Latest news with #JosephCervantes
Yahoo
23-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Democrats say session brought meaningful change, but more work to be done
The tone in the House chamber noticeably shifted around 12:45 p.m. Saturday. Both houses of the New Mexico Legislature adjourned at noon Saturday after 60 days in session. And after celebrating the adjournment with hugs, selfies and many rounds of applause, a cadre of about two dozen Democratic lawmakers from the House and Senate filed to the front of the House chamber. These party leaders emphasized their efforts this session to improve public safety, behavioral health options and the beleaguered Children, Youth and Families Department, in addition to making some important policy changes in education and housing. But, they noted, more must be done to make New Mexico a safer and more prosperous place, a reality made particularly clear after a mass shooting Friday night in a Las Cruces park. 'This tragedy reminds us that it's going to take all of us to continue to come together to address these senseless acts of violence,' said House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque. 032225_MS_Legislature_007.JPG Skye Devore, right, takes a selfie with Rep. Catherine Cullen, R-Rio Rancho, after the end of the session Saturday at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe. He added, 'We are here to acknowledge all the good work we've done and to recommit ourselves to continuing this work in the weeks, months and years to come.' Public safety, behavioral health This year's session got off to a faster start than most, with lawmakers arriving in Santa Fe 'ready to move quickly,' Martínez said. The result of that movement: A wide-ranging public safety bill plus a plan to rebuild New Mexico's behavioral health system. House Bill 8 combined six public safety bills into one, reforming criminal competency laws; prohibiting devices to transform semiautomatic firearms to fully automatic; and cracking down on shooting threats, fentanyl trafficking and drunken driving. Lawmakers also passed House Bill 12 to expand the 'extreme risk firearm protection order' — or 'red flag' law — to allow police to immediately seize guns in cases of imminent harm and file the so-called red flag petitions themselves. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed it into law Friday. 032225_MS_Legislature_011.JPG Rep. Andrea Romero, D-Santa Fe, holds her head as she wraps up the legislative session at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe. One gun bill that didn't pass was Senate Bill 279, which would have mostly banned gas-powered semiautomatic rifles and high-capacity magazines. Shortly after the Legislature adjourned, Everytown for Gun Safety put out a statement blasting lawmakers for failing to pass the bill, singling out by name Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, Senate Judiciary chair Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, and Senate Finance chair George Muñoz, D-Gallup. 'I grew up in Las Cruces — I know the park, the neighborhood and some of the victims that were there — this shooting is personal,' said Leighanne Muñoz, a New Mexico Students Demand Action volunteer. 'My senator, Joseph Cervantes, blocked legislation to ban assault weapons and, after last night, it's time he asked himself if he plans to turn a blind eye while his constituents die or if he'll actually do what he was elected to do and vote for gun safety.' Senate Bills 1 and 3 offer 'monumental behavioral health reform,' Wirth said. SB 1 establishes a trust fund for annual spending on behavioral health initiatives while SB 3 creates an organizational framework for the state's revamped behavioral health system, requiring region-specific plans to address local behavioral health needs. Funding for those changes is now in the state's budget bill, House Bill 2. 'We had laid the foundation in the interim to do that work, and I was super proud of this team — in both chambers, the members — to bring those bills across the line in that first 30 days,' Wirth said. He added, 'I think we're all extra exhausted because we literally started right out of the gate, and it was critical that we did that.' CYFD reforms The 2025 legislative session brought about 100 bills aimed at reforming the perennially challenged CYFD, with lawmakers from both parties clamoring for reforms, said Sen. Michael Padilla, D-Albuquerque. 'I will tell you that everybody standing behind me and everybody in this Legislature absolutely had a hand in crafting a great piece of legislation called Senate Bill 42,' said Padilla, who grew up in foster homes. SB 42 overhauls the state's law governing treatment plans for children born with drugs in their systems and requires New Mexico to comply with federal law calling for prevention services for at-risk families, among other changes. 'I encourage the governor to sign that bill,' Padilla said. 'It is a big piece of legislation that's going to truly reform CYFD.' Lawmakers also heralded the signing of House Bill 5, which creates an Office of Child Advocate within the state Department of Justice to monitor CYFD. 032225_MS_Legislature_006.JPG Rep. John Block R-Alamogordo, hugs House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, after the session closed Saturday at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe. 'This office will provide the independent oversight needed to ensure the agency is acting in our kids' best interest and giving kids in CYFD a trusted advocate who will not only listen to their concerns, but help resolve them,' said House Majority Leader Reena Szczepanski, D-Santa Fe. Despite pressure from the governor and Republicans, lawmakers stopped short of acting on juvenile crime. However, Martínez argued reforming CYFD is part of addressing juvenile crime. 