Meet the driving force behind one of Albuquerque’s best charitable events

By Geoff Grammer, Sports Editor of the Albuquerque Journal

October 12, 2026

Wendy Thomas doesn’t want this column to be about her. But it is.

Fifteen-plus years of growing the “Rally in the Alley” event into an annual staple in Albuquerque that raises tens of thousands of dollars for a new local cancer charity or beneficiary every year is the story to her.

And it is.

Having two former students of hers — Kimberley Craft and Syliva Trujillo — who inspired her to spearhead the grassroots effort to get this annual event rolling is the story. They stood by her side while the event grew last year into one that donated $35,000 to the New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center.

And it is.

The 67-year-old dynamo doesn’t want this column to be about her because in her mind, none of this has ever been about her, but the hundreds of people who have stepped up to help the thousands of people who have benefitted from all the charitable work they’ve helped coordinate.

And this story is about them. But it’s also, very much, about her.

“Wendy doesn’t see what she’s doing as important because she’s always been focused on what it means to people,” Craft said.

When you start shifting that focus away from the people being helped, the message is lost, feels Thomas.

With apologies to Wendy Thomas, this column is very much about her. And those around her get a chance to tell it.

The prom queen

It was Valentine’s Day 2007 when it hit Kimberley Craft.

It wasn’t the actual lump in her neck that did it, or mom’s concern that led to the doctor’s visit. It wasn’t really even the diagnosis from that doctor of Hodgkin’s lymphoma or the sadness it gave her having to tell her La Cueva High School tennis coach, Wendy Thomas, that she would have to miss some practices that season.

No, the enormity of what 17-year-old Kimberley Craft was dealing with hit her like a ton of bricks when she asked her doctor a question in her first oncologist’s appointment.

“I asked if I was going to lose my hair,” Craft recalls. “My doctor said yes. And I asked how quickly. He said probably within two weeks.”

Happy spoiler alert: Kimberley Kraft is still here telling this story. And the adult version of her is a little embarrassed now about how this next part sounds.

“I was like, so I won’t have hair for prom or graduation?” Craft asked her doctor. “I know it shouldn’t be this, but that was the moment when everything clicked. That was when how serious all of this was hit me.”

As her friends played tennis, went to prom, lived their life, she was facing disconnect, isolation, fear.

What she got was a huge dose of Wendy Thomas.

“She (Thomas) told me, ‘You’re not alone’” Craft remembers from her high school coach. “I am here with you. Your team is here with you. I understand that you’re not going to be able to play, and that’s OK. You are still a captain of this team. And you are a part of everything we do.’” Everything. Craft didn’t play tennis that season. She went to practices when not getting chemotherapy, radiation treatments or visiting doctors.

There was the fun bus trip game to Santa Fe. That tournament at Albuquerque Academy when Kimberley caught wind her teammates were going to wear purple ribbons, only to find out every player in the tournament from every school was wearing them in her honor.

Prom came and went with Craft unable to attend, state tournament came and went, graduation came and went.

But Thomas made a promise and come July 2007, Craft got her “Tennis prom.” With Thomas’ guidance, Craft’s teammates and her held a “Tennis Prom” at a local hotel. Ballroom. Fancy dinner. Limousines picked her and her friends up. Cake. Balloons. There was a DJ.

And while she admits she wasn’t particularly surprised when she won “Prom Queen” that night — “I sort of figured I had that one in the bag” — she was when after winning that honor, she was bestowed another.

She was given a proclamation signed by then-mayor Martin Chavez: July 28, 2007, was Kimberley Craft Day in Albuquerque.

She now celebrates July 28 every year as her “Cancerversary.”

“I don’t know for sure why she did all that she did, and she doesn’t even think of it as things she did,” Craft recalls of the support Thomas provided in that scary period of her life.

“I don’t know how to describe it other than she just has this heart of gold and this sense of compassion for the people who enter her life.”

The ray of sunlight

Thomas, who graduated with a degree in education from the University of Arizona and started teaching in 1977, wasn’t just coaching a high school team 20 years ago. Like she always has, Thomas was also coaching adults in 2008 when one of her students in a cardio tennis class, 50-year-old Sylvia Trujillo, was diagnosed with breast cancer.

While they weren’t overly close at the time, Thomas happened to be the first person outside of family who Trujillo told. As a result, Thomas was by Trujillo’s side constantly, helping, supporting.

