I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
The League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, is asking the U.S. Department of Justice to look into racial profiling in Roswell.
The Associated Press reports that Paul Martinez, the New Mexico director of LULAC, sent a letter to the Justice Department office in Houston and the New Mexico attorney general’s office asking them to look into the allegations.
So what is happening in Roswell?
LULAC says the Roswell Police Department requires Hispanics to provide their Social Security numbers and documents proving their immigration status when they are stopped, questioned or when they ask for assistance.
“When you start asking Hispanics for their Social Security numbers because you suspect they don’t have citizenship, you’re creating a second class of citizen and you’re violating their civil rights,” Martinez said.
It sounds suspiciously like what goes on in Maricopa County in Arizona, where the Department of Justice, after the request of the House Judiciary Committee, is investigating Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s alleged racial profiling operations.
Apraio is the self-styled “America’s toughest sheriff.”
But the allegations in Roswell go beyond just racial profiling from police officers. It goes clear up to the mayor.
LULAC also accuses Mayor Sam LaGrone of being “less than cordial” toward Hispanic business leaders. The organization accused him of being behind a cut in city funding to the Hispano Chamber of Commerce in retaliation for advocating for Hispanics and complaining about abuses of power.
Juan Oropesa, executive director of the Hispano Chamber, said the mayor told him that Roswell does not need two chambers of commerce and has not been supportive of the Hispano Chamber.
“In my opinion, he is supposed to be representative of the entire community, but for whatever reason he doesn’t want to be associated with us,” Oropesa said.
“The allegations in that letter are very serious, and we take them very seriously,” Phil Sisneros, spokesman for the attorney general’s office, told the Associated Press.
