What's aggravating about this story is that there was ample opportunity to immediately correct this wrong along the way. His detention by Border Patrol was wrong. His treatment while jailed was wrong. The prosecutors seeking to prolong his case in the face of evidence of his legal status were wrong. And now, DHS is amplifying a false narrative about his detention. This can't even be considered a series of institutional failures. The system is sadly working as intended.
It is not about being right it is about only White is right. That is the concept of Whiteness that Trump is trying to bring about. I guess when he looks at Cash Patel he either sees "Whiteness," since this is a made up concept supported by White Supremacy, or he is planning on getting rid of him after he helps to destroy the country.
Yes indeed! Wrong, infuriating and very frustrating sitting here at my keyboard and unable to do a damn thing!! Letters to House and Senate representatives are responded to on generic BS, pre-written form letters, which I throw into my trash can!! So much for the spineless Democrat opposition!!
There seems to be a lot of wrongful detentions of US citizens, tourists, foreign students, etc. Are all of them being detained in private, contracted-for facilities? Is that the angle going on here? A moneymaker for the private prison industry—that made huge campaign contributions to elect this president?
No doubt a part of it. Private prisons have a financial incentive to increase their head count--legally or illegally.
The illegal jailing of foreign tourists--many of them from the EU--coupled with Trump's tariffs and other idiocies, has already caused a drop in tourism of about 25%, and is projected to cause nearly a 0.4% drop in US GDP this fiscal year.
GOP rule is already gutting the economy and making us all poor.
Polling currently shows that FOX News viewers--watched by 85% of GOP voters for some/most/all of their news--are still strongly upbeat about everything Trump2 is doing.
Because FOX News uses pixie dust to magically spin the Keystone Cops incompetence of this administration into something akin to masterful cunning. They pivot away from the gaffes--like Signalgate1 & 2, the crashing market, the betrayal of our allies--to Immigration and beating up on trans people; always feel-good topics for conservatives.
Until and unless the real-world consequences of GOP/trump2 buffoonery kicks in: spiking inflation, rising unemployment, a $2.5 trillion deficit in fiscal '25, and a full-blown recession...literally half of our voting public will continue to live in a FOX-generated fantasyland, and the politicians of our ruling party will have no reason to rock the boat.
The same thing that keeps many of these stories quiet. Fear. It is the over-arching goal. Even though they release people everyone else is afraid. States like FL have their own laws & “assisting” even giving someone a ride can make you vulnerable. ‘Self-deportation’ and control over all of us. It is a way to make our neighbor, friend, classmate, a modern version of a leper.
I remember when the administration talked about deporting heads of families because then the family would face the choice of “self-deportation” or separation & inability to support themselves. They are having trouble finding or are too lazy to find the “worst of the worst.” They are failing to meet the WH goals on deportation. These numbers - even though they result in releases - will be counted as “border encounters” and arrests or detentions.
Public outrage is working despite their generic gang member talk and their accusations that everyone except the government is lying. The Hill published results of a survey early this month. 60% disapprove of no due process. Only the loud 29% approve.
Yet. If we don't stop them here, it WILL happen. We've let the rot spread for years, hopefully now that Trump's abuses have dragged it into the open something will actually be done.
Every story like this needs to be shared. Thanks for doing so Judd. We should not look away. Instead, be motivated to continue the work of supporting immigrants in whatever way we can.
All I have to say is: defund and repeal ICE. They are no different than Hitler's brownshirts. We need a fair and effective immigration policy and the chance of getting it with the Orange Mussolini in the WH is beyond a dream.
Truly a powerful, heartbreaking story that needs to be told far and wide. Who are these hateful duplicitous people who would so cruelly manipulate and harm a person who asks them for and is clearly in need of help? Who are these monsters? Thank you for exposing this despicable, inhumane excuse for a public servant. He and others like him need to be named, shamed and permanently removed from positions of power.
Perhaps the saddest thing to me is that he has never learned to read! How is it possible that a young adult has completely missed out on a basic education? And how many others like him are there? It contributed to his ability to defend himself.
Perhaps he has a learning disability that makes reading especially difficult, if one doesn’t have additional resources and teachers trained to deal with those learning difficulties. And this regime wants to close the D.O.Ed that provided those services and grants to the states
And yet, he made it to the 10th grade! This is what happens when “no child left behind” becomes blatantly bad policy and dereliction of basic responsibility for education. Perhaps the school system he attended lacked the funds for special education. And now, with Trump defunding public education, it will be worse.
