News & Commentary

As teenage brothers Thomas and Lloyd descended a staircase with fellow prospective students of Colorado State University, the excitement of visiting their dream school quickly unraveled.

Originally published in the spring 2018 Torch 

A recent agreement reached by the ACLU and the City of Albuquerque offers some relief and hope for Albuquerque residents who depend on panhandling to get by, but who live in fear of being cited, cuffed, and even jailed.

As expected, the 2018 New Mexico legislative session kicked off with a fear-mongering speech by Governor Susana Martinez calling for a slew of hyperpunitive sentencing laws to address the spike in crime that many New Mexico communities are experiencing.

The path to making America great again is not paved with cruelty, arrogance, and selfishness. It is lit by the same values that draw immigrants to our shores: freedom, fairness, and justice.

Fourteen months ago Manuel Pérez* lay on the ground unconscious in the sloping mountains of Sierra de los Cuchamatanes, Guatemala. His skull was fractured. His teeth were broken. And his brain was hemorrhaging blood.

When Susan was three months into her first pregnancy, her doctor delivered the kind of news every expectant mother hopes never to hear. And yet the worst was not over.

Just when Southwest border communities most needed a few champions in their corner, NM Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich stepped forward and answered the call. This week they rejected two immigration proposals in Congress that would have squandered $25 billion to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Our senators understand that Dreamers’ lives cannot be ransomed in a cynical tradeoff for President Trump’s wasteful, damaging wall. We need a permanent solution for immigrant youth that does not sacrifice the interests of border communities.

Long before Reverend Jim Collie took up preaching, he was taking to the streets, demonstrating in Washington D.C. during the height of the Vietnam War. He was even on the National Mall to witness the presidential helicopter whisk Nixon from his seat of power the day he resigned. The blades chopped at the air above, kicking up a cloud of dust that would not settle. Jim stood there at a loss. The president was gone, but the country was in chaos.