“She’s just caring — never thinking really about herself as much as she seems to be thinking about what you’re going through,” Trujillo says (another Happy Spoiler Alert: Trujillo is still talking about her diagnoses nearly 20 years later, and still talking about the impact Thomas had on her).

“There’s always like a gray little cloud you carry around when you’re diagnosed with something like that, and she was just there to help me with that. It was her way of being my support and just keeping that cloud away.”

The trio that rallied

Craft and Trujillo say they’re forever indebted to Thomas. What they don’t realize is what Thomas got from them in those moments nearly 20 years ago.

Their strength was a spark for Thomas.

“They inspired me to do something more,” Thomas said. “I don’t know if they knew at the time how much they were giving me in all that. But it was two students of mine who made (cancer) very personal to me and got me to want to do something more.”

With them by her side — a teenage Craft, an adult Trujillo and the walking energy rush in Thomas — the ball got rolling on a cancer charity that eventually took on the name “Rally in the Alley,” which this year takes place this Sunday (Oct. 18) from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Highpoint (Genesis Health Club) in northeast Albuquerque. (Event info can be found at traccharity10s-cancer. square.site).

This year’s beneficiary of the donations and entry fees is the Pink Warrior House, which provides a wide variety of support services for people facing direct cancer diagnosis as well as the families and caregivers of those facing cancer.

This column could be about all that. And it is, in part.

But it’s also about the reason for it all.

The driving force

The “Rally in the Alley” event could go on without Thomas, and eventually will have to (at 67, she does get to rest eventually, right?)

But it’s hard to imagine. “She really has been the driving force, and you know she’s just got such a wonderful spirit, and she’s she’s assembled a a great group of volunteers around her, and it’s just it’s just grown bigger and bigger every year,” said Dick Johnson, tennis coaching guru in Albuquerque and longtime friend and supporter of Thomas and the Rally in the Alley.

The “Rally” has become the product of a coach who refuses to be the story, but merely in her mind acts when she sees someone in her life in need.

And what does she get from it all?

After being asked that question enough, she finally offered up her why — her reason for all of it.

“Relationships,” Thomas said. “I think it just feels good to be able to do something, anything sometimes, about these things that we just don’t have any control over like cancer. When I see something, I guess I just want to respond. I want to help.”

Winds ground balloons on fiesta’s final day

After a week of mostly great flying weather, attendees were philosophical about low-key finale

BY GREGORY R.C. HASMAN / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

October 12, 2026

Thousands gathered at Balloon Fiesta Park on Sunday to watch colorful balloons rise into the October sky for the final time in 2026.

But Mother Nature had other plans.

Because of wind, Zebras, or launch directors, told pilots to keep the balloons on static display only.

National Weather Service of Albuquerque meteorologist Brian Guyer said winds were up to 20 mph on Sunday morning.

Wind of at least 10 knots (or 11.5 mph) may delay or cancel a flying event, said Makayla Roberts, vice president of The Garrity Group and spokesperson for Balloon Fiesta.

“Safety is always our priority for the pilots and the crews,” she said.

Pilot Jacob Vaillancourt, of Quebec, Canada, said grounding the balloons was the right decision.

“I don’t want anybody to be hurt or break their stuff,” he said.

A couple hundred feet from where Vaillancourt planned to launch, Alexia Burkhard and her 7-year-old son, Logan Burkhard, watched as people set up balloons for display. As they admired their colors and designs, she asked him how he felt about seeing them stay on the ground.

“Sad,” he said. L.C. Read, a crew member for Vaillancourt, said that although they decided not to allow flying, it actually helps spectators because they can talk to pilots.

“The pilots have more time to speak with people because they’re not planning for a flight or trying to get everything organized,” he said. “It also makes the chase a lot easier. We don’t have to go anywhere. The balloon is always right here.”

As the Burkhards kept looking at the balloons, Alexia Burkhard asked her son which one he liked best.

“There’s the dinosaur. There’s the UNM (University of New Mexico) balloon,” she said. “The UNM balloon? With the cherry red on top?”

Logan Burkhard said yes.

“Why is that your favorite balloon?” his mom asked. “Because it has a Lobo on it?”

He nods. “That’s a good answer, buddy,” Alexia Burkhard said.

Despite the cancellation of Sunday’s Mass Ascension, Read said the event had several days of good ballooning weather, which made it “really good, especially for the spectators, people that come from outside of the city.”

Among those who visited from outside Albuquerque was Marián Giraldez, a resident of Nambé, who came with her family.

