Lawmakers push for permanent funding for acequias and land grant mercedes in 2026 session - Danielle Prokop,
As climate-fueled disasters cause to New Mexico鈥檚 acequias amid rising costs, leadership from say they need state help.
Those leaders discussed the issue on Tuesday in front of the state Roundhouse, as Democratic lawmakers previewed legislation for next year鈥檚 session that would establish two muli-million dollar funds to help pay infrastructure costs for dam repairs and debris removal, as well as for affordable housing developments on community-owned land.
鈥淚t鈥檚 more than a bill, it鈥檚 a promise,鈥� said Sen. Leo Jaramillo (D-Espa帽ola). 鈥淚t creates a permanent fund so our New Mexico鈥檚 historic land grant and acequia communities can invest in our future, clean water and strong local infrastructure; more so in rural New Mexico where we need it the most.鈥�
Similar legislation brought in 2025 鈥� 鈥� advanced through House committees and a floor vote, but stalled in the Senate Finance Committee. The bill, which would have dedicated $5 million in two funds for both acequias and land grant-mercedes, simply 鈥渞an out of time,鈥� Jaramillo said.
鈥淚鈥檓 very optimistic for it to pass this year,鈥� he said.
But while acequias and land-grant mercedes count as government entities in law and , their ability to obtain state or federal funding remains a challenge.
Since 2022, fires and flooding 鈥� including millions in 鈥� have devastated more than 200 acequias across the state, said Paula Garcia, the executive director of the .
鈥淲ith about 700 in the state that means one in four acequias is in crisis from some kind of climate disaster,鈥� she said.
Garcia said uncertainty about receiving U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency funds and challenges navigating the state鈥檚 disaster funding creates a continued level of precarity as calamities pile up.
鈥淚t seems like every time there鈥檚 a disaster, we鈥檙e starting from scratch,鈥� Garcia told Source NM. 鈥淣ow having a funding source would be a game changer because we wouldn鈥檛 be scrambling every time there鈥檚 a disaster on how we鈥檙e going to piece together that recovery money.鈥�
U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fern谩ndez, who represents the state鈥檚 3rd Congressional District and much of Northern New Mexico, said she鈥檚 had to repeatedly 鈥渆ducate鈥� federal agencies to get funding for acequias, and said this pool of funding may offer chances to seek federal grants in the future.
鈥淲hen the State of New Mexico passes legislation like this that not just builds upon the recognition, but says, 鈥榳e are going to provide the funding at these levels, then they can go and seek matching funding from the federal government,鈥欌�� said Leger Fern谩ndez, who was in the state rather than Washington, D.C., due to the ongoing federal shutdown. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why what the legislators have done today is so essential 鈥� because we want to multiply, as much as possible, the funding that comes into rural communities.鈥�
ICE airs ads stirring up local frustration to recruit police for mass deportation efforts - By Thomas Beaumont and Rebecca Santana, Associated Press
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is spending millions of dollars on television advertising in select metro areas around the country, an Associated Press tally found, aimed at recruiting local officers frustrated with their cities' restrictions on immigration enforcement into President Donald Trump's mass deportation efforts.
"You took an oath to protect and serve, to keep your family, your city, safe," the narrator says, as images of the cities targeted and ICE agents arresting people move across the screen. "But in sanctuary cities, you're ordered to stand down while dangerous illegals walk free."
The campaign 鈥� airing in more than a dozen cities, including Chicago, Seattle and Atlanta 鈥� is part of ICE's $30 billion initiative to hire 10,000 more deportation officers by the end of the year to supercharge deportations. The money is part of the $76.5 billion sought by Trump's Republican administration for ICE 鈥� a 10-fold increase in its current budget 鈥� as part of the sweeping, multitrillion-dollar tax breaks and spending cuts bill enacted in July.
ICE is already offering bonuses of up to $50,000 for new recruits and other benefits such as tuition reimbursement as it seeks to fast-track hiring.
