Proposed utility merger in New Mexico prompts recusal - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
One of the governor's picks for a powerful regulatory commission has recused himself from any decisions involving a proposed multibillion-dollar merger between a U.S. subsidiary of global energy giant Iberdrola and New Mexico's largest electric utility.
Commissioner Patrick O'Connell's recusal came just weeks after he was appointed to the Public Regulation Commission under a new structure in which the governor appoints members from a list of candidates vetted by a nominating panel. Previously, voters elected the commissioners.
O'Connell in a filing Friday cited the reason for his voluntary recusal as previous testimony he gave on behalf of a proposed settlement related to the merger while he worked for an environmental group. O'Connell also had previously served as a resource planner for Public Service Co. of New Mexico.
The merger case is pending before the state Supreme Court after the elected members of the previous Public Regulation Commission rejected the $8 billion acquisition. The commission had shared the concerns of a hearing examiner who warned of reliability risks and the potential for higher prices in a state with one of the nation's highest poverty rates.
Critics also pointed to the track record of the Iberdrola subsidiary, Connecticut-based Avangrid. The company owns utilities in the northeastern U.S.
Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and nearly a dozen other groups have supported the merger, suggesting that Avangrid and Iberdrola's capital could help speed up New Mexico's pursuit of zero-carbon emissions for electricity generation over the next two decades.
Western Resource Advocates, the group O'Connell used to work for, said Monday it will continue to advocate for the merger.
"We're confident that our position, and that of our supporting partners, will be given fair and thoughtful consideration," said Cydney Beadles, Western Resource Advocates' New Mexico clean energy manager.
Mariel Nanasi, executive director of the group New Energy Economy and an outspoken critic of PNM and the merger, said O'Connell did the right thing as the law is clear when there is a conflict of interest involving a judge or commissioner.
That leaves two appointees on the commission to consider the case if it comes up again — Gabriel Aguilera, who worked for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and James Ellison Jr., a principal analyst from Sandia National Laboratories.
The outgoing Public Regulation Commission members had ordered an economic analysis that was completed in December. It raised anti-competitive and consumer welfare issues.
Iberdrola and Avangrid executives have said acquiring PNM will be strategic and would help the companies further their growth in both clean energy distribution and transmission.
Tamer Cetin, economics advisor to the Public Regulation Commission, noted in the report that the merger may create a monopolistic electricity market in New Mexico in which Avangrid could "dominate all the segments from generation to transmission, distribution, wholesale and retail."
Transmission, wholesale and distribution currently are under PNM control, with generation being the only competitive segment in the New Mexico market. Cetin notes that Avangrid has plans to make multibillion dollar investments as the third largest renewable energy company in the U.S. and that would push out other developers who could supply electricity.
Another pivotal case the new commission will have to hear over the next year includes a billion-dollar rate case that would affect hundreds of thousands of PNM customers.
PNM is a financial supporter of KUNM.
New Mexico losing 3rd public education secretary in 4 years - Associated Press
New Mexico's third public education secretary in four years has announced his retirement, saying he has a critical need to focus on his family and his health.
According to the Albuquerque Journal, Kurt Steinhaus last day of work was Friday. He joined the administration in 2021.
The newspaper said Steinhaus is the third Cabinet secretary in four days to reveal plans to leave the administration of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.
Three other high-level officials outside the Cabinet also announced their departures in the last 10 days.
Lujan Grisham said in a written statement that Steinhaus is leaving public education in a better place and he deserves a happy retirement.
Steinhaus, a retired Los Alamos schools superintendent, oversaw the implementation of new social studies standards and helped lead the state's response to a 2018 court ruling that found New Mexico was violating the rights of some students by failing to provide an adequate public education.
The turnover comes amid a 60-day legislative session in which lawmakers are examining ways to boost academic achievement in public schools.
Lujan Grisham will be looking for her fourth public education department secretary in four years.
The Journal said Lujan Grisham's predecessor, Susana Martinez, had just two public education secretaries in an eight-year period and one of them served more than six years.
But the Lujan Grisham administration has noted that her tenure coincided with a pandemic, adding to the stress of what are already high-pressure jobs, according to the newspaper.
Second Chance bill has better chances to pass than in previous years - Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
A proposal to end life without parole as a sentencing option for children and decrease how long someone convicted as a juvenile would have to be in prison before a parole board could consider their case has significantly better chances to pass than in prior legislative sessions.
Senate Bill 64 would end life without parole as a sentencing option for children and, in most circumstances, provide eligibility for parole after someone serves 15 years in prison for a crime they committed when they were under the age of 18.