“I think it’s a very special event,” she said. “It’s beautiful. It’s colorful. It’s happy. The weather outside is beautiful. I enjoy the Mass Ascension when they all go up. It’s very beautiful. But it is also exciting when the first balloons start to glow.”

The 54th annual event — the world’s largest hot air balloon festival — attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists each year. In 2025, the nineday event drew 851,994 visitors.

The influx of people has reportedly benefited businesses like Hatch Shack and Inkas.

After a couple of slow mornings, Hatch Shack cook Victor Salazar said business picked up as people ordered tasty items like the chile relleno burrito and breakfast burrito.

“We had so many people asking if we have a restaurant in town. And we don’t,” he said.

Several feet away from Hatch Shack, Inkas owner Victor Inkas said business was up about 20% this year, with most people buying ponchos and blankets.

“We had a great year because the weather helped us,” he said. “Everything is about the weather for vendors.”

One-on-One with Richard Berry

Berry, an ex-mayor of Albuquerque, is the Executive Director / CEO of the New Mexico Medical Society.

BY ELLEN MARKS FOR THE ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL

October 11, 2026

Richard Berry got used to people stopping him in the neighborhood store to lodge a gripe about something or other.

He was mayor, after all, and a state legislator before that, so his face was a familiar one. “There’d be plenty of people at the grocery store that would tell you we messed up on stuff,” Berry says. “That’s fair.”

It probably won’t happen as much in his latest role: executive director and CEO of the New Mexico Medical Society.

He sees his new position as an administrative one that “helps doctors succeed by helping them carry out their vision.”

The 145-year-old organization is physician-led and has more than 1,100 members across New Mexico. Its most recent victory came earlier this year, when the Legislature and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham approved changes to a medical malpractice law that advocates said would lower costs and ease a doctor shortage in the state.

It took years of effort. And Berry says there’s still more to be done, putting those changes into effect while also tackling “the tax environment, the business environment and workforce development.”

Berry, a Republican, was a state representative from 2006-2009 and Albuquerque mayor from 2009-2017. Most recently, he has been CEO of Laguna Construction Co.

The bottom line for Berry in his new job is luring more doctors to New Mexico, improving access to care and providing “what doctors need to succeed,” he says.

“It’s such an important thing. Anybody reading this in the Journal, who feels like they’ve got adequate access to medical care today, I would be surprised. And so there’s work to do. I’m just humbled to get a chance to participate in the process.”

Have you or your family personally experienced poor medical access?

We’ve had problems with access to care. I can tell you, we’ve got three parents. (Wife) Maria’s dad is 90, and my mother and Maria’s mom are alive. They’re in their 80s. Me and my wife, we have had great physicians in our lives, but we’ve had access-to-care issues like everybody else, waiting for specialists, waiting for the care we need.

How do you see your new role?

The interesting thing about this is that the leadership are elected physicians. So my role as the executive director is to take their vision, their direction and make that happen. These are altruistic folks. What I hear them say is it’s about their patients and it’s about access to care. If I had to be a medical expert to do this, we would all be in trouble. But I think I bring some experience just in having served the community.

How will that experience translate

to this job?

I’m the executive director and the CEO, and that means we do the daily work of the nonprofit, which is what we are. And a big part of that, especially now, is advocacy, education, data collection. From my time in City Hall, we were very serious and good at data and making data-informed decisions. I know that may not sound like the sexiest thing ever, but that’s how good decisions are made. So I’ll spend a lot of my time trying to do that.

What have you been up to since leaving public life?

When I was getting ready to leave office, I reached out for counsel from some friends of mine who had been leaving office on different levels — state, federal, local. And the advice I got … was, “Listen, you don’t have a career ahead of you. You’re 50-plus years old. Use your experiences to make a difference and do things that matter.” My goal after being mayor was just that I wanted to be handy. I wanted to use some of my learned experiences, learn from my successes, learn from my mistakes and use that to help other people do good things in New Mexico. And I always wanted to do work with a tribal entity. I did that.

Throughout your career, what would you say you’re most proud of?

Maybe just recognizing people’s talents and helping them succeed at their job on behalf of others. We were proud of the work we did on homelessness, and we did it with a combination of compassion and pragmatism.

Anything you wish you had done differently?

Of course there are things I would approach differently with the benefit of hindsight. Anyone who serves for eight years and says otherwise probably hasn’t reflected enough. But leadership means making decisions with the information, resources and people you have at the time — not the clarity you gain years later. We listened, made the best decisions we could, adjusted when we learned more and made meaningful progress on many fronts. I’m proud of the commitment our team brought to the work.

