New Mexico special session sputters as legislators rebuke governor

Members of the New Mexico Legislature gave the public a civics lesson in checks and balances Thursday when they rejected several bills the governor touted as essential. 

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham proclaimed the session on July 17, calling on lawmakers to ban panhandling in medians, ease the process for courts to involuntarily commit people accused of crimes, oblige police departments to better report crime statistics and crack down on organized crime, among other public safety topics. 

Lujan Grisham also called on the legislature to pass emergency funding for people affected by the South Fork and Salt fires in Ruidoso and the Mescalero Apache reservation, and money for assisted outpatient treatment programs around the state. 

They did that, passing a $100 million package and then called it a day.

“(It’s) not surprising,” Las Cruces Mayor Eric Enriquez told the Bulletin. “It is unfortunate that everyone can’t come together.”

House and Senate leaders said publicly that the governor was attempting to rush through legislation around mental health, drug use and crime. Leaders said that much more time and thought was needed to attack those intersections. 

Civil rights groups Bold Futures, Equality New Mexico, the ACLU of New Mexico and the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness condemned the governor’s remarks around the special session as scapegoating and perpetuating harmful narratives about New Mexicans who are experiencing homelessness, mental illness and addiction.

"Our problem is not an absence of laws," said Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces. "Our problem is the lack of willingness to tell the truth and speak truth to power.”

Enriquez, who sat beside the governor during the proclamation, acknowledged that some legislation may not have been fully cooked. 

“I know it wasn’t anything solid, but it was a good way to get things started,” Enriquez said.