In last year’s session, a different version of the bill was criticized by local prosecutors and some victims of violent crimes who raised concerns that the people who harmed them would be prematurely released.
The opposition was so strong that the sponsors pulled the bill from consideration four days after a Republican lawmaker introduced an amendment that he said was the result of “an agreement” between Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Senate Republicans and the state association of local prosecutors.
But this year, sponsors say the New Mexico District Attorney’s Association has agreed to remain neutral on the bill, and one individual DA says she supports it.
Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez and the bill’s other sponsors negotiated with the District Attorney’s Association to change it, she told a legislative panel on Wednesday. The negotiations happened in the fall and resulted in a compromise, said Preston Shipp, senior policy counsel for the Campaign for the Sentencing of Youth.
The Association is no longer opposing this version, said Denali Wilson, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico who has worked on the proposal for three years, at an informal panel on Tuesday.
“We worked really hard during the interim session to come up with a version of the bill that, for the first time, the association of district attorneys will not oppose,” Wilson said.
Eighth Judicial District Attorney Marcus Montoya, president of the District Attorney’s Association, did not respond to a voicemail and an email on Jan. 19, and a follow-up email on Friday, asking about the group’s position.
First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said she backs SB64.
“I support it,” she wrote in an email Friday.
A spokesperson for Second Judicial District Attorney Sam Bregman on Jan. 23 declined to comment on his position.
The Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee on Wednesday passed the bill in a 6-2 party-line vote. It still has to get through the Senate Judiciary Committee and then a full vote by the Senate, before it can get hearings in the House of Representatives.
New version has ‘tiered’ sentencing system
The 2022 version of the legislation provided parole eligibility after 15 years to all people who were under the age of 18 at the time they committed their crime.
The latest proposal extends the timing for parole eligibility in two severe and rare circumstances affecting 11 cases in the state: People convicted of willful, deliberate first-degree murder would have to wait 20 years to see a parole board, and people convicted of first-degree murder where there is more than one victim would have to wait 25 years.
Advocates say this tiered review system creates developmentally meaningful timing for parole eligibility, while balancing a commitment to punishment and accountability in the most severe of cases. The states of Arkansas and Nevada enacted similar tiered review systems in 2017, Shipp said.
However, the bill doesn’t only impact first-degree murder. It would also provide a 15-year parole eligibility to young people who were convicted for being involved in lesser crimes during which someone else kills someone because that counts as “felony murder” under state law.
There are also 64 cases in New Mexico outside of this tier system, including examples in which it’s not a homicide case and there hasn’t been life lost, or in some cases even injury, Wilson said.
For example, Wilson represented a client serving a 37-and-a-half-year adult sentence for crimes committed in furtherance of escaping from a juvenile facility.
“That’s why preserving the 15 years for as many people as we do is really important: We’re preserving 15 years for felony murder and everything else that lands people with an adult sentence for sometimes a serious offense while still being a child,” she said.
Lawmaker who works in health care pushes for New Mexico to codify nurse-to-patient ratios - By Megan Gleason, Source New Mexico
While New Mexico continues to struggle with a nursing shortage, a lawmaker with experience in the health care field wants to pass a bill that would limit how many patients a nurse has to oversee.
Rep. Eleanor Chavez (D-Albuquerque) is the executive director of the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, District 1199. On Friday — New Mexico Nurses Day — she announced that she’ll be sponsoring the New Mexico Patient Safety Act along with Sen. Brenda McKenna (D-Corrales).
The main reason for this, Chavez said, is because nurses are often overburdened with too many patients and can’t take care of them all.
Under the bill, the Department of Health would convene a group of health care management and frontline workers to clearly lay out nurse-to-patient ratios in different fields of health care.
“We don’t need nurses, taking on patient loads of six, 10 patients that they can’t possibly take care of,” Chavez said. “We don’t want to overload our nurses or our other health care personnel because they are not going to be able to attend to the patient care needs.”
As it stands, it’s up to the hospitals to determine limits on how many patients a nurse can have. In order to participate in Medicare, federal rules require that hospitals have to have an “adequate number” of nurses working. The federal government has recommended ratios, but hospitals don’t have to follow them.
Claire Soucy is a registered nurse who attended the Friday news conference. She said the federal Medicare rules define “staffing to acuity” and are too vague. As a result, she added, New Mexico hospitals don’t have stringent enough policies.
Soucy said she directly correlates patient deaths with staffing issues. She brought up how many patients she oversaw as an ICU nurse in the COVID unit. The federal recommendation is two patients, but she said she often had three.
