Lawmakers discuss bill that would criminalize hazing in New Mexico
SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – A month after NMSU fired its athletic director for failing to stop hazing and sexual assault amongst the men's basketball team, lawmakers will now reconsider an effort to make hazing a crime.
Albuquerque Democrat Senator Harold Pope tried this bill last year, but it never got a full vote. However, this time Pope thinks lawmakers can get it done. 'They can no longer turn a blind eye to this and say boys will be boys or this is just what happens in athletics,' said Senator Harold Pope, (D-Albuquerque).
Lawmakers push to create Slot Canyon Riverside State Park in southern New Mexico
Saying hazing culture needs to end at New Mexico schools, Senator Harold Pope is now re-introducing the 'Anti-Hazing Act,' a bill aimed at keeping hazing from happening in higher-ed.
'New Mexico is one of the states that doesn't have anti-hazing laws, so we've wanted this for a while. I think unfortunately these instances that have happened, that brought it even more to the forefront,' said Sen. Pope.
The effort comes a month after the attorney general released a scathing report about what happened with the New Mexico State University men's basketball team two years ago. Investigators say three players spent months targeting team members with sexualized attacks.
The bill would make a code of conduct and a hazing prevention committee at New Mexico universities and require annual reports on hazing incidents. It would also make hazing a misdemeanor. 'I think it's really the accountability piece. My hope is that no one ever gets a misdemeanor. My hope is that we change the culture when folks are coming to the school whether they be an employee or a student they are trained on hazing is unacceptable,' said Senator Pope.
Attorney General Raul Torrez has urged lawmakers to push hazing legislation this session. 'We think it's a necessary element of any comprehensive package, but I do want to stress the fact that it's far past time for New Mexico to move on these issues,' said Raúl Torrez, New Mexico Attorney General.
Senator Harold's bill would also require universities and colleges to give students and staff hazing prevention education at the start of each academic year.
Lawmakers debated the bill in a first committee Wednesday where some raised concerns about how the law was written and how it could also apply to minors in middle or high schools when the intent is to address hazing in higher education. The bill is expected to be brought back to the committee by the end of the week.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
How to decode the shifting politics of the anti-Trump protests
Protests against Donald Trump's mass deportations, now spreading nationwide, could define his presidency, make or break Democratic careers and shape future elections. The White House, which thinks it has all the cards, keeps escalating the drama in Los Angeles. Trump's aggression underlines two themes of his second presidency – the desires to look strong and to grab even more power. Democrats, still looking to explain their 2024 election defeat and to cope with Trump's round-the-clock shock politics, again risk looking weak and overmatched. But in California Gov. Gavin Newsom, at least, they finally have a champion willing to stand up to Trump – even if he's mostly looking to 2028. As the most significant protest outburst of Trump's second term develops, top leaders in both parties face risky calculations and swift adjustments. Democrats have a political base itching for a fight back against the president, but must worry that radical reactions from the party's left wing will alienate the voters who walked out on them in 2024. The White House might be convinced that the confrontations are a political gift that put Democrats in a political vise for now. But Trump is stoking tensions that could be hard to control. And by putting troops into volatile situations in the proximity of protesters and agitators, he risks clashes that could turn tragic and could validate claims that he's risking lives for a callous personal payoff. The White House's line on the crisis is blunt and ruthless. '(Democrats') opposition to President Trump has forced them to side with illegal alien criminals in their communities and violent rioters and looters over law enforcement officers who are just doing their jobs,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday. A key goal here is to dehumanize the humans caught up in the deportation effort. The experience of an undocumented migrant often involves broken families and desperate people fleeing persecution or poverty. Even the hardest-hearted voter might feel sympathy. So, Leavitt implied that all those being targeted by ICE officers are 'illegal alien murderers, rapists and pedophiles.' Republicans are also reviving a previously successful narrative that helped Trump win power twice – that Democrats hate the police. 'That's how radical Democrats have become. Their opposition to President Trump has forced them to side with illegal alien criminals in their communities and violent rioters and looters over law enforcement officers who are just doing their jobs,' Leavitt said. Next, an assault on the patriotism of Democrats, suggesting that they are disloyal and side with enemies. Leavitt said, 'These attacks were aimed not just at law enforcement, but at American culture and society itself. Rioters burned American flags, chanted 'death to ICE' and spray-painted anti-American slogans on buildings.' This dystopian picture isn't just for political effect; it's designed to drown out a ballooning constitutional crisis over whether Trump has the authority to use active-duty troops on US soil. And this is the classic argument used by authoritarians everywhere – the fabric of society is so broken that only a strongman can fix it. 