Roswell Daily Record
Vol. 123, No. 147 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
June 19, 2014
THURSDAY
www.rdrnews.com
Immigrant driver’s licenses plunge in New Mexico SANTA FE (AP) — Firsttime driver’s licenses issued to immigrants in the country illegally plunged by nearly a third in the past year despite no change in New Mexico’s policy of granting driving privileges, records show. The dramatic decline comes after Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, who’s up for re-election, pushed unsuccessfully for four years to scrap the
state’s law allowing driver’s licenses to immigrants, regardless of their immigration status. According to a review of state records by The Associated Press, there was a 31 percent decline in firsttime licenses issued to foreign nationals from 2012 and 2013. Licenses granted during the first quarter of this year dr opped by nearly a third compared to the same period last year.
There’s no clear explanation for the r ecent trend, although licenses have been declining since Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson left office at the end of 2010. He signed the license law in 2003. Martinez said her administration hasn’t changed its policies for scrutinizing license applications in the past year. However, she contends the decline is attributable to
the state’s willingness to prosecute individuals who fraudulently try to obtain licenses. “The law was meant for people who live her e. When you are brought in from another country to commit a crime her e, I think the word is getting out we ar e not going to take it,” Martinez said in an interview Tuesday. The state has prosecuted what it considers
organized fraud rings that help immigrants obtain a license in New Mexico. Charges were brought in April against two immigrants living in New York who tried to obtain licenses in New Mexico after responding to a New York newspaper advertisement and paying $1,500 each to obtain documents needed for their applications. Immigrant rights activist Marcela Diaz dismisses
Berrendo Middle School student Kendal Sanders, left, looks on as her teacher, Kimberley Featherstone, center, is named the 2014 Workplace Safety Hero at the Red Cross Real Heroes Awards Breakfast on Wednesday at the Roswell Convention and Civic Center. Featherstone was honored for her actions during the Jan. 14 shooting that happened at the middle school.
Real Heroes breakfast brings joy, tears teacher Kimberley Featherstone was played on Wednesday morning during the second annual Red There wasn’t a dry eye in Cross Real Heroes recognithe house when the video tion breakfast. of Berrendo Middle School Featherstone took BY RANDAL SEYLER RECORD STAFF WRITER
wounded student Kendal nated for the Real Hero Sanders into her class- award by Kendal’s mother, room, along with other Nickie Portio. children, and called 9-1-1 “I saw the life draining during the shooting incident on Jan. 14. See HEROES, Page A3 Featherstone was nomi-
“If you don’t have a job why would you move to New Mexico,” said Diaz, executive dir ector of Somos Un Pueblo Unido, a Santa Fe-based group that opposes ef forts to stop licenses for immigrants.
Candidates count on Gov. Martinez BY JEFF TUCKER RECORD STAFF WRITER
Randal Seyler Photos
that a fraud crackdown is behind the license decline and instead sees the state’s weak economy as the reason.
Republican candidates for state auditor and state treasurer told a group of local Republicans Wednesday they plan to campaign with Gov. Susana Martinez as often as possible in the coming months and link their campaigns with Martinez’s re-election effort. Republican state auditor candidate Robert Aragon and state treasurer candidate Rick Lopez also said they plan to mimic Martinez’s recent campaign efforts in such Democrat strongholds as Española and reach out to traditional Democrat voters in hopes of retur ning the state offices to the GOP column for the first time in decades. Aragon and Lopez, who both won their party’s nominations in uncontested races in the June 3 Republican primary, were the guest speakers at Wednesday’s June luncheon of the Chaves County Republican Women at the Roswell Elks Lodge. Aragon will square off in November against Democrat nominee Tim Keller.
Lopez will face T im Eichenberg, who secured the Democrat nomination for state treasurer after beating fellow Democrat John Wertheim in the June primaries. State Auditor Hector Balderas and State Treasurer James Lewis, both Democrats, are not running for re-election. Aragon said Martinez is a special governor. “Our governor is special and it is important that she has a team of executives, and this is a part of the executive branch, who will work in concert with her,” Aragon said. “It is important that she has a team she can count on to implement the changes and reforms to fix this corrupt state once and for all. I want to be a part of that team.” Aragon, an Albuquerque lawyer, spoke of his time as a Democrat state representative at the Roundhouse and what he learned from the experience. Aragon said former state Rep. John Mershon, a deceased Cloudcroft Democrat and once one of New
VA chief: More vets wait Better weather ahead for Western wildfire 30 days for appointment WASHINGTON (AP) — About 10 percent of veterans seeking medical care at VA hospitals and clinics have to wait at least 30 days for an appointment — more than twice the percentage of veterans the gover nment said last week were forced to endure long waits, the acting veterans af fairs secretary said Wednesday. Sloan Gibson said the higher number of veterans waiting 30 days or more is revealed in a report due out Thursday. He called the increase unfortunate, but said it was probably an indication that more reliable data was being reported by VA schedulers, rather
than an actual increase in veteran wait times.