“In those scenarios with those critical patients, you can expect to lose a patient pretty easily,” she said.
The legislators sponsoring the bill agreed that it’s not possible for nurses to safely take care of too many patients at once, which research supports. Nurse Suzanne Bell spoke at the conference and said she’s experienced this firsthand.
“We can only be in one place at one time, and errors increase with too many patients, no matter how hard you work,” Bell said.
RETAINING DESPERATELY NEEDED NURSES
Chavez said the bill could help retain and recruit nurses. Nursing is a key area where New Mexico desperately needs workers, according to a Legislative Finance Committee report. The state had a health care worker shortage before 2020, and the pandemic exacerbated it further.
“We saw how devastating COVID was to all of us, but especially to health care professionals,” Chavez said. “They carried us through. They took care of us. They’re exhausted, and one of the things that they’ve asked us to do is improve their working conditions.”
Bell said she’s watched other nurses leave the field because of a lack of support.
“We feel scared and defeated every day now, not just the occasional eruption, because we stepped up and tried to manage too much adrenaline when it was a pandemic,” Bell said. “But nurses are people. We’ve been holding up this breaking system. It’s been three years now, and now it’s breaking us.”
Nurse Adrianne Enghouse also talked at the conference. She referenced how nurses are more likely to be depressed or die by suicide than the general population. And, she said, these poor conditions aren’t just an issue in New Mexico.
“We’re not alone. If you’ve noticed, RNs and health professionals around the country are going on strike,” she said. “They’re picketing. They’re filling up their state capitals and they’re demanding what we know and have known for years is best for our patients.”
McKenna said the biggest challenge to getting the bill through the Roundhouse will likely be making sure that lawmakers read the legislation carefully and realize that this will help hospitals, nurses and patients.
“We all know how expensive turnover is,” she said. “And especially in the medical field in New Mexico and across this nation, we cannot invite any more turnover.”
California is the only state so far that has codified nursing to patient ratios. Along with New Mexico, other states like Washington and Oregon are trying to push through similar legislation this year.
“All of us have family members that need the care,” McKenna said. “We’ve seen it with the pandemic, and we’ve got such a shortage of nurses — well, and all providers here in the state.”
In the West, pressure to count water lost to evaporation - By Suman Naishadham Associated Press
Exposed to the beating sun and hot dry air, more than 10% of the water carried by the Colorado River evaporates, leaks or spills as the 1,450-mile powerhouse of the West flows through the region's dams, reservoirs and open-air canals.
For decades, key stewards of the river have ignored the massive water loss, instead allocating Arizona, California, Nevada and Mexico their share of the river without subtracting what's evaporated.
But the 10% can no longer be ignored, hydrologists, state officials and other western water experts say.
The West's multi-decade drought has sent water levels in key reservoirs along the river to unprecedented lows. Officials from Nevada and Arizona say that they, together with California, now need to account for how much water is actually in the river.
The challenge is in finding a method that California also agrees to.
"It's very hard to get consensus," said Sarah Porter, director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University. She thinks it's unlikely that states will reach an agreement on their own, without federal intervention.
Unlike Arizona, California, Nevada and Mexico, the upriver or Upper Basin states — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming — already take into account evaporation losses.
Now with a looming federal deadline for Colorado River basin states to say how they'll use at least 15% less water from the river, there's renewed urgency for Arizona, California and Nevada to factor in what's lost to evaporation.
One proposal comes from Nevada: States at the end of the river would see their Colorado River portion shrink based on the distance it travels to reach users. The farther south the river travels, the more water is lost as temperatures rise and water is exposed to the elements for longer.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority estimates that roughly 1.5 million acre-feet of water are lost to evaporation, transportation and inefficiencies each year in Arizona, Nevada and California. That's 50% more than Utah uses in a whole year.
Nevada and Arizona could be on board with this plan.
Nevada stands to lose the least under this plan since Lake Mead — the man-made reservoir from which Arizona, Nevada, California and Mexico draw water — sits in its backyard.
Tom Buschatzke, director of Arizona's Department of Water Resources, called Nevada's proposal fair.
"Calculating the losses as Nevada has proposed is probably the most equitable and matches the real, physical world," Buschatzke said. "The further you are, the more the losses are."
But crucially, California disagrees. Officials there have said Nevada's plan would likely run afoul of western water law. California has rights to the largest share of Colorado River water. Just as important, in times of shortage, water cuts come later than for other users, based on the so-called Law of the River, a series of overlapping agreements, court decisions and contracts that determine how the river is shared. Its senior water rights mean it has been spared from cuts so far.