I see how that might happen, but I hope some thoughtful volunteer will step in and offer him help, which he clearly needs. I wonder how many people like him are out there.
He attended school to 10th grade and has seizures. He may have another disability which keeps him from being able to read - severe dyslexia for instance.
About half the country reads beyond a 6th grade level. IOW, very few Americans are equipped to read legal disclosures or docs, especially under duress. A real estate attorney in Mass signed documents knowing what they said because he was coerced and felt he had no choice.
New Mexico is a very poor state with a terrible education system. If you have learning disabilities, and come from an impoverished background, you end up with a couple of generations of people like this poor guy.
The state health department estimates that almost 1/3 of the adult population of New Mexicans are functionally illiterate. It's consistently 49th and 50th for the lowest rates of high school graduates in the country.
So there's not a well-educated pool of workers to hire from to draw industries that create high-paying, permanent jobs. And the political corruption in Santa Fe means that the companies that do come looking (like Facebook) use more resources like water and energy than they bring in ANY jobs (much less high-paying, permanent ones) and taxes. Lots of poor decision-making by the state legislature on behalf of New Mexicans.
I lived in New Mexico for 7.5 years. Moved there because my husband was a DOE scientist working for Sandia National Laboratory. We ended up moving away in 2021 because the medical system is as terrible as the educational system. We always voted for every single bill that would fund schools, libraries, education, create jobs, bring better medical care, etc., but I lost my business and became permanently physically disabled because of the terrible healthcare system. And I had good medical insurance through my husband's job.
The medical care just didn't exist there. I had to go out-of-state several times for extensive periods to get diagnoses and sometimes initial medical treatment. Or surgery/rehab.
And most people there don't have that as an option. And every time I'd come back, my ability to manage my health would further erode because the medical providers there lacked the knowledge and the resources to handle the diagnoses.
I could write an entire book alone about the crappy healthcare situation in New Mexico. It would be volumes more about the politics, the education, and the "everything else" that makes up the tragedy that is New Mexico.
State politics and politicians are horrifically corrupt. The state is, by area, the fourth largest (IIRC), but it has few natural resources, and the broken educational system and medical system is driving people to leave the state. It's been pretty reliably a blue state, because the biggest population center is Albuquerque, but with all these new federal cuts, I imagine it's fairly likely to go red, eventually.
Especially with the loss of tourism revenue and de-focus on renewable energy like wind and solar that it could generate and export otherwise. Its oil and natural gas will eventually run out, and it's already having issues with having enough water.
Pretty bleak situation all around, when you sit back and assess it.
I loved gardening there (and we had solar, did rainwater collection, xeriscaping, etc), but it's unsustainable to remain if you have chronic illnesses that can't even be diagnosed, much less treated/managed in-state because the specialists don't exist.
Young doctors don't want to move there because of the lack of quality education for their kids. Older physicians leave as they develop health problems and retire. Same issue for pretty much all higher-earning workers. So it stays a poor state, and it's kind of stuck in this relentless downward spiral.
I don't know what the solutions would have been even if Harris/Walz had won. It's a much bigger problem to fix than one or two Democratic administrations.
I'm not expert, but my estimation based on my own educational background in journalism, history, and political science is that they'd be looking at a couple of generations of enormous dedicated, uninterrupted programs and huge infusions of federal funding, and things like Universal Basic Income just to stop the state from circling ever closer to the drain, much less turn it into a thriving place with a stable, multi-faceted economy and an educated work force of hire-ready people.
It makes me sad, because New Mexico is a beautiful place with a lot of potential that's being squandered, or just outright not used. Or that's being sucked out from under state residents (like potable water). Meta has a gigantic data storage facility in Los Lunas (near Albuquerque) that just...it's a frikken scam operation. They use way more than their fair share of water to cool the facility, barely pays any taxes (by contract), and brought less than 50 permanent jobs to the state...most of which were filled by internal transfers within Meta, not local hires.
Tech companies left the state. Crime is a really big problem in New Mexico, and it's not going to get better, and that plus tariffs (and the risk of ICE grabbing tourists) will have an enormous impact on tourism, which was a major source of state revenue.
So sad! Having seen what a difference Deb Haaland made at the Interior Dept., I sent her a small donation when she announced her race for Governor, but I don't have the resources to keep it up. And I spend time in SE Utah, which has similar problems, although I'm not sure the literacy rate is quite as low as in New Mexico. The resources in Utah are unevenly spread, which makes it necessary to go to Salt Lake City (or Colorado) for treatment of many problems, but at least there are some treatments. It's recently come to light that Utah school vouchers mostly go to the affluent. And now our area will be once again visited by trucks from Arizona bearing radioactive uranium.