And while some parts of the federal government are shut down as the result of Congress' failure to pass a spending measure last week, the ICE ads reflect that the push for mass deportations, the Trump administration's top priority, is still flush with cash.
Millions spent on the 30-second ads
The ads open with video of each metro's familiar skyline and the narrator's voice announcing, for example, "Attention, Miami law enforcement." Beyond that, the spots are identical, inviting officers to "join ICE and help us catch the worst of the worst. Drug traffickers. Gang members. Predators," according to a review of the ads on the ad-tracking service AdImpact.
The 30-second spots began running in mid-September in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Boston; Chicago; Denver; New York; Philadelphia; Sacramento, California; Seattle; and Washington, D.C. Adding to the list a week ago: Atlanta; Dallas; El Paso, Texas; Houston; Miami; Salt Lake City; and San Antonio.
As of Monday, total spending on the ads had topped $6.5 million, with the most spent since mid-September being $853,745 in the Seattle area. However, Atlanta saw the most in the past week, more than $947,000, according to AdImpact.
It was unclear why ICE targeted those locations and not others. There is no standard definition of what is a sanctuary jurisdiction although it generally refers to cities or states that limit their cooperation with ICE. Some but not all of the cities appear on a Justice Department list of cities that "that impede enforcement of federal immigration laws."
Asked in an AP email to explain why specific areas were chosen as advertising targets, Department of Homeland Security officials declined to provide an explanation. Instead, they replied with a Sept. 16 press release, near the beginning of the ad campaign, reporting that it had received more than 150,000 applications and had extended 18,000 tentative job offers.
Some cities where the ads have been playing, particularly Boston and Chicago, have been repeatedly criticized by the Trump administration for their policies that limit how much they can work with federal immigration enforcement. ICE has launched immigration crackdowns in both of those cities. Local officials in Chicago have been particularly outspoken against the stepped-up enforcement.
Albuquerque is among the smallest metropolitan areas where the ads are airing, though the city's mayor, Tim Keller, has been a vocal opponent of the Trump administration's immigration policy. In July, Keller signed an executive order barring city employees from assisting federal authorities with civil immigration enforcement "unless legally required."
Local police can't compete with ICE promises
The AP reached out to police departments in areas where the ads were running. Most departments either did not respond or said they did not comment on actions of outside agencies. A few, including Sacramento and Miami, said they had not noticed any of their officers leaving for positions at ICE or DHS.
Four of the markets where the ads are playing are in Texas, including San Antonio.
Danny Diaz, the president of the city's Police Officers Association, said he'd seen the ads and was concerned about prospective recruits who might be thinking of joining the city's police department joining ICE instead.
"We can't compete with a $50,000 signing bonus," Diaz said. "I do think that the younger generation will jump on that."
The government shutdown could dampen ICE's recruitment hopes, he said.
"They're furloughing federal employees, and I don't think individuals want to leave one department to go work for a federal agency when they don't know if they're going to receive a check or not," he said, referring to the lapse in funding that has led to federal law enforcement officers going without pay.
Philadelphia police Capt. John Walker said it's too early to tell whether the ad campaign has had an impact on the city's recruiting. Instead, he suggested, the ads appeared more geared toward reassuring viewers that the Trump administration was addressing illegal immigration.
"It's the psychological feel. You want to know that there are cops out there because it makes you feel good," said Walker, who's in charge of Philadelphia police recruiting. "That's all this is, strengthening the belief that they're doing something."
The ad blitz comes as law enforcement departments around the country are struggling to meet staffing demands.
___
Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.
New CYFD team includes out of state child welfare expert - Colleen Heild,
A new leadership team at the state Children, Youth and Families Department, including a child welfare expert from Washington, D.C., and a former New Mexico health department secretary, won praise for its candor Tuesday in tackling child protection deficiencies that have plagued the agency for decades.
The new team overseen by acting CYFD Secretary Valerie Sandoval took shape in the past three weeks after the sudden retirement of CYFD Secretary Teresa Casados on Sept. 5.