California water managers have said evaporation and system losses should be accounted for based on this existing system. In a December letter to federal officials, Christopher Harris, executive director of the Colorado River Board of California, said any other approach could "face considerable legal and technical challenges."
For Arizona, that could mean shouldering losses so significant that some experts say the drinking water supply for Phoenix could be threatened due to diminished deliveries to the the Central Arizona Project, the 336-mile aqueduct system that delivers Colorado River water to that metro area and Tucson.
Under Nevada's plan, California would pay a steep price. In addition to using more water from the river than any other state, its water travels some of the longest distances. California's Imperial Irrigation District, the single largest of all users of Colorado River water, would lose about 19% of its share. The region grows many of the nation's winter vegetables and alfalfa, and Imperial has said it disagrees with issuing water cuts according to evaporative losses at all.
Tina Shields, water manager for Imperial Irrigation District, said Arizona and Nevada — whose water rights are more junior than California's — were advocating for the Southern Nevada Water Authority's plan because it would benefit them to share the losses.
"When you have a junior, right, that's what you do," Shields said. "You try to share the problem with other users."
According to John Fleck, a researcher at the University of New Mexico's Water Resources Program, Lower Basin states have avoided recognizing these losses for so long in part because there was no need to in decades past. Water was plentiful and some states didn't take all the water to which they were legally entitled.
In many cases, the infrastructure needed to deliver water — vast canals, dams and waterways — did not exist.
"The problem goes back to when ... no one needed to care about this issue," Fleck said."
The difficult politics involved have also made the issue somewhat untouchable, Fleck said.
"No one was willing to take it on," Fleck said. "It all comes down to the same thing: you have to take less water out of the system."
AP Exclusive: Emails reveal tensions in Colorado River talks - By Kathleen Ronayne And Felicia Fonseca Associated Press
Competing priorities, outsized demands and the federal government's retreat from a threatened deadline stymied a deal last summer on how to drastically reduce water use from the parched Colorado River, emails obtained by The Associated Press show.
The documents span the June-to-August window the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation gave states to reach consensus on water cuts for a system that supplies 40 million people annually — or have the federal government force them. They largely include communication among water officials in Arizona and California, the major users in the river's Lower Basin.
Reclamation wanted the seven U.S. states that rely on the river to decide how to cut 2 million to 4 million acre-feet of water — or up to roughly one-third — on top of already anticipated reductions. The emails, obtained through a public records request, depict a desire to reach a consensus but persistent disagreement over how much each state could or should give.
As the deadline approached without meaningful progress, one water manager warned: "We're all headed to a very dark place."
"The challenges we had this summer were significant challenges, they truly were," Chris Harris, executive director of the Colorado River Board of California, said in an interview about the early negotiations. "I don't know that anybody was to blame, I genuinely don't. There were an awful lot of different interpretations of what was being asked and what we were trying to do."
Scientists say the megadrought gripping the southwestern U.S. is the worst in 1,200 years, putting a deep strain on the Colorado River as key reservoirs dip to historically low levels. If states don't begin taking less out of the river, the major reservoirs threaten to fall so low they can't produce hydropower or supply any water at all to farms that grow crops for the rest of the nation and cities like Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix.
The future of the river seemed so precarious last summer that some water managers felt attempting to reach a voluntary deal was futile — only mandated cuts would stave off crisis.
"We are out of time and out of any cushion to allow for a voluntary plan," Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, told a Bureau of Reclamation official in a July 18 email.
As 2023 begins, fresh incentives make the states more likely to give up water. The federal government has put up $4 billion for drought relief, and Colorado River users have submitted proposals to get some of that money through actions like leaving fields unplanted. Some cities are ripping up thirsty decorative grass, and tribes and major water agencies have left some water in key reservoirs — either voluntarily or by mandate.
Reclamation also has agreed to spend $250 million mitigating hazards at a drying California lake bed, a condition of the state's water users agreeing to cut their use by 400,000 acre feet in a proposal released in October.
The Interior Department is still evaluating proposals for a slice of the $4 billion and can't say how much savings it will generate, Deputy Secretary Tommy Beaudreau said in an interview.
The states are again trying to reach a grand bargain — with a deadline of Tuesday — so that Reclamation can factor it into a larger plan to modify operations at Hoover Dam and Glen Canyon Dam, behemoth power producers on the Colorado River. Failure to do so would set up the possibility of the federal government imposing cuts — a move that could invite litigation.