Yeah, Deb Haaland was amazing. She was my representative before the Biden administration tapped her. I was so proud to have voted for her, and was very impressed with her work under Biden. She's one of the good ones.
Michelle Lujan Grisham is a great governor, but she's term-limited. I dunno who's up next. The US senators were awesome (and Democrats), but at least one that I know of is retiring at the end of his term. I haven't been paying much attention to the political situation since leaving. I was too angry for a long time about the fact that I lost the ability to even work at all, much less operate my own business due to the horrible medical situation there.
And now I'm just hoping to survive, period, between the national political situation and my physical disability.
But at the state level, the corruption is horrendous. They don't really pay state politicians (really pathetic stipends), so the only people who can serve aren't necessarily qualified--they're independently wealthy going in, or they inevitably use their position to become that way, and don't do much to actually help their constituents, most of whom are rural and poverty-stricken.
New Mexico just breaks my heart. It is such a beautiful place, but its people need so much sustained help that it just wasn't getting even under Democratic administrations.
And it has probably permanent and definitely worsening problems with potable water. Or even access to non-potable water for fighting fires.
I don't even know where to begin to solve that issue. The Rio Grande flows through Albuquerque, and the entire time I lived there, it wasn't a year-round river by the time it got to Albuquerque.
I guess you have to live in a place to experience that reality. I, too, think New Mexico is beautiful, and I send best wishes to you wherever you are now.
Well, you could READ the article: "According to Hermosillo's girlfriend, Grace Hernandez, Hermosillo has learning disabilities and can only write his name. Hermosillo said he did not graduate from high school and dropped out after the 10th grade."
He did not miss out on a basic education. Disabilities are real ... but not a reason to coerce someone into signing something that they don't know the content of, locking them up for weeks, making them ill, etc. Note that all the OTHER people in that facility were also mistreated--that they aren't U.S. citizens is no excuse for that. Try learning the RIGHT lessons from this.
Trump has a known hostility to people with disabilities so no surprise his underlings aren't sensitive to those things either. I feel sad for Hermosillo, but it's also a lesson to drill it into your brain, "must have your state ID with you all the time, even in an emergency." Also, don't ask border agents for help. )-:
I think he represents adults who have fully regressed to age two or younger, when anything different was frightening and any 'No' was enraging, and he acts now as such a youngster would act -- to eliminate all threats and fears via annihilation.
While we all (most of us) grew past this emotional stage we don't recall it because conscious memory generally begins at three or four.
Whew.
So I hesitate to isolate this to the visible individual, but would like to read more about the systemic or organizational supports which facilitate his regression.
Can we talk for instance about the financial and corporate systems around the Heritage Foundation, or AIPAC, or all the companies involved in the American Legislative Exchange Council: UPS, Home Depot, Dixie Cups, State Farm, etc.
Time to follow some money driving and supporting the visible individual.
Trump's father was extremely psychologically abusive to his children. Trump's brother was an alcoholic and died young. Trump himself seems to have learned a different lesson and path. Psychological abuse and bullying are actually worse than being beaten because the victims are often overlooked since there may be no visible signs afterwards. I also think his problems with women and which ones he allows near him are in part due to feeling betrayed early on that his mother wasn't able to protect him.
I would say it is a lesson for those around someone also. He was having a seizure. As a US citizen this has not been drilled into us. Worse having your ID does not protect you from detention. It may facilitate your release sooner but citizens from Mass to FL whether carrying their ID or having birth records entered in court are met with resistance to releasing them. The man in Mass is a real estate attorney. He was held for most of the day barefoot, handcuffed in a cell which he says was freezing. (As was his wife in a separate cell who he could see crying.) He wanted to talk to his sister. Eventually she was called & told he was ‘fine.’ She’s an immigration attorney. He was released.
In FL it was very different. Public pressure at the blatant illegality may have helped. There were 30 protestors outside when he was released. This is the new story from the gov’t. They want the public to blame people wrongly arrested.
But how feasible is it to expect someone with a learning disability like Hermosillo's to ... learn this? Or to learn they can't trust "authorities" in marked cars and with uniforms? I imagine Hermosillo's learned that by now but what about others with similar disabilities?
