News & Commentary

An interview with Father Jim Lehman of Holy Family Church in Las Cruces

Selene was in an impossible situation. She couldn’t adequately defend herself, but with each plea she made to the judge for an interpreter he became increasingly hostile, accusing her of lying about her inability to follow the proceedings.

The dark handheld camera footage shows a large group of people, mostly families clutching small children, blinded by the flashlights trained on their faces. Heavily armed men wearing fake law enforcement badges, ski masks, and camouflage uniforms bark orders to the frightened families.

Here we go again. After a certified nurse midwife prescribed misoprostol for her patient in preparation for an IUD insertion, she received a phone call from the pharmacist on duty asking for assurance that the medication wouldn’t be used for abortion because of his personal beliefs against it.

No one should ever have to wait to receive the healthcare they need to save their life because of the religious beliefs of someone else. 

 

In its recent editorial (July 29), the Albuquerque Journal suggests that in the wake of federal judge Robert C. Brack’s ruling that the Albuquerque “Pedestrian Safety Ordinance” violates the First Amendment, the city of Albuquerque can still somehow “walk the line” on safety and free speech.

Our client, Selene Alverio was denied an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter by the Bernalillo County Metropolitican Court and Judge Daniel Ramczyk during a November 2018 civil dispute hearing. Although Ms. Alverio requested an interpreter approximately two weeks before the hearing, which was well before the court’s deadline of forty-eight hours advance notice, as well as several times during her hearing, all of her requests were denied.

The past few months have been a testament to the dangerous levels of anti-immigrant sentiment the current administration has inflamed within certain segments of our society.