Figuring out who absorbs additional water cuts has been contentious, with allegations of drought profiteering, reneging on commitments, too many negotiators in the room and an unsteady hand from the federal government, the emails and follow-up interviews showed.
California says it's a partner willing to sacrifice, but other states see it as a reluctant participant clinging to a water priority system where it ranks near the top. Arizona and Nevada have long felt they're unfairly forced to bear the brunt of cuts because of a water rights system developed long ago, a simmering frustration that reared its head during talks.
Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton's call for a massive water cut in testimony to Congress on June 14 was a public bombshell of sorts. A week earlier, with a heads-up from the federal government, the Lower Basin states talked about collectively, with Mexico, cutting up to 2 million acre-feet during a meeting in Salt Lake City, the emails and interviews showed.
But as the weeks passed and proposals were exchanged, the Lower Basin states barely reached half that amount, and the commitment was nowhere near firm, the emails showed. Adding to the difficulty was not knowing what Mexico, which also has a share of the river, might contribute.
In a series of exchanges through July, Arizona and California each proposed multiple ways to achieve cuts, building on existing agreements tied to the levels of Lake Mead, factoring in the water lost to evaporation or inefficient infrastructure, and fiercely protecting a priority system, though it was clear negotiators were becoming weary.
The states shared disdain for a proposal from farmers near Yuma and southern California to be paid $1,500 an acre foot for water they conserved. Former Central Arizona Project general manager Ted Cooke responded by suggesting the farmers make it work at one-third of the price, which still was higher but closer to going rates.
In late July, Harris, of California, emailed a proposal to the Bureau of Reclamation outlining scenarios in the range of 1 million acre feet in cuts, saying it was imperative negotiators be able to "declare some level of victory."
"Otherwise," he wrote, "I genuinely believe that we are at an impasse, and we're all headed to a very dark place."
But ultimately, Arizona and Nevada never felt that California was willing to give enough.
"It was futile, it wasn't enough. We did not trust that California was going to come through on their piece of it," Cooke said in an interview.
By then, Reclamation privately told the states — but didn't acknowledge publicly — that it backed away from the supposed mid-August deadline, officials involved in the talks said. Beaudreau, the deputy Interior secretary, said in an interview the deadline was never meant to create an ultimatum between reaching a deal and forced cuts.
But state officials said when it became clear the federal government wouldn't act unilaterally, it created a "chilling effect" that removed the urgency from the talks because water users with higher-priority water rights were no longer at risk of harsh cuts, Arizona's Buschatzke said in an interview.
"Without that hammer, there was a different tone of negotiations," he said.
Today, the Interior Department's priority remains ensuring Hoover Dam and Glen Canyon Dam have enough water in them to maintain hydropower, and the department will do whatever is necessary to ensure that, Beaudreau said.
The Upper Basin states of New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and Colorado — which historically haven't used their full supplies — are looking toward the Lower Basin states to do much of the work.
Reclamation is now focused on weighing the latest round of comments from states on how to save the river. Nevada wants to count water lost to evaporation and transportation in water allocations — a move that could mean the biggest volume of cuts for California — and some Arizona water managers agree, comment letters obtained by the AP show.
But disputes remain over how to determine what level of cuts are fair and legal. California's goal remains protecting its status while other states and tribes want more than old water rights taken into account — such as whether users have access to other water sources, and the effects of cuts on disadvantaged communities and food security.
Reclamation's goal is to get a draft of proposed cuts out by early March, then a final decision before mid-August, when Reclamation regularly announces how much — or how little — river water is available for the next year.
Native American leaders: Educational trust fund will be key - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
Native American leaders said creating a special $50 million trust fund to help finance educational programs within tribal communities in New Mexico, where there are the lowest rates of reading and math proficiency in the country, would be a big step toward improving outcomes for their students.
The leaders packed a legislative committee room Friday at the state Capitol, with many testifying that the proposed trust fund would be an investment in their people and a signal to students that the state believes in them.
Laguna Pueblo Gov. Wilfred Herrera Jr. pointed to a landmark education lawsuit that centered on the state's failures to provide an adequate education to at-risk students, including Native Americans, English language learners, students with disabilities and those from low-income families. Those groups make up a majority of the state's student population.
In the nearly five years since the court ruled the state was falling short of its constitutional obligations, Herrera said legislative efforts and funding allocations to address the public education system's deficiencies have been piecemeal.
"I liken this to putting away resources for our children for the future," he said of the proposed trust fund. "If we do things right and manage it, administer it, let it grow, we stand to achieve things."