Realistically, there are going to be lots of lessons to learn the hard way. I have to wonder, for example, about deaf people as another example. The only way to survive if you have an impactful disability is to have people around you who can help, if it's possible. All of us need to be aware of people around us and help out if we can, when we can.
He had a seizure and was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. No amount of lessons and drilling would have enabled him to take his ID with him. And the word "but" cancels what comes before it ... you get an F in compassion.
P.S. "Also, don't ask border agents for help" -- you left off "if brown".
Every time I think that it can’t get any worse, I open my phone. :-(. I hope that a lawyer or two licensed out there can file a formal lawsuit and screw those horrible people.
Paul Krugman Substack 4/23/25 on Cronyism, Capitulation and Utter Chaos: Treasury Secretary Bessent in a closed door briefing with J.P. Morgan (a huge ethical breach) declared that the enormous tariffs Trump imposed on China will soon be reversed. Those tariffs are indeed crazy amounting as Bessent said to an embargo. But this is an extraordinary reversal — a capitulation equivalent to surrender.
…(Trump) and Bessent will try to spin this as a policy triumph, but all that will really have happened is a confirmation that you can’t trust anything this administration says, including its threats.
…As the same time Trump has made a humiliating climb-down on Jerome Powell.
I read this, too, and it's clear that privileged information is being dished out to favored people. Now the regime plans to finance opponents to those who successfully opposed T, for example, prosecutors like Wiliam Bragg and Letitia James.
They are doing worse than financing opponents. The DOJ has become Trump's personal vendetta machine. Bondi's legal thugs apparently have been assigned to invent false charges against AG James. Same for other people who have had the temerity to criticize the orange snowflake.
Meanwhile, the departments whose job is to enforce real civil rights or defend against Russian hacking are inactivated. Torch a Tesla? - "domestic terrorism". Torch the home of Gov. Shapiro (PA, Dem, Jewish) while his family is sleeping there, starting with the very room in which they held their Passover seder a few hours earlier - not a peep from Bondi or Trump.
I would not carry all of them. Once they are taken you have no proof. Birth records and other supporting docs should be in a safe place for someone close to find & bring to court.
US citizens are being detained despite producing their ID and Social Security card. Maybe half of adults have passports.
Of course attorneys can also be detained for not being ‘pale’ enough. Luckily real estate attorney in Mass - naturalized citizen for 10 yrs - has a sister who is an immigration attorney. He was not allowed to call her. They did eventually call her to say ‘he’s fine’ etc. He and his wife were released.
There are a lot of strange things going on in Mass. Some turn out better than others.
Horrific. This entire exercise is an assault on freedom and all Americans. Every bit of this story screams racist thugs. With that established, we have our new reality. Every case should be approached with that knowledge. No one, except a racist thug would even have that job. We should start to
Thanks for covering this, Judd. I’m also an Albuquerque resident. I think calls to Melanie Stansbury, Ben Lujan, and Martin Heinrich are in order. This is utterly despicable and the officers in question need to not be officers any more.
What's aggravating about this story is that there was ample opportunity to immediately correct this wrong along the way. His detention by Border Patrol was wrong. His treatment while jailed was wrong. The prosecutors seeking to prolong his case in the face of evidence of his legal status were wrong. And now, DHS is amplifying a false narrative about his detention. This can't even be considered a series of institutional failures. The system is sadly working as intended.
It is not about being right it is about only White is right. That is the concept of Whiteness that Trump is trying to bring about. I guess when he looks at Cash Patel he either sees "Whiteness," since this is a made up concept supported by White Supremacy, or he is planning on getting rid of him after he helps to destroy the country.
This is so wrong and so infuriating. Thank you Judd for bringing stories like this to our attention. This is absolutely shameful.
Yes indeed! Wrong, infuriating and very frustrating sitting here at my keyboard and unable to do a damn thing!! Letters to House and Senate representatives are responded to on generic BS, pre-written form letters, which I throw into my trash can!! So much for the spineless Democrat opposition!!
I hope he finds a good lawyer. He should sue the feds for wrongful incarceration. Especially with his seizure disorder, that is really scary.
This.
Wrongful incarceration. Time for a string of high-profile lawsuits that will sue the heck out of agents and agencies wrongfully detaining US citizens.
There seems to be a lot of wrongful detentions of US citizens, tourists, foreign students, etc. Are all of them being detained in private, contracted-for facilities? Is that the angle going on here? A moneymaker for the private prison industry—that made huge campaign contributions to elect this president?
No doubt a part of it. Private prisons have a financial incentive to increase their head count--legally or illegally.
