Sanctuary City

Former Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White was grilled on a range of issues by the Albuquerque City Council last night, before being confirmed as Albuquerque’s chief public safety officer. White was confirmed on an eight-to-one vote, with Councilor Rey Garduño dissenting.
Garduño questioned White extensively on his approach to crime, including the use of predictive modeling, which [...]

Albuquerque mayoral candidate Richard “R.J.” Berry is distorting the Albuquerque Police Department’s policy on immigration, officials say, and that could weaken the trust the department has worked to gain among the city’s immigrant community. Without that trust, victims or witnesses may be less likely to report crimes and cooperate with police investigations.

One of Albuquerque’s mayoral candidates is calling one of his opponents campaign themes divisive.

Former State Senate President Pro Tem Richard Romero said that State Rep. Richard Berry’s charge that Albuquerque is a “sanctuary city” is a “politically-charged wedge issue” meant to serve no purpose other than to divide the community.

Two of the claims–about trollies and immigration–in a recent radio ad for incumbent Mayor Martin Chavez are “provably false,” according to a “fact check” e-mail sent out by the campaign of one of Chavez’ opponents, RJ Berry.

A wide-ranging group of advocates and community-based organizations released a statement yesterday expressing “outrage” that Albuquerque mayoral candidate Richard Berry and the state Republican party are attempting to connect the violent take-over of a packed Denny’s restaurant last week, which led to one death, to the city’s non-discrimination policies regarding the treatment of immigrants.

Albuquerque mayoral candidate Richard “R.J.” Berry and the state Republican Party said this week that police policies regarding immigrants are partly to blame for a violent robbery on the west side that left one person dead. Mayor Martin Chavez’s office responded that Berry and the state GOP are “endorsing racial profiling.”