January – February 2024 / Enero – Febrero 2024
Youth Power Advocacy Education Day at the NM State Legislature
Our community organizer, Allyssa Wright and a few members from the Rising Youth organizing cohort had the opportunity to go to Santa Fe, NM for Youth Power: Advocacy Education Day during the 30-day New Mexico State legislative session.
Youth had the opportunity to learn how their state government works, visit with legislators, meet with other organizational partners in New Mexico, and even had a meeting with Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham.
“This was such an amazing opportunity to have been able to experience being surrounded by people who are genuinely concerned with a passion over the youth and the voice they have today in government. It was an empowering day for myself. Being able to talk to the governor of the state of New Mexico and meet many other individuals who work at the roundhouse, having conversations about the youth, about bills they’re working on getting passed, the policies, the difficulties they encounter, and stories about how they got to where they are now in day was truly inspiring. This experience just made me desire to be as involved as much as I possibly can, to use my voice and the power it has to make things happen.” – Aarlet, Deming, NM
Worker Day of Action
NM CAFe, along with our friends at Somos un Pueblo Unido, El Centro de Igualdad y Derechos, and Partnership for Community Action were in Santa Fe, NM outside the Roundhouse on Monday, January 22nd for Worker’s Day of Action.
Our coalition went to advocate for a list of priorities that included: more money for equity in workforce development programs, guaranteed income for workers in training, early childhood education, and efforts to modernize the state legislature.
NM CAFe staff and leaders were able to visit with some of our Southern New Mexico representatives during our time there, and visit with other allies and partners from across the state. During that visit, our organizations came together on the house floor with the Speaker of the House Javier Martinez to express what our needs for our communities are.
Bi-partisan Senate Border Bill
NM CAFe released a statement expressing our thoughts on a proposed Senate Bi-partisan Border Bill that was introduced on Sunday, February 4th. A small group of Senators released a supplemental spending bill that contained some harmful immigration, asylum, and border-related provisions that could potentially give dangerous powers to current and future administrations to close our border to those seeking safety, and continue the deadly legacy of deterrence and border militarization.
You can read the entirety of our statement here on our website: https://organizenm.org/nm-cafe-statement-on-bipartisan-senate-border-bill/
While there were certain contents of the bill that would have had beneficial measures for some, it did not address DACA or Dreamers, and others who are forced to live in the shadows and be in consistent limbo with their legal status. The bill was far from balanced, but it was not only an enforcement-only plan. The potential beneficial measures included concessions that have been blocked in Congress for years, such as: additional green cards and legal representation.
NM CAFe understands that our New Mexico elected officials, such as Senator Martin Heinrich, Senator Ben Ray Luján, and Congressman Gabe Vasquez want to maintain and protect Southern New Mexico in all of its rich and cultural heritage, and for the people that live, work and thrive here. We advise that continuing to trade off and bargain with our border communities and people every year, is not a solution.
We know that our New Mexico delegation can be true champions for immigrant and border communities, and our representatives know the on the ground realities we truly face, and in addition to that, we have seen them be those champions before.
We believe that the Southern border can be managed humanely and effectively with emergency funding and solutions that do not compromise fairness or the humanitarian principles of U.S. immigration law.