The illegal jailing of foreign tourists--many of them from the EU--coupled with Trump's tariffs and other idiocies, has already caused a drop in tourism of about 25%, and is projected to cause nearly a 0.4% drop in US GDP this fiscal year.
GOP rule is already gutting the economy and making us all poor.
Maybe people will wake up. Maybe Congress will do their jobs and stop this lunacy.
Polling currently shows that FOX News viewers--watched by 85% of GOP voters for some/most/all of their news--are still strongly upbeat about everything Trump2 is doing.
Because FOX News uses pixie dust to magically spin the Keystone Cops incompetence of this administration into something akin to masterful cunning. They pivot away from the gaffes--like Signalgate1 & 2, the crashing market, the betrayal of our allies--to Immigration and beating up on trans people; always feel-good topics for conservatives.
Until and unless the real-world consequences of GOP/trump2 buffoonery kicks in: spiking inflation, rising unemployment, a $2.5 trillion deficit in fiscal '25, and a full-blown recession...literally half of our voting public will continue to live in a FOX-generated fantasyland, and the politicians of our ruling party will have no reason to rock the boat.
They were promised contracts and expecting to build more facilities — not that he would tell someone like Bukele to build ones for US citizens.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/what-trumps-victory-means-private-prison-industry
The same thing that keeps many of these stories quiet. Fear. It is the over-arching goal. Even though they release people everyone else is afraid. States like FL have their own laws & “assisting” even giving someone a ride can make you vulnerable. ‘Self-deportation’ and control over all of us. It is a way to make our neighbor, friend, classmate, a modern version of a leper.
I remember when the administration talked about deporting heads of families because then the family would face the choice of “self-deportation” or separation & inability to support themselves. They are having trouble finding or are too lazy to find the “worst of the worst.” They are failing to meet the WH goals on deportation. These numbers - even though they result in releases - will be counted as “border encounters” and arrests or detentions.
Public outrage is working despite their generic gang member talk and their accusations that everyone except the government is lying. The Hill published results of a survey early this month. 60% disapprove of no due process. Only the loud 29% approve.
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/5230288-americans-migrants-due-process-survey/
Yes. Same with a substantial portion of the domestic prison industry.
At least we haven’t wholly dispensed with due process in the criminal justice system, though.
This abduction/rendition thing is a new, massive attack on the rule of law.
Yet. If we don't stop them here, it WILL happen. We've let the rot spread for years, hopefully now that Trump's abuses have dragged it into the open something will actually be done.
Every story like this needs to be shared. Thanks for doing so Judd. We should not look away. Instead, be motivated to continue the work of supporting immigrants in whatever way we can.
All I have to say is: defund and repeal ICE. They are no different than Hitler's brownshirts. We need a fair and effective immigration policy and the chance of getting it with the Orange Mussolini in the WH is beyond a dream.
This was the Border Patrol, a different bunch of crypto-fascists working for the DHS.
Yeah, different label, same thugs. You are correct. ☺️
The problem is that, while the idea of defunding ICE may gain some purchase, the idea of defunding the BP won't.
The bigger problem is neither ICE nor the BP, it's that fascists are running the federal government.
It sure is…
Truly a powerful, heartbreaking story that needs to be told far and wide. Who are these hateful duplicitous people who would so cruelly manipulate and harm a person who asks them for and is clearly in need of help? Who are these monsters? Thank you for exposing this despicable, inhumane excuse for a public servant. He and others like him need to be named, shamed and permanently removed from positions of power.
Perhaps the saddest thing to me is that he has never learned to read! How is it possible that a young adult has completely missed out on a basic education? And how many others like him are there? It contributed to his ability to defend himself.
We’re doing it now!
Perhaps he has a learning disability that makes reading especially difficult, if one doesn’t have additional resources and teachers trained to deal with those learning difficulties. And this regime wants to close the D.O.Ed that provided those services and grants to the states
This is precisely why they oppose public education. They want an uneducated population that they can manipulate and dominate.
And yet, he made it to the 10th grade! This is what happens when “no child left behind” becomes blatantly bad policy and dereliction of basic responsibility for education. Perhaps the school system he attended lacked the funds for special education. And now, with Trump defunding public education, it will be worse.
I see how that might happen, but I hope some thoughtful volunteer will step in and offer him help, which he clearly needs. I wonder how many people like him are out there.
He attended school to 10th grade and has seizures. He may have another disability which keeps him from being able to read - severe dyslexia for instance.
