Free Republic

SANTA FE – Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed an emergency petition Monday challenging a series of anti-abortion ordinances passed by communities in eastern New Mexico in the wake of last year’s Supreme Court decision. In a 27-page filing, Torrez asked the state Supreme Court to strike down the ordinances, arguing they violate civil rights guaranteed by the state Constitution. The city- and county-level measures also infringe on the state’s authority to regulate health care, Torrez said, and they attempt to create a series of local abortion bans. “It is simply inappropriate, unlawful and unconstitutional for local governments to use their...

There’s a new abortion service coming soon to New Mexico, but don’t expect to see Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham at the grand opening. The Satanic Temple is planning to open a telehealth clinic staffed by medical professionals, including former Planned Parenthood employees, offering prescriptions for abortion pills free of charge for those willing to perform the organization’s spoken-word “abortion ritual.” The specter of Satanists getting into the abortion business sounds like something ripped from the pages of the Babylon Bee, but Erin Helian, the Satanic Temple’s “religious reproductive rights director,” insists that the project isn’t satire.

On Friday, the state House Health and Human Services Committee advanced a radical piece of legislation, H.B. 7, which would force public bodies to facilitate abortions and transgenderism, dubbed “gender-affirming care,” or face lawsuits. The bill also explicitly bans municipalities and counties from passing local laws to protect children in the womb from being aborted, meaning counties would be banned from enforcing their ordinances.The bill would “prohibit public bodies from discriminating against persons based on their use or non-use of reproductive or gender-affirming care,” meaning it could push teachers and any other public workers to support body mutilation for all...

On Tuesday, Democrats in the New Mexico House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee killed a slew of bills sponsored by Rep. Bill Rehm (R-Albuquerque) that would curb crime relating to fentanyl trafficking, illegal firearm trafficking, and retail theft. Democrats, on party-line votes, killed all five of Rehm’s bills, even a bill that would have enhanced sentencing for those trafficking 29 fentanyl pills or greater. Rehm made clear he was open to changing the number of fentanyl pills a dealer was peddling, but despite reasonable efforts, the bill died on a 4-2 vote. Bills that would penalize those who conducted illegal...

Last year, bills to stop funding non-profits that help illegal aliens enter this country were introduced in the House and Senate. The Stop Federal Funding for Human Trafficking and Smuggling Act and the Protecting Federal Funds from Human Trafficking and Smuggling Act have failed to make headway. Meanwhile, the problem has only gotten worse. Such bills would not be necessary if the IRS were doing its job. Instead, the IRS, which consistently targets conservative nonprofits, has refused to address the problem. The mass invasion of the United States of America would not be possible without a nonprofit sector that has...

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico legislators have introduced a bill that would prohibit local governments and state agencies from entering into contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and private detention facilities to detain immigrants in civil cases. The bill introduced Tuesday could unwind contractual arrangements at the Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral in southern New Mexico and spur closer oversight at others.... ...The bill resembles recently enacted legislation in New Jersey, Virginia and Illinois aimed at ending detention in civil immigration cases in local facilities. California’s 2019 ban on privately owned immigration detention facilities was rejected...

Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL) lectured Americans while in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting, urging them to accept amnesty for the nation’s 11 to 22 million illegal aliens. During a panel discussion alongside Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), and others, Salazar said some form of amnesty is necessary for illegal aliens living across the United States. She said: We need to also give dignity to those people who are in the country and those are the people that I represent. We’re talking about 13 to 15 million people — who are, most of them, Hispanics,...

A failed New Mexico state house candidate described by police as an "election denier" was arrested Monday in a string of shootings at the homes of regional Democratic leaders. Republican Solomon Pena is accused of conspiring with and paying four men to carry out four shootings at the Albuquerque-area homes of two Bernalillo County commissioners and two state legislators, Albuquerque police said. The onetime candidate might have been motivated by anger over his November loss, police said. Albuquerque Police Department spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos said at a news conference early Monday evening that Pena alleged his defeat was the result of...

A failed Republican state legislative candidate who authorities say was angry over losing the election last November and made baseless claims that the election was “rigged” against him was arrested Monday in connection with a series of drive-by shootings targeting the homes of Democratic lawmakers in New Mexico’s largest city.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Albuquerque Police says a former New Mexico House candidate who lost his election in November is now accused of conspiring to shoot at the homes of four Albuquerque lawmakers in December and January. The department made the announcement late Monday afternoon, saying Solomon Peña is accused of shooting at the homes of two Democratic Bernalillo County commissioners and two Democratic state lawmakers. A 39-year-old Republican, Peña ran and lost the race for House District 14 in the November 2022 election. APD arrested Peña during a SWAT situation Monday afternoon near downtown Albuquerque. Albuquerque Police Chief Harold...