New Mexico ranks last in fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math. The most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress revealed just 21% of fourth-graders could read at grade level and fewer than 1 in 5 students could do grade-level math. For eighth-graders, proficiencies in reading and math were even more dismal.
Supporters also pointed out when asked by lawmakers that Native American students have the lowest graduation rates among their New Mexico peers.
Democratic Rep. Derrick Lente of Sandia Pueblo, one of the bill's sponsors, said the trust fund would be established with a one-time allotment of state money. After a couple of years of earning interest, annual disbursements starting with the 2025 fiscal year could help tribes build their own educational programs.
Siting New Mexico's financial windfall, Lente said: "This is the time to do it."
The idea is for tribes to put the money toward programs they believe would have the most benefits for students, he said, rather than have the state dictate how the money is spent.
Many of the Native American leaders and librarians who work with tribal communities said one focus would be on revitalizing Native languages and weaving cultural heritage into lessons.
A separate measure that also won the committee's approval Friday would amend the Indian Education Act to funnel 50% of the state's Indian education fund to New Mexico tribes. Tribes would be able to carry over unused allocations.
In the landmark case known as Yazzie v. Martinez, the court pointed to low graduation rates, dismal student test proficiencies and high college remediation rates as indicators of how New Mexico was not meeting its constitutional obligation to ensure all students were college and career ready.
The court suggested public school funding levels, financing methods and oversight by the state Public Education Department were deficient. However, the court stopped short of prescribing specific remedies, and deferred decisions on how to meet obligations to lawmakers and the executive branch.
The education department last year shared with tribal leaders a draft plan to address the ruling, but many leaders said at the time it would not be enough.
In recent weeks, education officials with Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's administration confirmed they still were working to finalize the plan.
Supporters of the Native education bills say the intent is to encourage tribes to plan, design and implement their own community-based education programs to complement what children are learning in school.
The proposed trust fund comes just after U.S. Interior Secretary Debra Haaland visited New Mexico, where she grew up and is an enrolled Laguna Pueblo member, on the yearlong "Road to Healing" tour for victims and survivors of abuse at government-backed boarding schools.
"Tribal communities have the experts and I think we owe that to the pueblos to decide how they want to implement their programs," said Rep. Yanira Gurrola, who has worked as a bilingual teacher. "And I think hopefully this will be something that sets a precedent for communities."
Online system to seek asylum in US is quickly overwhelmed - By Elliot Spagat Associated Press
Hours before sunrise, migrants at one of Mexico's largest shelters wake up and go online, hoping to secure an appointment to try to seek asylum in the U.S. The daily ritual resembles a race for concert tickets when online sales begin for a major act, as about 100 people glide their thumbs over phone screens.
New appointments are available each day at 6 a.m., but migrants find themselves stymied by error messages from the U.S. government's CBPOne mobile app that's been overloaded since the Biden administration introduced it Jan. 12.
Many can't log in; others are able to enter their information and select a date, only to have the screen freeze at final confirmation. Some get a message saying they must be near a U.S. crossing, despite being in Mexico's largest border city.
At Embajadores de Jesus in Tijuana, only two of more than 1,000 migrants got appointments in the first two weeks, says director Gustavo Banda.
"We're going to continue trying, but it's a failure for us," Erlin Rodriguez of Honduras said after another fruitless run at an appointment for him, his wife and their two children one Sunday before dawn. "There's no hope."
Mareni Montiel of Mexico was elated to select a date and time for her two children — then didn't get a confirmation code. "Now I'm back to zero," said Montiel, 32, who has been waiting four months at the shelter, where the sound of roosters fill the crisp morning air at the end of a rough, dirt road.
CBPOne replaced an opaque patchwork of exemptions to a public health order known as Title 42 under which the U.S. government has denied migrants' rights to claim asylum since March 2020. People who have come from other countries find themselves in Mexico waiting for an exemption or policy change — unless they try to cross illegally into the U.S.
If it succeeds, CBPOne could be used by asylum-seekers even if Title 42 is lifted as a safe, orderly alternative to illegal entry, which reached the highest level ever recorded in the U.S. in December. It could also discourage large camps on Mexico's side of the border, where migrants cling to unrealistic hopes.
But a range of complaints have surfaced:
— Applications are available in English and Spanish only, languages many of the migrants don't speak. Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, said authorities failed to take "the most basic fact into account: the national language of Haiti is Haitian Creole." U.S. Customs and Border Protection says it plans a Creole version in February; it has not announced other languages.
— Some migrants, particularly with darker skin, say the app is rejecting required photos, blocking or delaying applications. CBP says it is aware of some technical issues, especially when new appointments are made available, but that users' phones may also contribute. It says a live photo is required for each login as a security measure.
