Right now, you’d be forgiven for thinking immigration is the number one issue in New Mexico.
On Tuesday, the Senate passed a strong, important bill. It kicks ICE out of the money-making part of their grift in our counties. It also firmly forbids state police, sheriffs, and city cops from joining ANY federal immigration mission.
That’s solid legislation. As someone working around the Roundhouse for over a decade, it’s rare to see a bill that actually does something this monumental. Strangely, it didn’t seem that hard.
As I write this on February 4, the halfway point of the session, I’m struck by how seriously most Democratic legislators took this issue—in every committee, on the floor, and in public. While some MAGA Republicans were let off their leash in the House, Senate Republicans seemed oddly muted. They mostly fretted about lost revenue for their districts.
Setting aside the darkness of caring more about jail revenue than human beings, that’s some old-school fiscal conservatism. Once the Governor signs this and Fox News picks up New Mexico’s defiant anti-Trump stance, it’ll be interesting to see if the MAGA base comes for those GOP senators.
But Tuesday’s vote struck me for another reason. Senate rules allow for marathon filibusters. Yet, the GOP gave in faster than the House spent debating the bill the week before.
BUT MEANWHILE…
Earlier that same Tuesday, on the Senate floor, the Conservation Committee met to debate SB18, the Clear Horizons Act. It’s this year’s version of the comprehensive emissions bill that’s died every session since at least 2020.
That debate was something.
The committee debated SB18 for over FIVE hours. One bill. One committee. Some of that was public input, which the chair limited to an hour total. Notably, opposition wasn’t just from Republicans. At least one Democrat spent considerable time trying to sink this flagship legislation.
Who was it? Senator Cervantes.
Oops.
Why “oops”? Because Senator Cervantes was the lead Senate sponsor of the ICE bill. He said powerful, beautiful things about why he staunchly supported it. He even took responsibility for killing similar bills in the past, admitting he was wrong. Cervantes has notoriously opposed these comprehensive emissions bills before, killing one in his own committee just last year.
Why is this a surprise? Why does it matter?
Maybe it doesn’t. Maybe I’m just a jaded politico, so seldom shocked by a glimpse of humanity in the Roundhouse that I feel moved to comment.
No. That’s not it.
It’s the jaded politico in me that’s itching to write this. Our legislature, as a whole, cared deeply enough about our immigrant neighbors to say: “Yeah, some counties will lose jobs. That sucks. But we have to stop being in the concentration camp business. We’ll figure it out.”
That sense of urgency is utterly missing for the emissions bills that have died repeatedly for a decade.
I guess the urgency of our burning forests, our coughing kids, our flooding cities, our single-source revenue model… none of that is urgent. And yes, the threat of brownshirt wannabes executing our neighbors is urgent. I’m not saying it’s not.
What I’m saying is that the apparent epiphany of senators like Joseph Cervantes only came after public attitudes shifted. It became politically expedient to care.
The current reality is that while families struggle with rising costs, lack of healthcare, and putting food on their table, there likely will not be a large public outcry about environmental protections until it’s far too late. And that is understandable. It’s up to our legislators to do the right thing, and change their hearts and minds, even when public outcry is not present.
We have to act on climate. Part of me wants to scream from the gallery: “DO SOMETHING!” But the reality is, it’s not politically expedient. We haven’t been put out enough by it.
Gas is back under $3. Our electric bills are mid-range. It’s hot in the summer, but it’s “always been hot,” right? Never mind that Ruidoso almost washed into Roswell last year. Never mind that four years ago, the state experienced its first and second largest wildfires at the same time. People affected still haven’t been paid. People are losing insurance for homes and businesses.
We’re a couple of “good” fires and floods away from it suddenly becoming politically expedient for a holdout legislator to finally “get it.”
But we could just… do that now.
The billions that oil and gas pay us to ignore the trillions they steal will eventually dry up. Passing emissions controls, holding them accountable for the junk they pump into our air while stealing our resources, feels like a minimal ask.
I like to think the suited humanoids in Santa Fe are people with feelings. It’s comforting to hear them get emotional and admit mistakes. It’s a breath of fresh air to see them use the political power we gave them to pass policy that reflects our values.
Alas, that political power and those emotions sure seem to wax and wane whenever a bill might slightly inconvenience the oil and gas industry.
We can do more than one thing a year. The New Mexico Legislature introduces hundreds of bills a year and averages between passing 15-25% of them. We could, for instance, have the legislature meet for longer. Or more often. Or change the archaic rule about every other year only being a “budget” session. And we could and should pay our legislators. But even under our current system, we can see them doing the work.
When they want to.
We can do both. We can protect our families and our future. New Mexicans have lived through devastating climate disasters and we know what’s at stake. Just like we came together to stop our state from being complicit in human rights abuses towards our immigrant community, we can come together to demand bold climate action. Time is running out, but it’s not too late. We’ll look back and be grateful for every moment we chose to fight for a livable planet. Let’s not waste another one.
The ICE bill proved our legislature can act with moral clarity and political courage when the issue is clear and the public is watching. The real test of leadership isn’t just seizing those moments. It’s finding that same courage when the crisis is slower-moving, the villains are campaign donors, and the only immediate reward is a future we’re not forced to survive.