DAILY LOBO new mexico
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tuesday March 5, 2013
The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895
Driver’s license bill draws protest by Ardee Napolitano news@dailylobo.com
Karla Molinar is a UNM student and an undocumented immigrant who has been living in the United States for more than five years now. However, because she does not qualify for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), she is at risk of losing her driver’s license. “I came here when I was 13 years old,” she said. “When DACA passed, I thought I was already going to feel secure. But DACA asks that you come to the United States by June 15, 2007, but I came here July 20. So by one month I didn’t qualify for DACA.” Molinar said she was one of about 50 people who protested House Bill 606 in front of the UNM Bookstore Friday night. She gave the Daily Lobo permission to publish her immigration status. HB 606, endorsed by Gov. Susana Martinez, was introduced to the Legislature Feb. 14 and would take away undocumented immigrants’ ability to get driver’s licenses who did not qualify for DACA. The bill is still being discussed in the Legislature. The protest doubled as a vigil in solidarity of the immigrant community in New Mexico. “I thought there weren’t many
undocumented immigrants, and I thought no one else was going through what I went through,” she said. “But everyone told me that they’re not going to leave me behind. This is what this movement is about. It represents unity and family.” DACA is a memorandum issued by President Obama that was implemented by the Department of Homeland Security last year. It allows undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. by June 15, 2007 and who meet certain requirements to be exempt from deportation for a period of time and to have some benefits. Italia Aranda, state coordinator of New Mexico Dreamers in Action and a member of the UNM Dream Team, said she organized the vigil to express the Latino community’s grievances against the governor. She said the governor has been pursuing the bill since she took office. “Year after year, ever since Susana Martinez has taken the power of governor in New Mexico, we’ve seen our community attacked just because of their immigration status,” she said. Aranda, who is an undocumented immigrant, said the bill will ban people who do not have Social Security numbers from receiving driver’s licenses in the state. Aranda gave the Daily Lobo permission to print her
Aaron Sweet / Daily Lobo Participants at a vigil organized by New Mexico Dreamers in Action hold candles in support of driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants. About 50 people attended the event, which was held Friday night in front of the UNM Bookstore. They were protesting House Bill 606, a bill in the state Legislature that would prevent some undocumented immigrants in the state from getting driver’s licenses. immigration status. She said people who qualify for DACA will have to renew their driver’s licenses yearly if the bill passes. The bill requires Social Security numbers for people trying to obtain a driver’s license to comply with the federal REAL ID Act. This act, which goes into effect next year, mandates that all state-issued IDs, including
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driver’s licenses, conform to the federal ID standards set forth in the act. Undocumented immigrants can get driver’s licenses in New Mexico as long as they pass a driving test and provide proofs of residence and identification. The state does not require anyone to provide Social Security numbers in their application. Aranda said that because many
undocumented immigrants in the state do not qualify for DACA, the bill would hurt the immigrant community. “Students that are recipients of deferred action already have an SSN,” she said. “We still have a lot of people who don’t qualify for deferred ac-
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IN SESSION
Alford suspends ‘D-Walk’ Senate OKs 3 new For now, Demetrius Walker off the team for rules violation
Demetrius Walker / Courtesy of GoLobos
by J.R. Oppenheim
assistantsports@dailylobo.com @JROppenheim New Mexico junior guard Demetrius Walker has been suspended indefinitely for a violation of team rules, head coach Steve Alford announced Monday at his weekly press conference. Alford did not disclose the details that led to the suspension, but it did not have anything to do with Walker’s health — Walker missed the last four games with a knee injury. UNM has two more regular-season games — Wednesday at Nevada and Saturday at Air Force — before the Mountain West Conference tournament March 1216 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nev.
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“I won’t say more about it,” Alford said. “I want to protect him, obviously, but it’s an indefinite suspension and we’ll just see how it plays out the rest of the year.” Walker played 23 games this season. He started the first four games of the season when UNM experimented with a fourguard set, but he was moved to the bench to allow a true power forward to play in that starting spot. Since then, senior forward Chad Adams and junior forward Cameron Bairstow started in that position. Walker has averaged five points per game with a .353 shooting percentage. Alford said he does not like to lose any player because it affects the team’s depth. Freshman Cleveland Thomas had already moved ahead of Walker in the rotation because of Walker’s knee injury. Thomas will maintain that role, the coach said. “He’s doing a terrific job,” Alford said of Thomas. “We have to be able to do more minutes that way. I think he’s earned it. He’s done a lot of good things for us and he’s going to be a big part of our future. This is a good time of year for him to gain that kind of experience.” Junior guard Kendall Williams said he is close friends with Walker, and he recognizes how tough a year Walker had. The team must come together and move on, Williams said. “We’ve dealt with different forms of adversity, but this is the first time something like this has obviously happened,” he said. “We have to (move on). It’s something we definitely need to do especially this week preparing for Vegas. … I don’t think you’d be telling the truth if you didn’t feel for DWalk and the team’s not going to feel it.”
regents for UNM Regents will serve 6-year terms, student regent will serve 2 years by John Tyczkowski news@dailylobo.com
On Monday, the Senate unanimously confirmed UNM regents Conrad James and Suzanne Quillen and student regent Heidi Overton. These newest members of the Board of Regents, appointed by Gov. Susana Martinez, will replace regents Don Chalmers and Carolyn Abeita, and student regent Jacob Wellman, whose terms expired in December. According to a press release, James is a former state representative from Albuquerque who served one term in the House starting in 2011. He holds a Master’s degree and Ph.D. in applied and engineering physics from Cornell University and has worked at Sandia National Labs as a research engineer since 2002. Quillen is the CEO of Advanced Care Hospital of Southern New Mexico in Las Cruces and is a registered nurse and certified nurse practitioner who has previously worked for UNM in nursing education. Quillen holds a master’s degree in public administration. Overton is a second-year medical student at UNM from Gallup who was valedictorian of Gallup High School upon
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graduation in 2007. She graduated from UNM summa cum laude in May 2011 with a Bachelor’s degree in health, medicine and human values. Regents serve six-year terms on the seven-member board and the sole student regent serves a two-year term. In other UNM-related news, House Bill 71 passed through the House unanimously last Thursday. The bill provides for the Higher Education Department to conduct a study to determine whether UNM Gallup would be better off as an independent community college, or as another institution’s branch campus, rather than remain a UNM branch campus. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Patricia Lundstrom (D-Gallup), underwent some revisions before being passed through the House. Before the bill went through the House Education Committee, two additional provisions regarding what a feasibility study for UNM Gallup’s independence should consider were added. These provisions were added to clarify language in the bill about measuring and evaluating UNM’s academic practices at UNM Gallup and to name specific categories that the study would need to examine. It will be considered in the Senate Education Committee next, hearing date to be determined.
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