{"id":23797,"date":"2025-01-30T17:19:29","date_gmt":"2025-01-31T00:19:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/stansbury-vasquez-vow-to-ensure-new-mexico-remains-a-safe-haven\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:42:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:42:04","slug":"stansbury-vasquez-vow-to-ensure-new-mexico-remains-a-safe-haven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/stansbury-vasquez-vow-to-ensure-new-mexico-remains-a-safe-haven\/","title":{"rendered":"Stansbury, Vasquez vow to ensure New Mexico \u2018remains a safe haven\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"U.S.
U.S. Rep. Melanie Stanbury (D-N.M.) delivers an address to a joint session of the House and Senate on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (Eddie Moore \/ Albuquerque Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Two of New Mexico\u2019s representatives in Congress told New Mexico lawmakers on Thursday afternoon they will act as a bulwark against President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Addressing a joint session of the state House and Senate, U.S. Reps. Melanie Stansbury and Gabe Vasquez, both Democrats from Districts 1 and 2, respectively, tried to assuage fear and uncertainty among New Mexicans amid Trump\u2019s freeze of funding on grant and loan programs and immigration enforcement raids here and across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor those of you who are feeling scared and uncertain about the future of this country, know that we will fight to protect our communities, and especially those who are most vulnerable,\u201d Stansbury said.<\/p>\n

Vasquez called the funding freeze \u201ca huge threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to ensure that everybody in here that serves veterans \u2013 that serves any type of community service \u2013 that our entire New Mexico delegation is going to stand strong in the fight against this administration to freeze any federal funds that are coming to our communities. You can count on that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Stansbury represented part of Albuquerque in the state House of Representatives from 2019 to 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will work to ensure that New Mexico remains a safe haven for everyone, across all of our communities,\u201d Stansbury said. \u201cWe will defend the rights, freedoms and democracy of all New Mexicans, and this is your home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"U.S.
U.S. Rep. Melanie Stanbury (D-N.M.) delivers an address to a joint session of the House and Senate on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (Eddie Moore \/ Albuquerque Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Vasquez was a member of the Las Cruces City Council from 2017 to 2021. His congressional district encompasses the entirety of New Mexico\u2019s share of the U.S.-Mexico border.<\/p>\n

He said Trump\u2019s mass deportation operations and the proposed changes to birthright citizenship will harm New Mexico\u2019s economy and violate the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n

\u201cHardworking immigrants contribute billions \u2013 actually trillions \u2013 to our economy, from family farms in my district to rural businesses and emerging industries, and I am going to continue to find solutions, not be part of the problem in Washington, D.C.,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Instead, Vasquez said, immigration enforcement \u201cmust focus on violent criminals, not on tearing apart families or disrupting communities or local economies.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he is committed to \u201cachieving commonsense immigration reform that treats people humanely and modernizes border security.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can both address crime and fight to give immigrants who contribute to our communities a fair shot at residency and citizenship,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the truth is, unless you are Native American, you too, are an immigrant to New Mexico \u2013 just like me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

president\u2019s funding freeze, immigration raids<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23797"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78266,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23797\/revisions\/78266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23797"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}