Senators met by receptive crowd at town hall

LAS CRUCES – U.S. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, both Democrats, answered questions on a wide range of topics for two hours Monday during a town hall meeting that lacked any of the tension or animosity of a meeting held last month by Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce.

“We’re all neighbors,” moderator Fred Martino of KRWG said at the start of the meeting, encouraging a civil dialogue. But the warning was unnecessary, as Udall and Heinrich faced a crowd of several hundred residents at the Las Cruces Convention Center that, based on their questions and reactions, appeared to be almost all like-minded voters.

The only tense moment came late in the meeting when Vietnam veteran Charles Madrid blasted the divisiveness in the nation, pointing to a common threat in North Korea.

“We need unity at a time like this,” Madrid said.

But, the primary theme of the meeting was concern over the policies of new President Donald Trump, and what can be done about them.

The very first question was about immigration, and Udall mentioned a meeting he attended earlier in the day in Santa Teresa.

“It really came through to me in a powerful way the fear that is in that community,” he said, adding the children are not attending school, and adults are skipping medical appointments.

“We need your help,” he said. “We need to look back in our history as to where we came from. The fabric of our society is an immigrant fabric.”

Udall pointed to a story in Monday’s Sun-News about an Army officer who entered the country illegally several decades ago as a boy and now holds a critical position at White Sands Missile Range.

“I think these are the kinds of stories that need to be told,” he said.

Heinrich noted that his father immigrated into the country in the 1930s from Germany.

“When I look at how people fleeing have been treated, as well as people of mixed immigration status, it concerns me a great deal,” he said, adding that bonds of trust that have been built over many years between law enforcement and those they serve are being severed.

“We’ve lost all that trust, and that ripples through the community,” he said.

“Most people in Congress know the system is broken,” Heinrich added. “We just need to get the vitriolic rhetoric out.”

Both agreed there was little support in the Senate for building a massive wall extending the length of the southern border.

“The first big fight over the wall came with the supplemental appropriations bill,” Udall said. “The Democrats have been very united on don’t put that in there. The wall would be a waste of money, in my opinion.”

He said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, has removed funding for a border wall from the supplemental bill.

On foreign policy issues, both senators agreed that President Trump would need to get authorization from Congress before expanding the war in Syria.

"I do not believe that tweets and threat and bombs will solve things in Middle East,” said Udall, who added that he also believes the leader of Syria must be removed.

“We have a trial-and-error foreign policy,” Heinrich said. “We need to be projecting predictability and working with our allies. It’s very troubling for me to watch a president who is confused about who our friends are and who our enemies are.”

Both senators also encouraged those in attendance to stay involved.

“Elected members care most about hearing from a constituent,” Udall said. “Folks, since this election, have been coming every week to my office and giving us your reaction to what happened in the last week. That makes a difference. You’re heard, so don’t feel like you don’t have a voice.”

“This activism that is happening in our country right now, it sets a tone for what is possible and where we go from here,” Heinrich said.