'President Trump will never allow mob rule to prevail in America. The most basic duty of government is to preserve law and order, and this administration embraces that sacred responsibility,' Leavitt said. She added, 'That's why President Trump deployed the National Guard and mobilized Marines to end the chaos and restore law and order. The mob violence is being stomped out. The criminals responsible will be swiftly brought to justice, and the Trump administration's operations to arrest illegal aliens are continuing unabated.' Some of the administration's rhetoric seems also designed to inject momentum into the deportation drive, the volume of which has disappointed some officials, and to normalize the use of the military in the effort. If Trump doesn't use maximum aggression, the narrative goes, deportations will stop, Americans will be unsafe and a foreign 'invasion' will succeed. Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton made this point in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece 'Send in the Troops, for Real' that he used to call for 'an overwhelming show of force to end the riots.' He wrote: 'The threat from the radical left is clear: Don't enforce immigration laws. If you do, left-wing street militias will burn down cities, and Democratic politicians will back the rioters. The president is absolutely right to reject this threat, enforce immigration laws, and restore civil order.' Trump never undersells his tough guy act. He's ready to go beyond the deployments of 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines he's sent to Los Angeles, who are not yet on the front lines of protests. 'I can be stronger on an attack on Los Angeles,' Trump told the New York Post's 'Pod Force One' podcast, explaining the greater leeway he feels in his second term. And Attorney General Pam Bondi said on the driveway of the White House Wednesday: 'We are not scared to go further … if we need to.' So, will the belligerence work for Trump politically? If he can convince the public that the situation is truly dire, he might gain support for his breaching of a taboo on the use of US troops on domestic soil. There's no doubt that Trump's voters respond to his bullishness. At his campaign rallies, his most violent rhetoric often got the biggest cheers. Hardline tactics against migrants and demonstrators also go down well with his base. White House officials also believe that Trump's tough border policy and plan for deportations won over a broader cohort of voters. 'America voted for mass deportations,' top Trump aide Stephen Miller posted Wednesday on X. Immigration issues have often worked in Trump's favor before. But the risk here is that he's inciting a crisis that could spread, get out of control and cost lives. He might pine to run an autocracy, but it's not clear that most Americans want to live in such conditions. And if protesters or police officers and soldiers were hurt in violence he exacerbated, it's on him. Trump lost after his first term because he made a crisis – the pandemic – worse. History could repeat itself. And once presidents lose the public's confidence, they tend to find it impossible to regain. The breaking point could come if the expulsions widen. Recent polls have shown that while Americans do back deportations and a tougher border policy, they don't necessarily agree when friends, neighbors and otherwise law-abiding members of the community get swept up. In Trump's first term, the zero-tolerance policy of separating migrant kids from their parents caused a public furor encapsulated by the phrase 'kids in cages.' Most political observers believe the country has moved right on immigration because of the Biden administration's hapless performance at the southern border. But a piece of poignant imagery that encapsulates cruelty or incompetence could yet shatter Trump's credibility. Democrats face an extraordinarily complex political situation without a leader recognized by most of the country. Combating Trump's demagoguery and spinning of alternative realities would be nearly impossible if the party were firing on all cylinders – never mind when it's wandering in the wilderness. Newsom's address to Californians on Tuesday night seemed partly calculated to inject some direction and steel to the party and supporters who've watched Trump assault the Constitution, the rule of law and bastions of the liberal establishment for four turbulent months. Everything that Newsom says and does will be refracted through the widespread belief that he plans to run for president. For him and other Democratic governors also contemplating a run, this crisis offers opportunity and peril. Great politicians seize their moments. And a strong pushback to Trump could win goodwill among base voters. Certainly, Newsom can raise his profile by going head-to-the-head with the president every day. Still, few Democrats come out on top of a confrontation with Trump. Perhaps only former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with her performative contempt, really got the better of Trump. And the president will use the power of his office to hurt his rivals. Before the Los Angeles protests, he was already trying to cut federal aid to California – seeking to punish its people effectively for the way they voted. Several sitting Democratic governors – Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Wes Moore of Maryland – might also be planning runs in 2028, and could end up facing similar challenges to Newsom. Perhaps one of them will solve the dilemma of how to avoid angering base voters sympathetic to migrants while building support among centrists, independents and moderate Republicans who still want tougher border policies. If they do, they will achieve something almost no center-left politician in the Western world has yet managed. Democratic leaders will also be desperate to make sure the current crisis doesn't unleash reactions inside the party that make it unpalatable to voters more generally. The Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 provide a warning. While many Americans supported the nationwide marches that erupted after the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, calls to 'defund the police' from isolated parts of the progressive base morphed into a political disaster that haunted the party in subsequent elections. And while Trump's deployment of troops to Los Angeles risks challenging constitutional limits, another perennial Democratic warning – that he'll destroy democracy – fell on deaf ears in 2024.