The new outside expertise was evident at an hourslong hearing involving the state and attorneys for 14 foster children and several child welfare organizations who sued CYFD in 2018 over conditions affecting abused and neglected children in state custody.
A 2020 settlement agreement in the case, referred to as Kevin S., who is one of the plaintiffs, set out standards to ensure safe, appropriate and stable placements in the state鈥檚 foster care system and behavioral health services.
Albuquerque attorney Charles Peifer is the arbitrator who, over the past year or more, has been holding hearings on the state鈥檚 alleged failure to meet reform measures, including lowering caseloads for protective service workers and increasing the number of foster care families.
One of the two monitors paid by the state to gauge state compliance over the past five years announced they had a first-time meeting with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham last week and were 鈥渆ncouraged鈥� at her commitment to make 鈥渇undamental change.鈥�
But a confidential report presented to Peifer by the monitors overshadowed the presentations at Tuesday鈥檚 hearing.
Peifer said monitors reported issues with the care of children in state custody who need therapeutic foster home settings because of the severity of their trauma from abuse or neglect by their caretakers. Providers of such specialized care have been refusing to permit some children to stay in their therapeutic foster homes, Peifer told those at the meeting.
鈥淭FC homes have capacity, yet they are reporting a mismatch and not accepting these kids, and the consequences are disastrous,鈥� Peifer said.
State Health Care Authority Secretary Kari Armijo told Peifer that such providers 鈥渂elieve we are sending children who require a much higher level of care into a TFC.鈥�
鈥淲e need to really find out what it will take for our TFC providers to take higher level of acuity children and that they will feel safe doing that, because they do feel like they鈥檙e incurring additional risk, but there鈥檚 risk to other children and potential TFC placements to the households because some of these kids really shouldn鈥檛 be placed with other children, so it is a complex issue,鈥� Armijo said.
But Peifer responded, 鈥淭he irony is if the TFC providers are thinking that these children referred to them need a higher level of acute care, and they rejected (them) based on the co-neutral鈥檚 report, what is happening is the children get a lower level of care than the TFC. Providers think they need a lower level than TFC, and so the kids are the ones suffering from the downgrade.
鈥淭here has to be a solution found, and I want the state to focus on that because it鈥檚 an emergent problem and it is a matter of life and death.鈥�
Present at the hearing was new CYFD Chief Operating Officer Brenda Donald, who served twice as deputy mayor for the District of Columbia鈥檚 health and human services, three times as director of the district鈥檚 child and family services department, and served as Maryland Gov. Martin O鈥橫alley鈥檚 Cabinet secretary for human services. In 2021, she took the helm of D.C.鈥檚 troubled housing authority.
Donald, who spends half her time in New Mexico, was hired by CYFD as a senior management consultant in February under a $60,000 contract and took the newly created position of CYFD chief operating officer on Sept. 16, according to a CYFD spokesman.
鈥淵ou asked for candor, you asked for strategies, and that鈥檚 what I鈥檓 going to give you,鈥� she told Peifer on Tuesday. 鈥淲e know where we are now in terms of our requirements regarding Kevin S. compliance on workforce and we are nowhere near where we need to be. We are about 25% of our workers are compliant with caseload requirements.鈥�
Meanwhile, Donald said she has created a 鈥渨orkforce strike force鈥� and wants to speed up hiring while ensuring adequate training of staff. About 190 people have been hired since July, according to CYFD officials.
鈥淭urnover rates are extremely high and categorically, around 30% across the board. But what we鈥檙e doing with the strike force is really looking county by county,鈥� Donald said. In trying to reduce workload, she said, staff is focusing in part on expediting permanency for children in foster care who have been here longer than they really should be and are ready for adoption, legal guardianships or returning home.
Former state Health Secretary Kathy Kunkel is now a deputy secretary at CYFD and has been serving as executive director of CYFD鈥檚 Kevin S. team. She also has worked on special projects for Lujan Grisham after announcing her departure from the health department in 2020. Kunkel holds a master鈥檚 degree in social work from Michigan State University and a law degree from the University of New Mexico.
