New Mexico's Moral Crisis, Hypocrisy, and Shocking Comments From Upcoming Guest Speakers

This week on The Chile Wire, we tackle three of the spiciest stories from last week. First, New Mexico is facing a moral crisis: child fatalities tied to an under resourced CYFD continue to rise—how did we get here, and who will take responsibility? Next, the redistricting of Texas causes tensions to rise and raises accusations of power grabs. Finally, we pull back the curtain on an event being hosted by The Democratic Party of New Mexico— and the three guests they have invited to speak at the event in September. Let's just say, some of these guest speakers' comments are downright SHOCKING. From heartbreaking truths to political bombshells, this episode connects the dots on the issues that matter—and the ones they hope you won’t notice.

What is The Chile Wire?

Real News For Real New Mexicans.

Abe Baldonado: 00:11

The Chile Wire with Abe Baldonado. Hey, y'all. Welcome back to The Chile Wire. We are on episode 10, and we have finally reached episode 10. And it's just me coming on today for our Chile Wire Wednesday.

Abe Baldonado: 00:25

Just wanna talk about a couple of things, things that have happened over the last week. I want to start with what's happened here in Albuquerque. 18 year old girl has died and her mother's now facing charges. It is now the sixth child fatality in the last four months. We are failing our kids.

Abe Baldonado: 00:46

And unfortunately, all these cases involve children that were under CYFD's care. And I don't want to say that all the burden and responsibilities on CYFD. I think that's unfair. They are they bear some responsibility for this and for these children that are under their care. However, I I believe that CYFD folks do not have the resources necessary.

Abe Baldonado: 01:16

And I know we've made major investments. Our good friend, senator Crystal Brantley, has advocated for a big change over at CYFD. And I know that we our legislature has tried to look at potential resources and policies that could better equip our CYFD officials to protect children. However, I don't believe those have come full circle. And I think a lot of the CYFD officials maybe do not have policy behind them to ensure that these children remain safe and in safe custody.

Abe Baldonado: 01:55

And unfortunately, this 18 year old girl was released back to her parents even though many sources reported the well-being of the child. But we are failing our children in New Mexico. And unfortunately, this comes on the heels of a recent report that said New Mexico is the worst state to live. I don't believe that. I don't believe we are the worst state to live.

Abe Baldonado: 02:19

Now, do we have failed leadership? Do we have failed policies? Absolutely. We do. And we need to be better.

Abe Baldonado: 02:28

But I do not believe that New Mexico is the worst place to live. In fact, I believe New Mexico is a great place to live. We have abundant resources. We have natural beauty and we have a sense of community here. But we are failing our communities.

Abe Baldonado: 02:43

Policies are failing our communities. We are not seeing prosperity that we should. And it's really unfortunate. And so I hope experts can come together, have conversations, and are advocates. I really want to give a shout out to Marilyn Beck.

Abe Baldonado: 03:01

She's the founder of the New Mexico Child First Network. She had a quote that I thought was very striking and she said, if this isn't a public health crisis, it's a moral health crisis. And Marilyn, I couldn't agree more and I thank you for your continued advocacy on behalf of children. I wanna move on now to Texas, which we've talked about in the latest ChiliWire hot take. Right now, there are conversations in Texas taking place and debate on redistricting.

Abe Baldonado: 03:33

A recent news story came out that said, the GOP's Texas map has Austin residents sharing district with rural Texans 300 miles away. It would suppress the votes of black and brown Austinites, one Democrat said. I think it's funny because there's a lot of hypocrisy here and up on the screen, you'll see a comparison of our congressional district maps and you can see all three of them are pretty questionable, I would say. And unfortunately, our congressional delegation is screaming about gerrymandering when they in fact were part of gerrymandering here in New Mexico. And we don't condone gerrymandering.

Abe Baldonado: 04:18

I think it's a terrible thing. And I'm not saying it's okay, but unfortunately, the playbook was written right here in New Mexico. We have urban New Mexicans paired with rural New Mexicans whose needs are not met. We have Santa Fe tied in with Portales, Clovis, Tucumcari. We have Rio Rancho tied in with Carrizozo and Lincoln and Torrance County.

Abe Baldonado: 04:49

I'm pretty sure those rural areas needs are much different than Albuquerque. And our congressional district too, we have South Valley Albuquerque with Carlsbad, New Mexico, with Lordsburg, with Deming. Those are very different locations across our state. So our congressional delegation should stop the hypocrisy and stop pointing fingers because they've done the same exact thing here. And we're not saying it's okay.

Abe Baldonado: 05:21

We're not saying gerrymandering is okay. We're not saying what's happening in Texas is okay. But what's not okay is gaslighting New Mexicans and people across the country to believe what the GOP is doing is wrong when you have no moral high ground to stand on. You have none. You've been part of it.