“I don’t like that we’ve got more veterans waiting, but at least we’re getting better data” as the VA seeks to address widespread problems of long patient waiting times and falsified records to mask frequent long delays, Gibson said.
A report issued June 9 said about 4 percent of 6 million appointments scheduled at VA facilities nationwide showed wait times longer than 30 days. That total has jumped to about 10 percent in the new report, Gibson said.
Randal Seyler Photo
City Councilor Natasha Mackey visits the Roswell Kiwanis Club on Tuesday. Mackey discussed her first few months as a councilor and her passion for music and her faith. She also performed the national anthem Wednesday morning for the second annual Red Cross Real Heroes Awards Breakfast at the Roswell Convention and Civic Center.
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — As summer approaches, relief is in sight for drought-stricken New Mexico and many other parts of the West as Mother Nature appears ready to ease up on her back-toback blows of stifling heat and gusty winds. A break in the unfavorable weather can’t come soon enough for the hundreds of firefighters battling a blaze on the Navajo Nation that has consumed more than 20 square miles of pinon and juniper forest along with grazing lands that tribal livestock owners have used for centuries. The Assayii Lake Fire has destroyed at least four structures. Another 50
City Councilor Natasha Mackey said running for of fice was not quite as easy as she had been led to believe. “Don’t let anyone tell you it’s easy to run for office,” Mackey said with a laugh. “We did a lot of knocking on doors and meeting with people, and it took a lot of work.” Mackey visited the Roswell Kiwanis Club on
HIGH 96 LOW 69
An U.S. flag whips in the wind in Naschitti, as the Assayii Lake Fire continues to burn in the Chuska Mountains in the background, Tuesday.
homes near the rural communities of Naschitti and Sheep Springs were threatened, with some in Naschitti evacuated.
Forecasters with the National Weather Service said storms moving across the Southwest have helped raise humidity levels, and
the winds are expected to die down by Thursday, giving firefighters the window needed to directly attack the flames. “What we saw over the past three or four days will basically end tomorrow. No more wind,” meteorologist Chuck Maxwell said Wednesday. Despite the variability in the weather and drought, the fire season has been relatively slow across the U.S., according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Idaho. The number of acres burned so far this year is half of the 10year average, and there have been fewer large fires. In the Southwest, the acreage burned is only 46 percent of average.
Faith helps Mackey deal with political arena
BY RANDAL SEYLER RECORD STAFF WRITER
TODAY’S FORECAST
AP Photo
See CANDIDATES, Page A3
• DAVID FINLEY
Tuesday, and was on hand Wednesday mor ning to sing the national anthem at the start of the Red Cross Real Heroes Award Breakfast at the Convention and Civic Center. Mackey was elected to the Ward 1 Council position in March, defeating incumbent Dusty Huckabee and making history in the process, becoming the first black woman elected to the city council. In spite of the hard work, Mackey says she
• LENDELL N. HAWKINS
TODAY’S OBITUARIES PAGE A6
thinks all of her efforts were worth it. “I love being an advocate for the people, and I love the advocacy part of the job,” she said. “But I am not so crazy about the political games people play in politics.” Mackey is an educator and a business woman, and is an learning coordinator for Easter n New Mexico University-Roswell, she said. When she isn’t working or serving on one of her three council committees, she is singing.
CLASSIFIEDS ..........B6 COMICS .................B5 ENTERTAINMENT .....A8 FINANCIAL ..............B4
Mackey is known for her outstanding performance of the national anthem, and she said she loves singing in her church and in public. “I don’t get nervous, I just tell God, ‘If you don’t want to look bad, then take care of me,’” she said. “Of course I have to do my part, I learn the music and do my vocal warm-ups.” Mackey said her faith in Jesus Christ also is a big See MACKEY, Page A3
INDEX GENERAL ...............A2
HOROSCOPES .........A8 LOTTERIES .............A2
OPINION .................A4
SPORTS .................B1
WEATHER ..............A8