About half the country reads beyond a 6th grade level. IOW, very few Americans are equipped to read legal disclosures or docs, especially under duress. A real estate attorney in Mass signed documents knowing what they said because he was coerced and felt he had no choice.
New Mexico is a very poor state with a terrible education system. If you have learning disabilities, and come from an impoverished background, you end up with a couple of generations of people like this poor guy.
The state health department estimates that almost 1/3 of the adult population of New Mexicans are functionally illiterate. It's consistently 49th and 50th for the lowest rates of high school graduates in the country.
So there's not a well-educated pool of workers to hire from to draw industries that create high-paying, permanent jobs. And the political corruption in Santa Fe means that the companies that do come looking (like Facebook) use more resources like water and energy than they bring in ANY jobs (much less high-paying, permanent ones) and taxes. Lots of poor decision-making by the state legislature on behalf of New Mexicans.
I lived in New Mexico for 7.5 years. Moved there because my husband was a DOE scientist working for Sandia National Laboratory. We ended up moving away in 2021 because the medical system is as terrible as the educational system. We always voted for every single bill that would fund schools, libraries, education, create jobs, bring better medical care, etc., but I lost my business and became permanently physically disabled because of the terrible healthcare system. And I had good medical insurance through my husband's job.
The medical care just didn't exist there. I had to go out-of-state several times for extensive periods to get diagnoses and sometimes initial medical treatment. Or surgery/rehab.
And most people there don't have that as an option. And every time I'd come back, my ability to manage my health would further erode because the medical providers there lacked the knowledge and the resources to handle the diagnoses.
I could write an entire book alone about the crappy healthcare situation in New Mexico. It would be volumes more about the politics, the education, and the "everything else" that makes up the tragedy that is New Mexico.
State politics and politicians are horrifically corrupt. The state is, by area, the fourth largest (IIRC), but it has few natural resources, and the broken educational system and medical system is driving people to leave the state. It's been pretty reliably a blue state, because the biggest population center is Albuquerque, but with all these new federal cuts, I imagine it's fairly likely to go red, eventually.
Especially with the loss of tourism revenue and de-focus on renewable energy like wind and solar that it could generate and export otherwise. Its oil and natural gas will eventually run out, and it's already having issues with having enough water.
Pretty bleak situation all around, when you sit back and assess it.
I loved gardening there (and we had solar, did rainwater collection, xeriscaping, etc), but it's unsustainable to remain if you have chronic illnesses that can't even be diagnosed, much less treated/managed in-state because the specialists don't exist.
Young doctors don't want to move there because of the lack of quality education for their kids. Older physicians leave as they develop health problems and retire. Same issue for pretty much all higher-earning workers. So it stays a poor state, and it's kind of stuck in this relentless downward spiral.
I don't know what the solutions would have been even if Harris/Walz had won. It's a much bigger problem to fix than one or two Democratic administrations.
I'm not expert, but my estimation based on my own educational background in journalism, history, and political science is that they'd be looking at a couple of generations of enormous dedicated, uninterrupted programs and huge infusions of federal funding, and things like Universal Basic Income just to stop the state from circling ever closer to the drain, much less turn it into a thriving place with a stable, multi-faceted economy and an educated work force of hire-ready people.
It makes me sad, because New Mexico is a beautiful place with a lot of potential that's being squandered, or just outright not used. Or that's being sucked out from under state residents (like potable water). Meta has a gigantic data storage facility in Los Lunas (near Albuquerque) that just...it's a frikken scam operation. They use way more than their fair share of water to cool the facility, barely pays any taxes (by contract), and brought less than 50 permanent jobs to the state...most of which were filled by internal transfers within Meta, not local hires.
Tech companies left the state. Crime is a really big problem in New Mexico, and it's not going to get better, and that plus tariffs (and the risk of ICE grabbing tourists) will have an enormous impact on tourism, which was a major source of state revenue.
It's just sad.
So sad! Having seen what a difference Deb Haaland made at the Interior Dept., I sent her a small donation when she announced her race for Governor, but I don't have the resources to keep it up. And I spend time in SE Utah, which has similar problems, although I'm not sure the literacy rate is quite as low as in New Mexico. The resources in Utah are unevenly spread, which makes it necessary to go to Salt Lake City (or Colorado) for treatment of many problems, but at least there are some treatments. It's recently come to light that Utah school vouchers mostly go to the affluent. And now our area will be once again visited by trucks from Arizona bearing radioactive uranium.