Yahoo
42 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Democrat Congresswoman draws boos over 'shameful' sexism remark in committee hearing with Treasury Secretary
A House Ways and Means Committee hearing took an unexpected turn Wednesday when Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) accused Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent of interrupting her because of her gender—prompting audible groans from the room. The exchange occurred during a tense five-minute questioning session, where Sanchez challenged Bessent on the impact of tariffs enacted under President Trump's administration. "Prices are rising on many everyday goods," Sanchez said, citing increases in clothing, shoes, canned food, toys, and household tools. She added, "On average, Trump's tariffs are estimated to cost households $3,000 more for the same goods than they would have last year," though she did not cite the source of the figure when pressed. Trump Says 'Total Reset Negotiated' With China During Tariff Talks In Geneva When Bessent attempted to interject, Sanchez quickly cut him off: "Please don't interrupt me… I know I'm a woman, but please try to limit yourself to answering my questions." That remark prompted groans from the hearing room, with one attendee audibly reacting, "Oh, come on." Sanchez responded: "No, I'm sorry, but we get talked over all the time, and I don't want that to happen at this hearing." Read On The Fox News App Bessent, who is openly gay, did not address the accusation and instead focused on defending the administration's trade policies. When Sanchez challenged him on pricing impacts and China's trade behavior, Bessent responded, "That's incorrect," and said, "They met their agreements under President Trump in 2020, and President Biden did not enforce them." Wh Slams Dems' 'Partisan Games' After Trump-foe Schiff Calls For Insider Trading Investigation Over Tariffs Sanchez repeatedly claimed that American consumers are paying more due to tariffs and described recent negotiations with China as rushed and lacking transparency. "A poorly negotiated trade deal with China is probably not worth the paper that it is written on," she said. "I was alarmed to hear this morning that Trump said the U.S.–China deal was done after just two days of talks in London." Bessent defended the agreement as an initial step. "The deal struck was for a specific goal, and it will be a much longer process," he said, adding, "China has proven an unreliable partner." The clash between Sanchez and Bessent was repeatedly moderated by Chairman Adrian Smith (R-NE), who reminded members of time limits and decorum throughout the article source: Democrat Congresswoman draws boos over 'shameful' sexism remark in committee hearing with Treasury Secretary
Yahoo
42 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Judge says government must release Mahmoud Khalil
The Brief A federal judge ruled that ICE must release Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student and recent Columbia graduate, unless the government appeals within 40 hours. Khalil, a green card holder, was detained in March by DHS agents and held in Louisiana for his involvement in pro-Palestinian campus protest. The Trump administration argues Khalil's activism threatens U.S. foreign policy interests, but has not alleged criminal conduct or presented evidence linking him to extremist groups. NEW YORK - A federal judge has ruled that the government must release Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University student who has been in ICE custody for over two months over pro-Palestinian demonstrations. The government has 40 hours to appeal the decision; until then, Khalil will remain in custody, likely through at least Friday. MORE: Mahmoud Khalil update: Government must provide evidence in case Wednesday, judge says MORE: Over 80 arrested after anti-ICE protest erupts in NYC: 'We will not tolerate chaos' MORE: Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil urge judge to release him from ICE custody in Louisiana "The court's decision is the most significant vindication yet of Mahmoud's rights," said Ramzi Kassem, co-director of CLEAR, a legal nonprofit and clinic at the City University of New York that represents Khalil. "But we aren't out of the woods until Mahmoud is free and back home with his wife and child." Timeline The Trump administration has been pushing to deport Khalil and other student demonstrators over their involvement in campus protests against Israel. "We gave you a visa to study and earn a degree, not to become a social activist and tear up our university campuses," Sen. Marco Rubio said shortly after Khalil's arrest. Khalil, a 30-year-old Palestinian by ethnicity who was born in Syria, was arrested back on March 8 in New York and taken to a detention center in Louisiana. The immigration detention center in Jena, Louisiana, is thousands of miles from his attorneys and wife (a U.S. citizen), who gave birth to their first child while he was in custody. He recently finished his coursework for a master's degree at Columbia's school of international affairs. The backstory Khalil has adamantly rejected allegations of antisemitism, accusing the Trump administration in a letter sent from jail last month of "targeting me as part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent." "Knowing fully that this moment transcends my individual circumstances," he added, "I hope nonetheless to be free to witness the birth of my first-born child." Facing a deadline from an immigration judge to turn over evidence for its attempted deportation of Khalil, the federal government submitted a brief memo, signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, citing the Trump administration's authority to expel non-citizens whose presence in the country damages U.S. foreign policy interests. The two-page memo, which was obtained by the Associated Press, does not allege any criminal conduct by Khalil. Rather, Rubio wrote, Khalil could be expelled for his beliefs. Judge Farbiarz had ruled earlier that expelling Khalil from the U.S. on those grounds was likely unconstitutional. Big picture view The Trump administration has pulled billions of dollars in government funding from universities and their affiliated hospital systems in recent weeks as part of what it says is a campaign against antisemitism on college campuses, but which critics say is a crackdown on free speech. To get the money back, the administration has been telling universities to punish protesters and make other changes. The U.S. government has also been revoking the visas of international students who criticized Israel or accused it of mistreating Palestinians. At the time of Khalil's arrest, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson accused Khalil of leading activities "aligned to Hamas," referring to the militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. But the government has not produced any evidence linking Khalil to Hamas, and made no reference to the group in their most recent filing.
