 2.75 square mile area of the corridor designated for intense law enforcement, roughly Louisiana to Wyoming, those committing low-level crimes were disproportionately responsible for the city's total crime problem, he said.
According to Aguilar, about 74% were arrested on warrants, such as failing to appear for court. Some 40% were arrested for "public order" crimes; 29% for drug offenses; 19% for violent crimes, and the rest for property crimes, he said.
Over the 60-day period of concentrated focus on Central Avenue, 80% of those arrested were released on pretrial conditions and 50% were released from custody within 48 hours, Aguilar said. Of those cases that reached "resolution," 3o% ended in a conviction and 70% were resolved when they were dismissed by prosecutors "within one or two days of arrest."
The rapid release from jail, according to the National Guard's assessment, "undercuts deterrent and incapacitation," Aguilar said. Those addicted to drugs, such as fentanyl that goes for 50 cents a pill, are likely still under the effects of the narcotic and haven't had a chance to withdraw before being released back on the streets, he said.
The low price of fentanyl, Aguilar said, is a sign that "we're not having an effect on the supply and that's problematic."
"The Central corridor functions as an open-air drug market," he told the committee. "As our guardsmen and the city of Albuquerque has found as well, when you try to do outreach with those that are unhoused who are also addicted, they will not take advantage of sheltering because it takes them out of the area from which the narcotics are available to them and they tell us, 'I'm not going to leave here because this is where I get my drugs.'"
Aguilar said he wasn't blaming any particular agency for what is occurring on the Central Avenue corridor area, but he said the criminal justice system, "just can't keep up with it."
"None of this is intended from my perspective to blame anybody in the system," Aguilar said. "What we found in the operation was no matter what we did from a criminal enforcement perspective, the environment didn't change much. We kept seeing the same people and the same level of activity on the streets."
A 'disaster relief area'
Local leaders have also expressed some discontent with the mission.
City Councilor Nichole Rogers, who represents the bulk of the mission's focus area, said that she wanted the National Guard to lead humanitarian efforts using their built-in training for national disaster response.
"In my opinion, there's parts of my district that feel like a Third World disaster relief area," Rogers said.
Though grateful for the assist, Rogers said that lasting change along East Central won't happen with a focus on policing.
If she was at the helm, Rogers said she would have directed the Guard to survey those living on the street, escort children to school through the walking school bus program and set up warming tents.
She added, "And that, I think, would have gotten us closer to what the governor wanted, which is get people out of the streets (and) get the streets cleaned up."
Rogers said that the misstep could be an opportunity for the Guard and other state agencies to reconsider their approach, regroup and return in a more united front.
Meanwhile, APD Director of Communications Gilbert Gallegos told the Journal that police are constantly performing enforcement operations along the Central corridor.
"We have one right now focusing on public transportation platforms such as bus stops, ART platforms and transit transfer stations," he said. "Last week, we made 186 arrests for new charges and offenders being taken in on warrants. Three guns were seized. The Narcotics Unit conducted an operation that resulted in the arrest of three individuals for trafficking."
On Thursday, he added, APD conducted an operation between Louisiana and Pennsylvania in which nine people were arrested for patronizing prostitutes.
Last year's $9 million National Guard operation wasn't in vain, Aguilar said.
"It's not the effects we wanted, but now we have the data set," he said, "if we can come here and tell that story, then it's not in vain."
State Sen. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, who is Senate president pro tempore, said parts of the Central Avenue corridor are within her legislative District 17.
"Central is bad, but the street south of Central is worse, that's where they throw up their tents," Stewart said at Wednesday's meeting. "After the National Guard came, you don't see the level of trash and people and their stuff. I think it has made a difference. But now that you're gone, things could get worse."
Committee Chair Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, who invited Aguilar to speak, thanked him for the "objective perspective."
"I've driven the Central corridor," Cervantes said. "It motivates me to try to do something about it. At times it feels like the part of New Mexico that time forgot; where law and order have no place. My kids refer to it as Gotham."
Sponsors pull NM constitutional ‘green amendment’ legislation - Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
A proposed “green amendment” to New Mexico’s constitution will not proceed in the current legislative session. Its sponsors said Thursday they would pull the bill following a three-hour hearing in which several Democrats said they would not support the measure.
This marks the sixth year New Mexico lawmakers have brought forward legislation to enshrine a right to “clean and healthy air, water, soil and environment” in the New Mexico Constitution. Had the legislation passed, the proposed amendment would have ultimately required approval by voters. The legislation is part of a national movement started by Pennsylvania attorney Maya van Rossum in 2017. So far, only three states have adopted such an amendment: Pennsylvania, Montana and New York.
Opposition and support for the bill were robust in the House Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee hearing, which included an hour of public comment.
New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association President Tom Paterson said the amendment would invite judges to overturn permitting or other decisions made by small governments.
“Cattle growers oppose HJR3 because we believe it will invite a wave of lawsuits that will hurt communities, taxpayers and job growth in New Mexico,” said Paterson, who is also a cattle rancher and retired attorney.
Advocates, on the other hand, said the bill provides a legal framework for the state to address impacts from climate change. Chase Jacques-Maynes, director of the New Mexico Legislators’ Environmental Caucus, urged lawmakers to approve the amendment, saying “environmental harm is not abstract” for young people.
“The Green Amendment does not dictate specific policies, it sets a moral and constitutional floor that says when tradeoffs are made, the health and dignity of New Mexicans must matter, especially those who have been asked to sacrifice the most,” Jacques-Maynes said. “Supporting this amendment is not radical, it is responsible and forward-looking.”