What do you do in your free time?

We’re outdoorsy. You know, we got e-bikes, so I can now ride up mountains that I couldn’t at my age, but that I could have 30 years ago. We like to walk. We hunt and fish. Music’s a big part of my life. It always has been.

What’s a food you can’t live without?

Steak with red chile.

Man accused of casting dead wife’s vote in 2024 election

The widower, a registered Republican, and his wife appeared to support Donald Trump

BY MATTHEW REISEN / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

October 11, 2026

Federal authorities say a Tijeras man attempted to vote for his wife in the 2024 general election — several months after she died.

Patrick Perea, 62, was indicted Tuesday on one count of fraudulent voting for trying to cast his wife Lisa Perea’s absentee ballot in October 2024. If convicted, Perea faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Federal court records show that Perea was arrested Friday and released later that day, pending trial. He and his attorney could not be reached Saturday.

New Mexico Secretary of State records list Patrick Perea as a Republican.

In a news release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Mexico said the Bernalillo County Clerk’s Office Bureau of Elections played a “critical role in intercepting the ballot before it could be counted and assisting this investigation.”

“Dead people can’t vote,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison said in a statement. “Casting a ballot that belongs to someone else is a deliberate abuse of our election process and a federal crime. Election integrity depends on protecting the process from fraud and ensuring that unlawful votes do not dilute the votes of legitimate voters. If you try to vote for another person, you will be caught and we will prosecute.” Republican Party of New Mexico Interim Chair Mike Nelson said in a statement Saturday: “We applaud the Justice Department for enforcing the law and taking election integrity seriously.

“It has been clear for years now that the Republican Party is the only party that cares about safeguarding our elections. It’s a real shame that not a single New Mexico Democrat will speak out about this blatant attempt at election interference, despite calling themselves the party of ‘democracy.’” The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to say for whom the ballot was cast in the election, which included the presidential race between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump.

Both Perea and his wife often posted on social media in support of Trump and consistently criticized President Joe Biden. In February 2025, Patrick Perea posted on Facebook, “It’s time to get on the PRESIDENT TRUMP TRAIN or get run over by it!!! I’ve had a nice window seat or about 9 years now!!”

Lisa Perea often posted similar political leanings, in addition to images of gardens, mermaids and inspirational messages like “moods pass, but cruel words wound the soul.” During a dispute with a commenter on a June 2023 post, Lisa Perea wrote, “I’m going through cancer for the 5th time. Leave me be and enjoy your life.”

In an online obituary, Perea was described as an “eccentric yet adorable” woman who tried to survive COVID lockdown “on only pickles and cans of whipped cream.” It said she was a talented gardener and animal lover who “had a hidden talent for storytelling to help her stubborn children get to sleep.”

Lisa Perea died on July 1, 2024, at 57. In mid-October, an absentee ballot was mailed in her name.

On Wednesday, two days before his arrest, Patrick Perea reposted a meme about finding out your uncle “a lifelong Republican” was voting Democrat in the fall. The meme’s punch line: “This would never happen if he were still alive.”

Trump administration ‘national defense area’ challenged in NM

Lawsuit contends the immigration enforcement zones at US border harm the everyday lives of US citizens

BY COLLEEN HEILD / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER

October 11, 2026

Volunteers who search for lost, missing or deceased migrants are stymied. Hunters and birdwatchers can’t readily enjoy their hobbies, and border advocacy groups have curtailed their work.

The Trump administration’s decision to turn at least 100,000 acres along the U.S.-New Mexico border into a restricted military zone has effectively increased potential penalties for those who cross illegally, but is also harming U.S. citizens, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque on Thursday.

The plaintiffs, which include the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, are asking a federal judge to declare the government’s designation of the state’s so-called “national defense area” as unlawful.

“The goal here is to end the designation of the land at issue as a ‘national defense area’ and return it to the public for the uses it has long served,” said Albuquerque attorney Mark T. Baker, who represents three organizations that filed the case._“Our clients’ experiences provide just a few important examples of the problems the federal government created with this misadventure.”

Established in April 2025 to “seal” the southwestern U.S. border, New Mexico’s national defense area covers about 170 to 200 miles of southern border land in Hidalgo, Luna and Doña Ana counties.

The land is now considered an extension of Fort Huachuca Army Base in southern Arizona, and access to the civilian public is barred. Border areas in Texas, Arizona and California have similar zones in high-trafficked areas.

