Megan Finno-Velasquez is also Assistant Professor of Social Work at New Mexico State University.

Sanctuary Cities

Brian Erickson from the ACLU Regional Center for Border Rights discusses DHS’s recent decision to reward embattled for-profit prison company CCA with a contract to convert the Cibola County prison into an immigrant detention center. And Angie Junck with California-based Immigrant Legal Resource Center discusses the TRUTH ACT, a law recently signed by Gov. Jerry Brown to regulate and bring transparency to local jail participation in ICE deportation programs.  

Steve Allen from the ACLU and Emily Kaltenbach from the Drug Policy Alliance discuss the state of criminal justice reform in New Mexico and the new statewide coalition NM SAFE that has emerged to promote fair, efficient and evidenced-based sentencing and public safety policies.

We talk to Maria de Anda Hay from the Santa Fe Food Policy Council discusses World Food Day and the urban agricultural ordinance pending before the Santa Fe City Council. We also talk to Shiu-Ming Cheer from the National Immigration Law Center discusses AB 2298, The Gang Databases Act, recent legislation signed in California providing adults with the right to be notified and to challenge their inclusion by police into the state’s gang database.  

For many years Enlace Comunitario has created a model for the rest of the state, and the country, for providing deep advocacy work and other crucial services to people in the Latinx immigrant community facing domestic violence. We talk to Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, Executive Director for Enlace Comunitario, about some of the issues our communities are facing but also what we they are doing to overcome them.

As New Mexico's Governor tries to bring back the death penalty to our state, Jim Lindburg, Legislative Director of Sacramento-based Friends Committee on Legislation of California, talks about California's recently passed AB2590, a legislative effort to promote public safety through smart rehabilitation and restorative justice programs.

Founders of the recently formed Institute of Legal Training & Instruction discuss their work to train immigrant families in New Mexico's rural communities to help each other navigate the complicated legal immigration system. Also, law student and DACA recipient Jazmin Irazoqui talks about her participation in the NM2MX initiative that sponsors undocumented youth on educational trips to their country of birth.

MALDEF, or the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, has deep ties to New Mexico and has played a critical role in helping to ensure the rights of Mexicanxs, Latinxs and immigrants in New Mexico are not being violated by this particular gubernatorial administration. This episode we talk to Thomas Saenz, MALDEF President & General Counsel, about some of that work and the upcoming election.

Almost 17 years ago Somos Un Pueblo Unido successfully fought off a segregated private prison aimed at the immigrant community in Santa Fe, today the Department of Justice announced it will soon phase out some federal contracts with private prison companies. We talk to Judy Green, researcher with New York-based Justice Strategies, who talks about this shift and shares the findings of her new report "Indefensible: A Decade of Mass Incarceration of Migrants Prosecuted for Crossing the Border.” 

Almost 17 years ago Somos Un Pueblo Unido successfully fought off a segregated private prison aimed at the immigrant community in Santa Fe, today the Department of Justice announced it will soon phase out some federal contracts with private prison companies. We talk to Judy Green, researcher with New York-based Justice Strategies, who talks about this shift and shares the findings of her new report "Indefensible: A Decade of Mass Incarceration of Migrants Prosecuted for Crossing the Border.” 

Today we talk to Amanda Garcia, ESL Literacy Coordinator, Steve Hill, tutor & Letty Lopez, student, from the Literacy Volunteers of Santa Fe about their programs which provide free tutoring to adults in reading, writing and speaking English to strengthen our community, families, and the workforce.