FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 26, 2007
CONTACT: Whitney Potter (505) 266 5915 ext. 1003, Cell (505) 507 9898
FARMINGTON—Controversy over the creation of a Gay-Straight Alliance club at Piedra Vista High School (Farmington) prompted the intervention of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico today.  In a letter to Piedra Vista Principal Ann Gattis, the ACLU affirmed the school’s “legal obligation to permit the GSA to form,” despite religious objections by some parents in the community.
“The reactionary sentiments of a few vocal parents do not override the school’s free speech obligation to treat all non-curricular clubs alike,” said ACLU Executive Director Peter Simonson.  “The school either maintains a fair and open forum for clubs to exist, or it doesn’t.  It cannot pick and choose which clubs it is going to endorse based on the narrow set of beliefs of some parents.”
The ACLU’s letter lists seven recent cases in which federal courts protected the establishment of GSAs.  In one such case, the court explained:
The [school] may be uncomfortable about students discussing sexual orientation and how all students need to accept each other, whether gay or straight . . . . [H]owever, . . . [the school] cannot censor the students’ speech to avoid discussions on campus that cause them discomfort or represent an unpopular viewpoint.
Colin ex rel. Colin v. Orange Unified Sch. Dist., 83 F. Supp. 2d 1135, 1149 (C.D. Cal. 2000).
Simonson said, “GSAs are intended to foster tolerance and respect among students, and a learning environment that’s free of bullying.  Why would any parent oppose those things in their children’s school?  Participation in the club is entirely up to the student, as it is with all student clubs.”

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Related Documents:

Letter to Farmington Board of Education

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ACLU's Letter to Piedra Vista Principal Ann Gattis

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National ACLU LGBT Rights Project

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 14, 2007
CONTACT: Whitney Potter (505) 266 5915 ext. 1003, Cell (505) 507 9898
LAS CRUCES, NM—The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico condemned recent immigration raids by Otero and Doña Ana County Sheriff's deputies in the border towns of Chaparral and Vado today.  The local police agencies are assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to conduct sweeps of immigrant neighborhoods, knocking on doors and checking identification.  Authorities also are stopping motorists and entering private businesses.
The ACLU is investigating multiple reports that sheriff's deputies retrieved children from schools and entered homes without consent or warrants.  The ACLU has filed public records requests with both sheriff’s departments seeking information about the collaboration with federal immigration agencies.
“This is irresponsible policing,” said Maria Nape, Director of the ACLU's Border Rights office.  “Immigrants in these communities may never again trust that they can report crimes to sheriff’s deputies, even if they are the victims.  When local police become border patrol agents, it rips a hole in the fabric of public safety that takes years to mend.  It’s not just immigrants that are affected.”
The raids stem from a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program called “Operation Stonegarden” which gave New Mexico roughly $1.6 million in support of local law enforcement participation in immigration enforcement along the border.  In total, the four Southwest border states received $12 million in grant awards.
“These raids are symptomatic of the same reactionary policies that have failed to address nationwide concerns about immigration for decades,” Nape said.  “Do we want to live in a country that makes life so intolerable for hundreds of thousands of families who live and work here that they leave? Or would we rather live in an America that brings immigrants out of the shadows of society and enables them to be taxpaying, contributing citizens?

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Related Documents:

Otero County Complaint

Otero County Sheriff's Office Public Records Request

Request to Inspect Public Records (Dona Ana County)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 23, 2007
CONTACT: Whitney Potter (505) 266 5915 ext. 1003, Cell (505) 507 9898
Albuquerque—Truck driver Anastasio Prieto wants his $23,700 back, and the ACLU has pledged to help him.
On August 8, 2007, Prieto pulled into a weigh-station on NM Highway 54, north of El Paso, where a state police officer asked if he could search Prieto’s truck and if it contained “needles or cash in excess of ten thousand dollars.”  Prieto consented to the search and replied that, while he did not have any needles, he did have nearly $24,000 in his possession.
To Prieto’s astonishment, officers took his money and turned it over federal Drug Enforcement Administration officials.  Border Patrol agents searched the truck with drug-sniffing dogs but found no evidence of illicit substances.
Nevertheless, DEA agents photographed and fingerprinted Prieto, despite his objections, then sent him on his way, without his money and without any criminal charges against him.
Today the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico filed civil rights claims on Prieto’s behalf against three state and three federal officers regarding the incident.
“The government took Mr. Prieto’s money as surely as if he had been robbed on a street corner at night,” said Peter Simonson, Executive Director for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico.  “In fact, being robbed might have been better.  At least then the police would have treated him as the victim of a crime instead of as a perpetrator.”
DEA agents informed Prieto that he will receive notice of federal proceedings to permanently forfeit the money within thirty days.  To recuperate the funds, Prieto will need to prove in an administrative hearing that the money truly is his, and that it did not derive from illegal drug sales.  Agents told Prieto that the process would probably take a year.
“Mr. Prieto doesn’t have a year,” Simonson said.  “He needs the money back now—to pay bills, to maintain his truck.  We’re insisting that the government give the money back immediately and that it purges all records of Mr. Prieto from the DEA’s files.”
ACLU attorneys Cid Lopez, George Bach, and Maureen Sanders filed the suit in federal court.

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Related Documents:

Prieto Complaint