The monitors, Judith Meltzer, from the Center for the Study of Social Policy, and Kevin Ryan, from the Washington, D.C.-based organization Public Catalyst, wrote Peifer a letter late last month noting that Donald, Kunkel and Sandoval 鈥渉ave been proactively communicating with (the monitors) and taking steps to address overdue information and data requests from us. They are also in the process of reviewing agencywide strategies, efforts and performance barriers to achieve Kevin S. commitments.鈥�
Peifer told Sandoval he applauded her 鈥渇or bringing onto the team folks with years of experience in dealing with other states and other jurisdictions. I think you have begun to ... add to the team, important resources that will help New Mexico.鈥�
But he said what is important is compliance with the Kevin S. orders and settlement to ensure 鈥渕easurable success for the kids,鈥� including more foster homes, and a more stable workforce.
Candidate for APS board suspends bid to represent District 3 - Noah Alcala Bach,
Isaac Flores, a candidate for the Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education, has suspended his campaign. He was running to represent District 3, which covers the city鈥檚 north-central and northwestern corridors.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 super important right now that we consolidate our efforts to make sure that we defeat an unfit incumbent,鈥� Flores told the Journal on Tuesday.
The 27-year-old threw his support behind Rebecca Betzen, the teachers鈥� union-backed candidate seeking to unseat incumbent and Board President Danielle Gonzales.
鈥淭his decision was 100% my decision. I thought it over, and I truly believe that consolidating those efforts is how we鈥檙e going to actually win and put the values that I care about on the board,鈥� he said.
Gonzales was elected in 2021 and backed by the business community, which has historically battled the teachers鈥� union for board control. Flores had the backing of neither faction.
鈥淲hen you run for your community, you focus on the issues, and you focus on what鈥檚 more important in terms of your values,鈥� Flores said. 鈥淯ltimately, for me, the decision came due to the fact that with three people in the race, that leaves open a probability that the incumbent would win.鈥�
For her part, Gonzales鈥� campaign pointed to the results she has delivered over the past four years she has served on the APS board.
鈥淥ur community deserves results, not politics. I鈥檒l keep challenging the status quo and fighting for strong schools, better outcomes, and real accountability for our kids,鈥� Scott Forrester, campaign manager for Gonazles, wrote in a statement.
Because he missed the date to remove himself from the ballot, Flores鈥� name will remain on it.
Nonstop service between Santa Fe Regional Airport and Los Angeles returns -
It鈥檚 now possible to take a direct commercial flight from Santa Fe to Los Angeles and back.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports American Airlines began daily nonstop service to LAX on Monday.
The flight from Los Angeles International Airport at Santa Fe Regional Airport Monday afternoon was greeted, first by a water cannon salute from the Santa Fe Fire Department.
Passengers were then greeted by a host of local civic leaders, including Stuart Kirk, executive director of the Northern New Mexico Air Alliance, also known as Fly Santa Fe. The organization has been working to restore service to Los Angeles after the service ended in 2015.
Local officials have touted the flights as a possible boost for the city鈥檚 film and television industry, as well as other professionals and tourists.
Santa Fe now offers direct service to LAX, Houston International, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, and Phoenix.
Taos charter schools want in on $50M Bond - Olivia Lewis,
Local charter school leaders are upset that they aren鈥檛 included in a proposed $50 million school bond measure that will go before Taos voters this November.
The Taos News reports the bond would fund major investments, including a new Taos Middle School building, classroom renovations and mold removal, as well as matching funds to leverage another $30 million from the State of New Mexico.
Under the New Mexico Charter School Act, charter schools cannot issue bonds or go into debt to fund facility improvements. They must either be included in a bond measure by a school district, pay out of the charter鈥檚 operational budget or seek funding from state lease assistance loans.
Taos charter schools that are administered separately from the district include Taos Academy, Taos Integrated School of the Arts, Taos International School and Vista Grande High School.
Previous Taos Municipal Schools District bond initiatives have included those schools.