Abe Baldonado: 05:41

And in addition to this hypocrisy, we're now seeing that president Trump has mobilized the National Guard in the District Of Columbia, and our own governor is outraged that he would do so. But governor, you mobilize the National Guard in Albuquerque. There's no difference. You have those powers. The president has those powers.

Abe Baldonado: 06:05

But we have to admit, crime is a problem. And yes, statistics show that over the years crime has dropped, but it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It doesn't mean that people still aren't impacted on a daily basis. It is out there. Now, has it gone down?

Abe Baldonado: 06:21

Yeah. That's great. But the fact is it it still exists. And on that note with hypocrisy and just some interesting things that have transpired, The Democratic Party of New Mexico is holding a rising star gala with special guests including Justin Jones, state rep from Tennessee, Rashida Tlaib, US rep from Michigan, and Becca Ballant, US rep from Vermont. Here's some interesting background on those three individuals coming to New Mexico.

Abe Baldonado: 06:55

Rep Justin Jones, he compared law enforcement to the KKK. Rep Rashida Tlaib, who was recently censured for her anti Semitism. And rep Becca Ballant, this is the big one folks, and this is gonna be interesting. We have a video here that we wanna show you. She recently said that without more immigrants, we won't have anyone to wipe our, we will beep that last part out, but we will let you hear it for yourself on the actual video, which I am going to play now for you because I think a lot of folks will say, she didn't say that or it's misinterpreted.

Abe Baldonado: 07:30

No. That's not. And we're gonna listen to it right here.

Speaker 2: 07:32

If we don't have avenues for people to come here legally to work or to build a home here, I I'm gonna be really rude right now. We're not gonna have anybody around to wipe our asses because we don't have enough people in our country now to fill the jobs that we have right now. But we have to make sure those folks are getting a decent wage and making sure that their rights are protected. And we also have to make sure

Abe Baldonado: 08:06

Well now, interesting. This is what Becca Ballon believes immigrants are good for, to wipe our behinds. And what she is saying is we need immigrants to serve us. I believe the immigrant community is much bigger than that. I I think they are powerful and they do tremendous work, but they're not here to serve people like Becca Ballant.

Abe Baldonado: 08:39

That's not their job. Their job is not to wipe her behind or her constituents behind. Immigrants come here for the American dream. And I think it's insulting to the immigrant community, folks who immigrate here to America, that want to build a better future for themselves and their families and future generations. And this is the Democratic Party.

Abe Baldonado: 09:06

And this is the Democratic Party of New Mexico bringing this individual in as a guest speaker. So they condone this and that is not okay. And I guarantee you they'll argue, well, Republicans say, you know, we need a secure border. Therefore, they're racist. They're anti immigrant.

Abe Baldonado: 09:28

And that is the problem. Because you believe in a strong border and a secure border does not mean you're anti immigrant. And that's just the reality. But we have to admit, we have a crisis at the border. Open borders have plagued our communities with drugs, human trafficking, child exploitation, and these are the realities.

Abe Baldonado: 09:52

We need to protect women. We need to protect children, and we just need to protect individuals in general from the drugs and the harm that are flowing through our communities. And I don't think anyone can disagree on that. But when someone says they believe in a strong border, that does not mean they're anti immigrant. And that's unfortunate that that's what the argument has become.

Abe Baldonado: 10:15

That's what the Democratic Party wants you to believe that, you know, individuals who are pro strong borders are anti immigrant. That is not the case. Immigration and border security are two different issues and you cannot combine them. I am appalled by what Becca Ballant said about immigrants and that all they're good for is wiping our behinds. And it's unfortunate because this comes on the heels of Jill Biden, former first lady, equivolating Hispanics to breakfast tacos.

Abe Baldonado: 10:50

Very insulting. We have to pay attention to these sort of things. And this isn't a Republican, Democrat thing. This is just a common sense. Listen to what people say and it'll tell you who they are and what they believe.

Abe Baldonado: 11:06

And just know that Becca Ballant is coming to New Mexico to speak on behalf of the Democratic Party of New Mexico. This is what she thinks of our immigrants right here in our communities doing great work. And there are many immigrants that I know who have come to this country, many families who are doctors, are lawyers, are teachers, our social workers, doing tremendous work, living the American dream. And I can assure you they are not here to wipe our behinds. So that wraps up this week's Chile Wire episode.

Abe Baldonado: 11:41

It's a little bit shorter. Wanted to share with you some of the things that are happening and just maybe some of the things that you weren't aware of that are happening here in our state and are tied to things happening across our nation. Thank you for joining us for episode 10 of the Chile Wire. We look forward to seeing you for the next Chile Wire Wednesday, and thank you for tuning in. We'll see you next time.