Democratic Reps. Nathan Small (D-Las Cruces) and Meredith Dixon (D-Albuquerque) joined Republicans on the committee in questioning the language of the amendment and said they worried it would curb economic development or expose the state to court fights.
“Ultimately, while I am deeply sympathetic, my conclusion is that investment, timelines and opportunities are much more questionable,” Small said. “We can point to examples when timelines are extended, clean energy investment or investment in environmental remediation goes elsewhere.”
After the meeting, the legislation’s two sponsors, Reps. Patricia Roybal Caballero (D-Albuquerque), Joanne Ferrary (D-Las Cruces), told Source NM they would bring forward another proposal in 2027.
“This offers us more time to have more discussions, flesh out the concerns that have been raised and see whether we can come together,” Roybal Caballero said.
NM governor’s office backs medical malpractice reform bill to cap punitive damages - Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
As New Mexico lawmakers in both major political parties propose reforms to the state’s medical malpractice laws, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office has thrown its weight behind a measure that would set a cap on punitive damages, pay for plaintiffs’ medical costs as they’re incurred and increase the standard of proof needed to award punitive damages.
House Bill 99, sponsored by Rep. Christine Chandler (D-Los Alamos), seeks to address the state’s physician shortage by limiting the amount of punitive damages that can be awarded by juries. Lujan Grisham identified medical malpractice reform as a priority on the first day of the 30-day legislative session. Lawmakers in recent years raised the limit on how much hospitals can owe for non-medical losses like pain and suffering from $600,000 to $6 million. No cap currently exists on how much a hospital can be ordered to pay in punitive damages.
The state Legislative Finance Committee earlier this month published a report that found all but one of New Mexico’s 33 counties constitute “health professional shortage areas.” In a statewide survey of physicians, LFC analysts found two out of three were considering leaving the state and the majority of them cited medical malpractice as the reason.
The bill’s supporters say it is one of many steps — including interstate medical compacts and programs that would help health care professionals buy a house — needed to fix the state’s physician shortage.
“This isn’t the only fix, but this is a big piece of it,” New Mexico Department of Health Secretary Gina DeBlassie told reporters Thursday morning. “Doctors are retiring early. Doctors are looking to perhaps move [out of] this state. They don’t feel like they’re practicing in a supportive environment.”
HB99 has enjoyed wide bipartisan support. As of Thursday afternoon, more than two dozen co-sponsors — Republican and Democrat — had signed on as co-sponsors. In a statement to Source NM, New Mexico Hospital Association President and CEO Troy Clark said he believes it could signal “a meaningful difference to begin to address the access-to-care crisis.”
Some Republican lawmakers think any amount of punitive damages is too much, though. Senate Republicans on Wednesday introduced Senate Bill 175, which would stop the practice of awarding punitive damages all together.
“New Mexico today is a prime destination for out-of-state lawyers to prey on in-state doctors. We have allowed our state to become a playground for trial lawyers, and New Mexicans are losing their doctors because of it,” co-sponsor Sen. Pat Woods (R-Broadview) wrote in a statement. “When a doctor faces a single uncapped punitive judgment that can bankrupt their family and their practice, they don’t stay in New Mexico — they move to friendlier states.”
Second Senate committee OKs $50M for uranium mine cleanup - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
The New Mexico Senate Conservation Committee on Thursday unanimously endorsed a bill that would continue funding the state’s efforts to remediate abandoned uranium mines and other contaminated sites.
Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D-Las Cruces) told lawmakers Senate Bill 66 provides necessary funding to maintain momentum and finally remediate more than 1,000 abandoned uranium mine sites in the state, particularly along the Grants Mineral Belt and on the Navajo Nation.
The Legislature last year approved $20 million for the effort, and late last year the New Mexico Environment Department announced it had begun, with the help of contractors, remediating four of them.
One of the four mines, Steinborn told lawmakers Thursday, exposed those nearby to one year’s worth of radiation every 13 days.
“So it’s a very good thing that we’re doing this,” he said.
Steinborn said he is working with state appropriators on the state’s funding for ongoing cleanups. But said he and other senators are also trying to find a way to get the federal government to pay for most of it.
The $50 million Steinborn is seeking for the upcoming fiscal year would fund NMED cleanups at both uranium sites and other contaminated sites, including from decades-old defunct dry cleaners and oil and gas operations.
Patricia Cordona, policy analyst for the Southwest Alliance for a Safe Future, spoke up during the public comment period to say that she applauded the bill’s intent but has questions about how effectively the sites will be remediated and where crews will transport radioactive waste.
“We want to make sure that we are supporting the right type of technology, or we are being given realistic expectations for the communities, of what the cleanup and the remediation consists of,” she said.
Republicans and Democrats supported the measure after some discussions of which types of sites — uranium or otherwise — would be prioritized. Steinborn said the goal is to split state funds roughly 50-50 between uranium and other contaminated sites.
Just before the unanimous vote, Sen. Angel Charley (D-Acoma) noted that new uranium mine projects in New Mexico are “charging forward” even as the state tries to fund legacy cleanup. She mentioned that companies are seeking approval for new mines near Mount Taylor, a mountain sacred to Navajo people and other local tribes and pueblos.
“It is imperative that we learn from our history, so that we have a responsible future going forward,” she said.
SB66 heads next to the Senate Finance Committee.