The issue has hit Haitians hardest, said Felicia Rangel-Samponaro, director of The Sidewalk School, which assists migrants in Reynosa and Matamoros, across from Texas' Rio Grande Valley. Previously, about 80% of migrants admitted to seek asylum in the area were Haitian, Rangel-Samponaro said. On Friday, she counted 10 Black people among 270 admitted in Matamoros.
"We brought construction lights pointed at your face," she said. "Those pictures were still not able to go through. ... They can't get past the picture part."
— A requirement that migrants apply in northern and central Mexico doesn't always work. CBP notes the app won't work right if the locator function is switched off. It's also trying to determine if signals are bouncing off U.S. phone towers.
But not only is the app failing to recognize that some people are at the border, applicants outside the region have been able to circumvent the location requirement by using virtual private networks. The agency said it has found a fix for that and is updating the system.
— Some advocates are disappointed that there is no explicit special consideration for LGBTQ applicants. Migrants are asked if they have a physical or mental illness, disability, pregnancy, lack housing, face a threat of harm, or are under 21 years old or over 70.
Still, LGBTQ migrants are not disqualified. At Casa de Luz, a Tijuana shelter for about 50 LGBTQ migrants, four quickly got appointments. A transgender woman from El Salvador said she didn't check any boxes when asked about specific vulnerabilities.
The U.S. began blocking asylum-seekers under President Donald Trump on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19, though Title 42 is not applied uniformly and many deemed vulnerable are exempted.
Starting in President Joe Biden's first year in office until last week, CBP arranged exemptions through advocates, churches, attorneys and migrant shelters, without publicly identifying them or saying how many slots were available. The arrangement prompted allegations of favoritism and corruption. In December, CBP severed ties with one group that was charging Russians.
For CBPOne to work, enough people must get appointments to discourage crossing the border illegally, said Leon Fresco, an immigration attorney and former aide to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat.
"If these appointments start dragging out to two or three or four months, it's going to be much harder to keep it going," he said. "If people aren't getting through, they won't use the program."
CBP, which schedules appointments up to two weeks out, declines to say how many people are getting in. But Enrique Lucero, director of migrant affairs for the city of Tijuana, said U.S. authorities are accepting 200 daily in San Diego, the largest border crossing. That's about the same as the previous system but well below the number of Ukrainians processed after Russia's invasion last year.
Josue Miranda, 30, has been staying at Embajadores de Jesus for five months and prefers the old system of working through advocacy groups. The shelter compiled an internal waiting list that moved slowly but allowed him to know where he stood. Banda, the shelter director, said 100 were getting selected every week.
Miranda packed his suitcases for him, his wife and their three children, believing his turn was imminent until the new online portal was introduced. Now, the Salvadoran migrant has no idea when, or if, his chance will come. Still, he plans to keep trying through CBPOne.
"The problem is that the system is saturated and it's chaos," he said after another morning of failed attempts.
Governments within NM would no longer enter detention contracts with ICE under proposed legislation — Megan Gleason, Source New Mexico
About a decade ago, Itzayana Banda’s father called to tell her how horribly officials at the Otero County Processing Center were treating him and how he couldn’t stand it anymore. Eight months later, she said in an interview, U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement deported him. It was another 10 years before Banda got to see him again.
Source New Mexico’s Megan Gleason reports he may have never gone through that treatment if the county government hadn’t allowed ICE to incarcerate immigrants there.
State legislators are trying to outlaw such agreements. Democratic Sens. Gerald Ortiz y Pino and Moe Maestas introducedlegislation on Monday that would prohibit governments within the state of New Mexico from entering or renewing detention contracts with ICE starting in 2024.
That means the Otero County Processing Center — which racked up extensiveabuse complaints and allegations ofinhumane treatment and cruel conditions — could no longer hold hundreds of immigrants.
Banda is now a spokesperson for the New Mexico Dream Team, an immigration advocacy group. She said her father told her how terribly officials treated him in Otero County.
“My dad would say that they would get treated like animals,” she said.
Ortiz y Pino said he was inspired to create the legislation after people approached him with concerns about how ICE treats asylum-seekers.
Federal inspectors told ICE in March torelocate people detained in Torrance County because of unsafe and unsanitary conditions. Five months later, in August, an asylum-seeker from Brazil died by suicide there, and attorneys said he was being held in “horrific conditions.”
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham responded to a question about poor detention conditions at a public safety news conference on Wednesday.
