Celeste Ramos, left, Teagan Box, center, and Ewan Herron, with the May Center pet Kiara, the wolf dog in the Rotunda of the state Capitol in Santa Fe on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Kiara comes from the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary in Candy Kitchen, in Cibola County, and was at the Capitol to educate people on the organization’s mission of helping wolves. Photo by Michael G. Seamans/The New Mexican
Ella Poolaw, 17, far left, Evan Duran, 17, left center, Isabelle Tickjerhoof, 16, right center, and Jade Lovato, 17, far right, all flamenco dancers with Tierra Adentro of New Mexico, wait to perform for the House of Representatives at the state Capitol in Santa Fe on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Photo by Michael G. Seamans/The New Mexican
The New Mexican:
GOP assails bill to protect undocumented immigrants: Republicans senators assailed a privacy bill that would prohibit the state from releasing certain personal information, including driver data, to enforce federal civil immigration law.
Despite warnings from Republicans that Senate Bill 36 could jeopardize billions of dollars in federal funds if the Trump administration chooses to make good on its promises to take action against states that refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement, the Senate passed the measure on a party-line 26-14 vote.
“The thought that there would not be federal action amazes me because I’ve heard several comments about that … even from the congressional delegation,” Sen. Pat Woods, R-Broadview, said after Republicans made a motion to refer the bill to the Senate Finance Committee to determine its financial impact. Its chairman, Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, told his colleagues he didn’t see the need.
“When we start poking someone in the chest, we might expect a response [because] the guy we’re poking in the chest is very good at responding,” Woods said, referring to Trump.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, said in a statement after the vote it would help ensure “all New Mexicans feel protected when they share their personal sensitive information with state employees and agencies such as MVD.
“We can’t truly address public safety if New Mexicans who feel especially vulnerable because of their immigration or LGBTQI status,” said Morales, who presides over the state Senate when the Legislature is in session, has been noticeably absent in recent days.
Morales has been filling in for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who jetted off to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday for meetings of the National Governors Association, Western Governors Association and the Democratic Governors Association.
New Mexico’s lieutenant governor becomes acting governor when the state’s chief executive is out of state.
But Morales’ time in the big chair is short-term.
Michael Coleman, the governor’s chief spokesperson, said Lujan Grisham is scheduled to return to New Mexico on Sunday.
Lujan Grisham has been keeping “close tabs on action at the Roundhouse” even though she’s away, he wrote in an email.
“I’ve already spoken with her several times, as has our chief of staff,” Coleman added.
Lawmaker receives death threat over gun ban bill: Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, said on Thursday he received a death threat from opponents of a bill to ban many semiautomatic firearms after Senate Republicans urged online followers to call him.
Cervantes, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the next stop for Senate Bill 279, said during a floor session that Senate Republicans distorted his position on the issue with the post that led to the threat. The post in question claims the Las Cruces Democrat was plotting a “radical [overreach] to ban guns.”
“I’m a big boy, and I’m used to politics and distortions and lies and mistruths,” he said. “But when it leads to some of the comments that were made … it really, I think, requires me to stand u also restrict magazines that hold more than 10 rounds.
The post from Senate Republicans listed Cervantes’ contact information and called on people to contact him.
The threat in question — which came in the form of a reply to Senate Republicans’ post on the social media platform known as X, formerly Twitter — said banning firearms was a violation of the Second Amendment and treason, and that the “Max punishment for treason is Death.” Another reply listed his address.
Senate Minority Leader Bill Sharer, R-Farmington, immediately responded to Cervantes on the floor, calling for anyone making death threats to stop but standing firm in his opposition to the bill and to lawmakers even considering it.
“I accept the responsibility for posting that. I strongly condemn anybody that calls for violence,” he said, before calling on Cervantes to “not even hear a bill that I believe is deeply unconstitutional.”
Final passage for first piece of behavioral health package: Senate Bill 3, a proposal to require region-specific plans to address local behavioral health needs, passed the House on a 44-23 vote on Tuesday.
SB 3 is one of a trio of behavioral health bills sprinting through the Legislature after Democratic leadership promised to expedite public safety and behavioral health measures this session.
Senate Bills 1 and 2 — which have passed the Senate but have not yet garnered approval from the House Appropriations and Finance Committee or the entire House — would create a new behavioral health trust fund and provide one-time appropriations respectively. SB 3 would provide a structure for spending that money, coordinated by the Administrative Office of the Courts.
“We are finally addressing the behavioral and mental health crisis that our state has been facing … for the first time in a systematic, planned way that entails accountability and empowers our communities to meet their needs in a way that they see fit,” co-sponsor Rep. Dayan Hochman-Vigil, D-Albuquerque, said while presenting the bill on the House floor.
Rep. Rebecca Dow, R-Truth or Consequences, unsuccessfully proposed an amendment to move responsibility for coordinating the bill’s requirements from the Administrative Office of the Courts to the state Health Care Authority. She said attaching behavioral health care to the courts could further stigmatize seeking help.
“This feels like a crime bill, looks like a crime bill,” Dow said.
Cannabis regulation flies through House: With little debate, the House voted 68-1 Thursday to pass a bill creating a new cannabis enforcement bureau housed in the state Regulation and Licensing Department.
House Bill 10, which has a bipartisan list of co-sponsors including House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, and House Minority Leader Gail Armstrong, R-Magdalena would let the department employ law enforcement agents in the new bureau to investigate potential violations of the state’s cannabis law. Illegal activity on the part of some growers, including a recent raid on two farms in Estancia, helped to motivate the bill, something Armstrong alluded to in her comments before the vote.
“New Mexico has been a national leader in establishing a successful recreational cannabis industry that prioritizes local producers and reflects our values,” Martínez said in a statement after the vote. “We are making sure that the rules and regulations we set are being followed, so that this growing industry can continue to benefit New Mexicans.”
Quote of the day: “Mr. Speaker, I would gladly start a dancing caucus.” —Rep. Tara Lujan, D-Santa Fe. Following a flamenco performance on the House floor by students at Tierra Adentro Arts Charter School, House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, suggested the creation of a dancers caucus. Lujan and former flamenco dancer Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero, D-Albuquerque, may become the caucus’s first members.
