Editorials

Escalating "Legal Observer" Activism Raises Public Safety and Civil Liberties Concerns - From Ice Operations to Abortion Clinics

(Online Version): https://www.abortionfreenm.com/news/escalating-legal-observer-activism-raises-public-safety-and-civil-liberties-concerns-from-ice-operations-to-abortion-clinics

By Bud Shaver

Albuquerque, New Mexico — Abortion Free New Mexico is sounding the alarm over the rapid expansion and increasingly aggressive use of so-called "legal observers," a tactic now deployed across multiple enforcement and public-order contexts — including lawful federal immigration operations and peaceful pro-life sidewalk counseling outside abortion facilities.

Originally presented as neutral monitors, legal observer programs have increasingly evolved into activist tools used to escalate encounters, provoke law-enforcement intervention, and suppress constitutionally protected activity.

By Chad Matheson, Interim CEO, Albuquerque Regional Economic Alliance (AREA)

New Mexico has always been a place where big ideas take root. From the groundbreaking science at Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories to the innovations driving our growing aerospace and energy sectors, our state has a proud history of discovery. If we want to secure a prosperous future for New Mexico, one filled with high-paying jobs, thriving businesses, and opportunity for generations to come, we must double down on an what we do best: research and development.

By Ruben Q. Leyva

This essay is part of the ongoing “What Does ‘Gila Apache’ Mean?” series.

Out in the community I’m hearing these same words repeated. My family is from the Gila. We’re Mogollon Apache. We’re Mimbreños. These are not casual descriptions. They are locational identifications, passed generation after generation of families who will recall about mountains and rivers and routes so much more assuredly than any archive could convey but which no professional human had thought to consult.

And then, often later, something challenges that certainty. A baptismal record appears. A parish name. Janos. Chihuahua. Bavispe. Sonora. Suddenly, people are asking: Did we not know something or was what we were told about our family’s previous homeland a lie?

It isn't.

By Steven B. Chavez, Principal, Mesa del Sol, SC3 International, SC3 Development and SC3 Mechanical and Electrical

New Mexico stands at a crossroads. We have the natural resources, creative talent, and geographic advantages to thrive in the 21st-century economy—but for too long, we've struggled to convert potential into prosperity. Our state's economic challenges are not new, but they are urgent: too many of our young people leave to find opportunity elsewhere; too few companies invest and grow here; and our public and private sectors often operate in silos rather than in partnership.

Senator Crystal Brantley (R-District 35)

Every time New Mexico confronts a surge in violent crime, the public is promised decisive action. And every time, progressive Democrats seem to reach for the same response: place blame on law-abiding people and call it reform.

First, it was law-abiding gun owners. Now, the focus has shifted to law-abiding gun store owners.

Progressive lawmakers have made clear they intend to introduce legislation aimed at federally licensed firearms dealers—tightening training requirements, expanding licensing rules, and increasing regulatory pressure on small businesses that already operate under extensive state and federal oversight. And if history is any guide, New Mexicans can reasonably expect the return of another familiar proposal: an attempt to revive an “assault weapons” ban.

By Paul J. Gessing

After years of failure to land a "big fish" business for New Mexico's economy (or effectively use the oil and gas revenues to grow the economy) Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham with the help of her Economic Development Secretary Rob Black have lured no fewer than three large data centers to New Mexico. These data centers are being built to serve the booming world of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and they will have profound impacts on New Mexico.

It is our view that having these data centers locate in New Mexico is better than having them locate elsewhere. While we have many differences of opinion with this Governor, we are pleased to see her get serious about growing and diversifying New Mexico's oil-dependent economy albeit quite late in her 2nd term.

By Ruben Q. Leyva

In southwest New Mexico, a lot of families are like mine: They know where they come from, even if they don't always know what to call it. Others claim their people are from the Gila. Others call out the Mimbres, the Mogollon or the mountain ranges that have formed this place. Others, like me, were told they were "Gila [Hee-la] Apache," though little further explanation was offered beyond that label. Others were asked to name a band — or told they didn't qualify at all.

That confusion did not begin with us. It has a history.

When Spanish settlers started moving north into what would become New Mexico, Arizona and Texas, they encountered multiple peoples who were living across a broad and difficult-to-cross landscape. In time, Spanish officials increasingly invoked the word "Apache" as a sort of catchall for dozens of Native groups, who spoke the same or a similar language, scattered across an enormous area, some never before considering themselves part of any single people. This wasn't because those communities suddenly had grown to become identical, but rather that colonial authorities required a vocabulary to explain resistance, mobility and presence across land they did not command.

By Kristina Fisher, Associate Director, Think New Mexico

The most immediate way that New Mexico lawmakers can expand access to health care is by joining all the interstate compacts for health care workers, which would make it easier for health care professionals who are licensed in other states to care for patients here in New Mexico, including via telehealth.

States that join the doctor compact experience an increase of 10-15% in the number of doctors licensed every year. 

This probably explains why states keep joining compacts and no state that has joined a compact has ever left. Forty-two states now participate in the doctor compact, 41 in the psychology compact, and 39 in the physical therapist compact. Meanwhile, New Mexico is one of only four states that participates in just one or no health care worker compacts. (We are a member of the nursing compact.)