Lujan Grisham said she recently told Department of Homeland Security Cabinet Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that what’s happening at Torrance County Detention Center in New Mexico needs to improve, particularly if the federal government wants the state to keep licensing those facilities.
“I’m appalled at what’s going on in Torrance County, and I need that fixed,” she said.
Uriel Rosales, a field organizer with the New Mexico Dream Team, was raised in Chaparral, N.M., home to ICE’s processing center. A DACA recipient, Rosales said he wants to see the immigrant detention in his community gone because of the reports of inhumane treatment there and at the other facilities.
The ultimate goal, Rosales said, is “to stop having inhumane conditions in detention centers in New Mexico.”
Sophia Genovese is a senior attorney at the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center. She said a large number of the immigrants coming to New Mexico are seeking asylum.
“They don’t deserve this treatment,” she said. “No one deserves this treatment.”
THE BILL’S PROSPECTS
Genovese said this bill could eliminate a space where ICE can hold up to 1,000 immigrants. That’s just at Otero County Processing Center, she said, which detains the most immigrants in the state.
It could be more difficult to enforce a full shutdown at the other two detention centers in New Mexico. Genovese said the facility in Otero County is the only one where the county owns the land and the building, while the other two in Torrance and Cibola Counties are owned and operated by the private company CoreCivic.
So, she said, while the legislation would end the contracts ICE has with the counties in 2024, the federal agency could then just cut the county governments out altogether in Torrance and Cibola and contract directly with CoreCivic.
However, Genovese said the Torrance and Cibola detention centers each house fewer than 100 immigrants, while Otero usually holds around 500 or 600 people at a time.
The Torrance and Cibola facilities are primarily filled with state prisoners, Ortiz y Pino said. If ICE wanted to move more immigrants to those counties and skirt the state law, Ortiz y Pino said CoreCivic could no longer contract with the state, meaning those facilities would no longer be allowed to hold New Mexico prisoners.
That would be difficult, Ortiz y Pino said, since the bulk of CoreCivic’s job in those prisons — under the company’s contracts with the N.M. Corrections Department — is overseeing state prisoners.
Legislators tried to pass this kind of legislation in New Mexico four years ago, and Maestas said they’ve learned a lot. He said the measure has better chances this time.
“We’re hoping to have a great conversation,” Maestas said. “We think it’s reasonable and phased in. But New Mexico should not participate in mass incarceration that ICE is doing these days.”
Genovese said it’s likely that the bill will pass due to the Legislature’s Democratic majority, as well as community support. “When your constituents support it, I know our New Mexico politicians listen to them and vote in that direction,” she said.
Virginia,New Jersey andIllinois recently enacted similar detainment legislation. Genovese said this is becoming a national movement.
“It’s a growing trend of states saying, ‘We will not jeopardize the health and safety of those within our jurisdiction by subjecting them to inhumane treatment at immigration detention facilities,’” she said.
FINANCIAL WORRIES
The bill sponsors said opponents of the legislation will likely be anyone who profits from detention centers, like private companies or surrounding towns.
But Genovese said that’s not a strong argument against the bill because the facilities might not really be that financially helpful, research has shown.
New Mexico State University anthropology Professor Nathan Craig was anexpert witness for Rep. Angelica Rubio (D-Las Cruces) in 2021 when lawmakers were attempting to end private prisons in the state. He said detention centers in rural areas don’t help the local economy as much as people believe, because many workers are coming from more distant metropolitan areas.
Indeed, most of the guards at the Chaparral facility live in El Paso, Texas, Ortiz y Pino said. For those New Mexicans who do lose their jobs, he said, there are plenty of correctional facilities elsewhere in the state that desperately need workers. Maestas backed that up.
“When jails or prisons close down, the town doesn’t close down,” he said.
Police: Two teens shot, one killed, in southwest Albuquerque - Associated Press
Authorities in New Mexico's largest city were searching Saturday for the suspects in an overnight shooting that left one teen dead and another critically injured.
Both teens were shot multiple times just before 11 p.m. Friday near a neighborhood in southwest Albuquerque, according to the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office. A 15-year-old died at the scene of the shooting, and a 14-year-old was hospitalized in critical condition.
The suspects left the 200 block of Atrisco Vista Boulevard in a dark-colored sedan before sheriff's deputies arrived, the agency said.
The Sheriff's Office on Saturday did not say how many suspects were wanted in connection with the shooting, nor did it release information about what led to the gunfire.
"Limited details are available at this time to protect the integrity of the investigation," said Jayme Fuller-Gonzales, a spokesperson for the agency.