Yeah, Deb Haaland was amazing. She was my representative before the Biden administration tapped her. I was so proud to have voted for her, and was very impressed with her work under Biden. She's one of the good ones.
Michelle Lujan Grisham is a great governor, but she's term-limited. I dunno who's up next. The US senators were awesome (and Democrats), but at least one that I know of is retiring at the end of his term. I haven't been paying much attention to the political situation since leaving. I was too angry for a long time about the fact that I lost the ability to even work at all, much less operate my own business due to the horrible medical situation there.
And now I'm just hoping to survive, period, between the national political situation and my physical disability.
But at the state level, the corruption is horrendous. They don't really pay state politicians (really pathetic stipends), so the only people who can serve aren't necessarily qualified--they're independently wealthy going in, or they inevitably use their position to become that way, and don't do much to actually help their constituents, most of whom are rural and poverty-stricken.
New Mexico just breaks my heart. It is such a beautiful place, but its people need so much sustained help that it just wasn't getting even under Democratic administrations.
And it has probably permanent and definitely worsening problems with potable water. Or even access to non-potable water for fighting fires.
I don't even know where to begin to solve that issue. The Rio Grande flows through Albuquerque, and the entire time I lived there, it wasn't a year-round river by the time it got to Albuquerque.
I guess you have to live in a place to experience that reality. I, too, think New Mexico is beautiful, and I send best wishes to you wherever you are now.
Well, you could READ the article: "According to Hermosillo's girlfriend, Grace Hernandez, Hermosillo has learning disabilities and can only write his name. Hermosillo said he did not graduate from high school and dropped out after the 10th grade."
He did not miss out on a basic education. Disabilities are real ... but not a reason to coerce someone into signing something that they don't know the content of, locking them up for weeks, making them ill, etc. Note that all the OTHER people in that facility were also mistreated--that they aren't U.S. citizens is no excuse for that. Try learning the RIGHT lessons from this.
Trump has a known hostility to people with disabilities so no surprise his underlings aren't sensitive to those things either. I feel sad for Hermosillo, but it's also a lesson to drill it into your brain, "must have your state ID with you all the time, even in an emergency." Also, don't ask border agents for help. )-:
Someone called it Trump‘s “war on difference.”
I hope we are all "different" from him!
I think he represents adults who have fully regressed to age two or younger, when anything different was frightening and any 'No' was enraging, and he acts now as such a youngster would act -- to eliminate all threats and fears via annihilation.
While we all (most of us) grew past this emotional stage we don't recall it because conscious memory generally begins at three or four.
Whew.
So I hesitate to isolate this to the visible individual, but would like to read more about the systemic or organizational supports which facilitate his regression.
Can we talk for instance about the financial and corporate systems around the Heritage Foundation, or AIPAC, or all the companies involved in the American Legislative Exchange Council: UPS, Home Depot, Dixie Cups, State Farm, etc.
Time to follow some money driving and supporting the visible individual.
Thanks for a hearty discussion!
Trump's father was extremely psychologically abusive to his children. Trump's brother was an alcoholic and died young. Trump himself seems to have learned a different lesson and path. Psychological abuse and bullying are actually worse than being beaten because the victims are often overlooked since there may be no visible signs afterwards. I also think his problems with women and which ones he allows near him are in part due to feeling betrayed early on that his mother wasn't able to protect him.
Excellent insight, thank you!
I would say it is a lesson for those around someone also. He was having a seizure. As a US citizen this has not been drilled into us. Worse having your ID does not protect you from detention. It may facilitate your release sooner but citizens from Mass to FL whether carrying their ID or having birth records entered in court are met with resistance to releasing them. The man in Mass is a real estate attorney. He was held for most of the day barefoot, handcuffed in a cell which he says was freezing. (As was his wife in a separate cell who he could see crying.) He wanted to talk to his sister. Eventually she was called & told he was ‘fine.’ She’s an immigration attorney. He was released.
In FL it was very different. Public pressure at the blatant illegality may have helped. There were 30 protestors outside when he was released. This is the new story from the gov’t. They want the public to blame people wrongly arrested.
https://floridaphoenix.com/2025/04/21/feds-blame-u-s-citizen-for-his-arrest-under-suspended-immigration-law/
Blame the victim for what happened to them.
Such an old tactic of evil doers.
But how feasible is it to expect someone with a learning disability like Hermosillo's to ... learn this? Or to learn they can't trust "authorities" in marked cars and with uniforms? I imagine Hermosillo's learned that by now but what about others with similar disabilities?
