This week on New Mexico in Focus, Gene Grant and a trio of special panelists discuss the end of Title 42. First, our panelists consider how officials around New Mexico prepared for the closing of the Trump-era immigration policy and ask why we haven’t seen the huge increase in migration many predicted. Then, Grant asks the panel to consider the journey a migrant takes when seeking asylum and questions how this country’s immigration system can improve.
Grant also sits down with Rep. Mark Duncan to discuss how the community in Farmington and San Juan County are reacting and recovering from a mass shooting that killed three people and injured six others.
Our Land’s Laura Paskus sits down with Jorge Silva-Bañuelos, superintendent of Valles Caldera National Preserve, to talk about how the National Park Service tries to balance public access with protecting wildlife and ecosystems — plus changes that might be coming, especially as the preserve works on a new management plan.
A criminal justice reform bill that would have made it tougher to lock up probationers and parolees for minor, so-called “technical” violations. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham vetoed the measure earlier this year. Executive Producer Jeff Proctor asks Eighth Judicial District Attorney Marcus Montoya and Chief Public Defender Bennett Baur whether the governor made the right choice to veto that bill.
New Mexico in Focus airs on NMPBS 5.1 (KNME HD) Friday, May 19 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, May 21 at 7 a.m., and streaming on the PBS video app.
NMiF Segments
Rep. Mark Duncan on Farmington Mass Shooting, Community Healing
Correspondent
Gene Grant
Guest
Rep. Mark Duncan - (R) Kirtland
Balancing Act at Valles Caldera
Correspondent
Laura Paskus
Guest
Jorge Silva-Bañuelos, Superintendent of Valles Caldera National Preserve
Criminal Justice Reform Vetoed by Governor
Correspondent
Jeff Proctor
Guests
Marcus Montoya, President, NM District Attorney Association
Bennett Baur, Chief Public Defender
Host
Gene Grant
The Panel
Sophia Genovese, Managing Attorney, New Mexico Immigrant Law Center
Roberto Rosales, Photojournalist
Algernon D'Ammassa, Editor, The Deming Headlight
New Mexico in Focus is the New Mexico PBS prime-time news magazine show covering the events, issues, and people that are shaping life in New Mexico and the Southwest. NMiF takes a multi-layered look at social, political, economic health, education, and art issues, and explores them in-depth with a critical eye to give them context beyond the "news of the moment."
NMPBS Executive Producer, Public Affairs, is Jeff Proctor. New Mexico in Focus Senior Producer for Public Affairs is Lou DiVizio. “Our Land” Senior Producer is Laura Paskus. The producer of New Mexico in Focus is Antonio Sanchez and Co-producer is Kathy Wimmer.
Funding for New Mexico in Focus is provided by the McCune Charitable Foundation and Viewers Like You.
Funding for the Your New Mexico Government Project comes from the Thornburg Foundation and New Mexico Local News Fund.
Funding for Our Land: New Mexico’s Environmental Past, Present & Future, is provided in part by the Neeper Natural History Programming Fund for KNME-TV