ALBUQUERQUE – Last night, all three candidates for New Mexico’s Congressional District 1 seat faced-off in a televised debate.
They talked about all the majors problems faced by our state, except they forgot to talk about one of the, if not the biggest, issue facing not only our state, but the entire country… immigration.
There was no talk about Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), or Temporary Protected Status (TPS), “the wall,” family separation, no reference to immigration at all.
Well, there was a minor mention. It came from Republican candidate Janice Arnold-Jones while she answered the question of how she plans to address the crime problem in the city of Albuquerque, the largest in the state.
She responded by stating that when it comes to crime the most important thing that can be done is addressing, or putting to rest, the sanctuary city laws that our state has.
“One of the downsides of the sanctuary city rules is that we are not able to communicate with the federal entities that actually can help take the ‘bad guys’ off the streets,” Arnold-Jones stated.
Wow. If you close your eyes, you may even think it’s Donald Trump making that statement.
“When asked about crime levels in New Mexico, Arnold-Jones leaped immediately to fearmongering and the scapegoating of immigrants, spreading lies about the criminality of immigrants—a page straight of the Trump playbook,” Isaac De Luna, political director for the New Mexico Dream Team stated.
It is comments like the one Arnold-Jones made that need to be addressed. Neither of the other two candidates responded or addressed the comment. In their opening and closing statements, all three candidates pretty much said they want the best healthcare, and education for all New Mexicans.
Well, what about the New Mexicans that don’t qualify for healthcare because of their immigration status? Or what about the thousands of youth who have to give up their dreams of going into higher education but can’t because they don’t have DACA.
Thousand of New Mexican residents were left out of the conversation in last night debate.
Before making her now infamous sanctuary cities statement, Arnold-Jones stated that crime is truly a local problem, so why do we need Trump’s federal army reeking havoc in our state?
What we need is for all three candidates to make their stance on immigration clear, and provide details of their plan for immigration once they make it to our nation’s capital. It has been made very clear that our current president and his administration is not concerned about the livelihoods and well being of any undocumented person in this country, including the thousands living in our state.