While having a seizure! That post about "lessons" reflects a very privileged view and is completely lacking in compassion.
It didn't say he started his day having a seizure. When he left home, he should have had some ID with him.
Realistically, there are going to be lots of lessons to learn the hard way. I have to wonder, for example, about deaf people as another example. The only way to survive if you have an impactful disability is to have people around you who can help, if it's possible. All of us need to be aware of people around us and help out if we can, when we can.
He had a seizure and was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. No amount of lessons and drilling would have enabled him to take his ID with him. And the word "but" cancels what comes before it ... you get an F in compassion.
P.S. "Also, don't ask border agents for help" -- you left off "if brown".
I'm not sure being brown is the only criteria. You can have a foreign accent, be white, and be suspected by the authorities.
Traumatizing humans is the point. Sadistic glee.
Every time I think that it can’t get any worse, I open my phone. :-(. I hope that a lawyer or two licensed out there can file a formal lawsuit and screw those horrible people.
Keep calling out these thuggish incarcerations, Judd and company, and thank you!
Paul Krugman Substack 4/23/25 on Cronyism, Capitulation and Utter Chaos: Treasury Secretary Bessent in a closed door briefing with J.P. Morgan (a huge ethical breach) declared that the enormous tariffs Trump imposed on China will soon be reversed. Those tariffs are indeed crazy amounting as Bessent said to an embargo. But this is an extraordinary reversal — a capitulation equivalent to surrender.
…(Trump) and Bessent will try to spin this as a policy triumph, but all that will really have happened is a confirmation that you can’t trust anything this administration says, including its threats.
…As the same time Trump has made a humiliating climb-down on Jerome Powell.
We are, in short, in a worse position than we were before Trump began his tariff bluster. Being a cowardly, loud-mouthed bully presiding over utter chaos is not an effective negotiating strategy. https://open.substack.com/pub/paulkrugman/p/cronyism-capitulation-and-chaos?r=aexlz&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
I read this, too, and it's clear that privileged information is being dished out to favored people. Now the regime plans to finance opponents to those who successfully opposed T, for example, prosecutors like Wiliam Bragg and Letitia James.
They are doing worse than financing opponents. The DOJ has become Trump's personal vendetta machine. Bondi's legal thugs apparently have been assigned to invent false charges against AG James. Same for other people who have had the temerity to criticize the orange snowflake.
Meanwhile, the departments whose job is to enforce real civil rights or defend against Russian hacking are inactivated. Torch a Tesla? - "domestic terrorism". Torch the home of Gov. Shapiro (PA, Dem, Jewish) while his family is sleeping there, starting with the very room in which they held their Passover seder a few hours earlier - not a peep from Bondi or Trump.
Thank you Judd.
It seems we must have our papers, passport, license, birth certificate, one lawyer accompanying us at all times.
That’s if you’re not white! Sad
times we’re living through.
A simple call to the hospital to verify which would have eliminated this whole mess.
Mexican-Americans should not have to worry about being picked up like this mess.
I would not carry all of them. Once they are taken you have no proof. Birth records and other supporting docs should be in a safe place for someone close to find & bring to court.
US citizens are being detained despite producing their ID and Social Security card. Maybe half of adults have passports.
Have a photocopy or photo of these documents on your phone, but keep the originals in a safe.
Good point.
Of course attorneys can also be detained for not being ‘pale’ enough. Luckily real estate attorney in Mass - naturalized citizen for 10 yrs - has a sister who is an immigration attorney. He was not allowed to call her. They did eventually call her to say ‘he’s fine’ etc. He and his wife were released.
There are a lot of strange things going on in Mass. Some turn out better than others.
https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/dismayed-and-surprised-das-office-responds-after-man-is-detained-by-ice-mid-trial/3671872/
Horrific. This entire exercise is an assault on freedom and all Americans. Every bit of this story screams racist thugs. With that established, we have our new reality. Every case should be approached with that knowledge. No one, except a racist thug would even have that job. We should start to
Profile ICE agents to
See who we are paying for this behavior.
Thanks for covering this, Judd. I’m also an Albuquerque resident. I think calls to Melanie Stansbury, Ben Lujan, and Martin Heinrich are in order. This is utterly despicable and the officers in question need to not be officers any more.
Just used 5calls to get in touch with all 3. Jose Hermosillo, we see you and we will not let them get away with this.
These repeated attacks on people’s freedom is horrifying. It has to stop.