Far-left pro-abortion legislators are chomping at the bit to ram through even more pro-abortion legislation, although New Mexico has effectively already legalized abortion up to birth and infanticide with no protections whatsoever for women, babies, or medical professionals. Despite the extremist anti-life agenda seeping through New Mexico via repeals of health protections for pregnant women and killing the terminally ill via cocktails of lethal unproven drugs, the far-left Democrats want even more of the life-ending policies. Rep. Linda Serrato (D-Santa Fe) and Sen. Linda Lopez (D-Bernalillo) are planning on “codifying” abortion up to birth and infanticide into state law after...

On Monday, far-left New Mexico state Rep. Patricia Roybal-Caballero (D-Bernalillo) dropped the Democrats’ first anti-gun bill of the 2023 Legislative Session, H.B. 50. The bill is a magazine ban that would make violations of the bill if passed, felons. The bill reads, “It is unlawful for a person to possess or transfer a large-capacity magazine within New Mexico, except when the person is: a resident of another state who transports a large-capacity magazine into New Mexico for use exclusively in an established shooting competition” or “a peace officer, in accordance with the policies of the peace officer’s law enforcement agency,”...

Joe Biden is in Mexico meeting with the President of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He delivered some remarks with the two other leaders on Tuesday. I reported earlier on what Biden said about the classified documents in his office at the Penn Biden Center. But he also made remarks about illegal immigration and the problem at our Southern border. First, AMLO gave him a left-handed compliment, but I’m not sure that Biden is bright enough to pick up on what the Mexican President was truly saying. ... “You, President Biden, you are the...

HACHITA, N.M. — A Border Patrol agent wearing body armor was struck by gunfire but avoided serious injury Thursday while confronting the occupants of a vehicle suspected of migrant smuggling in New Mexico, federal authorities said. Six people were taken into custody after the vehicle later crashed, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said. The agency added that the agent was shot in the chest multiple times and was released after a medical examination.

DOD report notes 'tables, chairs and cots broken' by Afghans, 'tents and cots ruined by spray paint, human biological matter and holes' ... A new Department of Defense (DOD) report found that the U.S. military bases that housed Afghan evacuees suffered $260 million in damages, with the Air Force saying the damage was "unrepairable." The DOD inspector general reported last week that the eight bases housing the refugees in Texas, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Virginia, New Mexico and Indiana are asking for repair money after they sustained over a quarter-billion dollars in damage. Over 17 days, 120,000 evacuees were taken to...

EL PASO, Texas — In the middle of the West Texas desert, a giant tent — bigger than a football field — is being thrown up by the US Border Patrol as El Paso prepares for a human tidal wave to cross the border with Mexico as soon as the Title 42 health policy comes to an end. The makeshift facility northeast of downtown will serve as an overflow processing center when Title 42 expires — which could happen as soon as this week, depending on whether the Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the Biden administration from 19...

The more than 4,000-page, $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill prohibits funds for U.S. border security but it provides funding for border security in foreign nations. Democrats need at least 10 votes from GOP senators to pass the legislation, which was unveiled on Tuesday. Congressional leaders are rushing to pass it before the Christmas break. House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy opposes the bill, arguing that Congress should pass a funding bill that expires in January, allowing the new Congress to negotiate its own package. North Carolina Republican Rep. Dan Bishop and his staff combed through the legislation all day Tuesday and...

Decades of writing about politicians has taught me that the successful ones generally do not make big decisions on the fly. If you watch and listen, you can usually spot a deliberative process and defensible reasoning behind their positions. But now comes a major exception: the decision by the Biden administration to throw open our southern border. Two years into this national disaster, I don’t have a clue about why the president and his team are still doing this. What started as a foolish bid to undo everything Donald Trump did has become a permanent policy that undercuts national security...

Last month, Albuquerque police revealed gun law violations spiked 85% this year alone. KOB 4 spoke with lawmakers Monday who are tasked with coming up with solutions, during the upcoming legislative session. “Firearms have increased to become the leading cause of death for children,” said Rep. Reena Szczepanski. That’s according to 2020 data from the CDC, and it’s prompting Democratic legislators to double down on gun safety during the upcoming legislative session. That includes a new proposal to raise the age requirement for purchasing AR-style rifles from 18 to 21. “It’s basically closing a bit of a loophole, because right...

Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued his 37th COVID-19 disaster proclamation. Illinois is one of only 10 states living under an emergency order. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has issued his 37th COVID-19 disaster proclamation, extending his emergency powers through Jan. 5. When it ends, Pritzker will have held emergency powers for 1,029 of 1,452 days in office, or 70% of his term. None of Illinois’ neighboring states remain under emergency orders. Illinois is one of just 10 states nationwide still being ruled through emergency powers, with eight of the 10 led by Democratic governors. ... New York was once the epicenter of COVID...