'You cannot talk about juvenile crime without ensuring that this state steps up and shows up for those children who are in situations where they are struggling, right?' he said. Climate, education and everything else Senate President Pro Tempore Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, said this session brought a change in the Legislature: 'We are starting to talk about climate change. A lot of people don't want to talk about that,' she said. In the past 60 days, Stewart said lawmakers in both houses did good things for the climate, including creating two funds to adapt to and mitigate climate change as well as taking control of regulating New Mexico's surface waters. Stewart also lauded lawmakers' progress on a few key education bills, including a major update to the state's per-pupil funding formula and salary increases for teachers. 032225_MS_Legislature_005.JPG A woman walks through the quiet Rotunda on Saturday at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe. Conservation groups expressed mixed feelings about the session, lauding the passage of some climate bills and the Game Commission overhaul in Senate Bill 5 while expressing disappointment that an oil and gas tax hike didn't pass. 'We are grateful for the legislative investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in climate solutions driven by community and workforce development initiatives,' Camilla Feibelman, director of the Sierra Club's Rio Grande chapter, said in a statement. 'The innovative programs that this money funds will help the state avoid the worst impacts of global warming.' However, she lamented that the oil and gas industry 'spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to stop commonsense safeguards against the very emissions harming our state all while fighting modest taxation on their multibillion dollar profits that would support working families.' The final hours of the session almost brought an education policy upset. The House voted unanimously to override a gubernatorial veto of House Bill 65, which would have specified the power of local school boards and charter school governing bodies to determine 'the total number of instructional days per year.' The bill was a direct legislative response to the Public Education Department's so-called 180-day rule. The Senate stopped short of voting to override the governor's veto on House Bill 65, inaction Stewart attributed to a lack of time. 'And now we're all very tired [from] getting two hours of sleep a night,' Stewart said.
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Senator calls for ‘civility' after death threat following New Mexico GOP post
Sen. Joseph Cervantes (D-Las Cruces), chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee. Cervantes called on Republicans Thursday Feb. 20, 2025 to denounce a death threat made against him in the comments of a social media posts by NM GOP official accounts. (Photo by Austin Fisher / Source NM) Sen. Joseph Cervantes (D-Las Cruces) on Thursday called for 'civility' and asked Senate Republicans to condemn a death threat against him and the posting of his home address in the comments of an official Republican Party of New Mexico social media post he characterized as 'a falsehood, a lie.' 'I'm a big boy, so I'm used to politics, distortions, lies and mistruths,' Cervantes said on the Senate floor. 'But when it leads to some of the comments that were made on that Republican website that include my home address, GPS coordinates to my home and a suggestion that I'm treasonous and that the penalty for treason is death — it really requires me to stand up and say: Let's work together cooperatively, intelligently and ask you all to denounce that type of rhetoric.' The post in question referred to Senate Bill 279, which would prohibit the importation, sale, manufacture, transfer, receipt or possession of gas-operated semi-automatic firearms, magazines that hold more than 10 rounds, and devices that convert semi-automatic guns into fully automatic ones. Cervantes is not one of the bill's five sponsors. But the bill is assigned to be heard by the Senate Judiciary committee, which Cervantes chairs. On Feb. 18, across social media, the official state Republican party social media accounts posted a graphic with a photo of Cervantes accompanied by text claiming 'Joseph Cervantes (D) plots radical overreach to ban guns' with his office's number and email, and a message to oppose Senate Bill 279, calling it an anti-Second Amendment bill. Minority Floor Leader William Sharer (R-Farmington) responded to Cervantes on the floor and defended the party's post. 'I reject the idea that it was a lie, mostly because the chair of the committee gets to decide what happens in that committee, and certainly we were told that this was getting ready to happen in that committee,' Sharer said on the floor. 'So, while I understand his concern, and I deeply, deeply, deeply do not condone any violence or any threat of violence — for that, I ask whoever's out there doing that: Stop. Stop.' Sharer further asked Cervantes 'for peace, and I will try to avoid being that pointed.' Source NM verified that at least two comments on the social media post characterized the legislation as an 'infringement' on 'our right to bear arms,' before adding that 'violating the Constitution is considered 'Treason' and the maximum 'punishment for treason is death.' Both posts were tagged for possible violations for 'rules against Violent Speech.' In an interview outside his office following his remarks on the floor Cervantes said he has not filed a police report about the death threat and 'probably' doesn't intend to do so because it would give more attention to the person who made the threat, and 'they may get crazier.' 'I've never been about banning guns. I'm a gun owner. I have a concealed carry permit,' he said. 'Any suggestion that I'm working to ban guns is false.' He said the incident doesn't dissuade him at all from hearing SB 279, and he intends to schedule it for a hearing. 'I'd rather downplay it; I think it's been addressed,' Cervantes said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