The designation has allowed the government to file novel trespassing charges against thousands of immigrants who enter the U.S. through those militarized zones. A conviction adds a potential prison sentence of 18 months to a possible six-month sentence for illegal entry.

Since the creation of the defense area in New Mexico, the U.S. Department of Justice has charged about 1,800 people with crimes related to their presence in the zone, the lawsuit states.

Up until 2025, the Defense Department used the designation only to temporarily secure the immediate perimeter of a “discrete emergency, such as a military aircraft crash,” the lawsuit states. That was the case in 1997, when an F-117 Nighthawk jet crashed during an air show in Baltimore, Maryland.

Now, the lawsuit states, “the administration has militarized wide swaths of public land in New Mexico. In doing so, the administration has significantly disrupted life along the U.S. southern border, barring New Mexico residents from accessing traditionally public land that was long used as part of everyday life and causing ongoing harm to organizations’ and individuals’ recreational, humanitarian and civic interests.”

The petition, by the federation, Battalion Search and Rescue, and Southern Border Communities Coalition, contends the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Army exceeded the agencies’ statutory authority in creating the national defense areas.

None of the agencies responded Friday to a request for comment about the lawsuit.

The groups contend the Interior Department lacked authority to transfer the border land to the Defense Department as an emergency withdrawal. Interior needed to find that the transfer would further the protection of environmental values, “instead, Interior was explicit that the transfer was intended to further the administration’s immigration enforcement agenda,” the lawsuit states.

“No DOD regulations or guidance provides for the use of ‘national defense areas’ as a tool to extend military jurisdiction over large swaths of public land for a period of years for the purpose of allowing the military to conduct activities that would otherwise be prohibited by the Posse Comitatus Act,” states the lawsuit. The act generally bars the use of federal military for domestic civilian law enforcement.

Wildlife Federation members, who include hunters, fishermen and outdoor enthusiasts, cannot engage in outdoor experiences like they did before the zone prevented their access.

Hunting access has been particularly impaired, and the ability to engage in successful hunts of deer, javelina, oryx, ibex and Barbary sheep has been disrupted.

Because of poor mapping and signage, federation members who have spent their entire lives in the area of the zone are unable to determine whether they are on military land, the lawsuit states. And that “causes a chilling effect on … members’ willingness to recreate anywhere in the vicinity of the (national defense area).”

The Army allows special access to hunt in the zone but requires people to first fill out an access badge application, pass a background check and provide personal information.

“Further, members must travel out of state to Fort Huachuca in Arizona to obtain the pass,” the lawsuit states. Some of the federation’s Hispanic members “are understandably worried about traveling to a military base to undergo security screening given the administration’s increased aggressive and violent immigration enforcement actions.”

The mission of Battalion Search and Rescue, an Arizona-based nonprofit organization that has a New Mexico office, is also impacted, the lawsuit states.

The organization’s volunteers search for missing migrants who have disappeared in remote areas along the southwestern border. They typically walk the desert terrain searching for human remains, and on one shift, located three separate sites of human remains in six hours.

But the defense zone keeps the group from recovering remains there, and given past experience in the area, “there is a significant possibility that unrecovered human remains are currently within the NDA,” the lawsuit states.

Some of the Southern Border Communities Coalition’s member organizations report that they are unwilling to travel to that area of the state should they inadvertently trespass in the zone.

“Those members have no way to discern the borders of the restricted area under the control of the military,” the lawsuit states.

The only indicator the land is now under the DOD jurisdiction is typically relatively small signage, measuring about 12 by 18 inches, with text in English and Spanish.

Part of the New Mexico defense area includes parts of N.M. 9, a two-lane route connecting small towns like Animas and Hachita to the rest of New Mexico.

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Ukraine hit by deadly Russian strikes as ‘thanks’ for Trump diesel deal, Zelenskyy says

Ukrainian president says money from fuel sales will intensify war as European leaders reiterate support for Kyiv

By Oliver Holmes for The Guardian

October 10, 2026

Russia launched deadly strikes on civilians in Ukraine as “thanks” for a deal cut by Donald Trump with Vladimir Putin to buy large quantities of Russian diesel, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said, accusing Washington of helping fund Moscow’s war.

The Ukrainian president has expressed repeated outrage at the agreement announced by Trump on Friday, which the US president said was needed to reduce diesel prices, and comes ahead of November midterm elections in which fuel costs are a key voter issue.

The deal, which appeared to blind side Kyiv as it was announced while Ukrainian negotiators were in Miami for peace talks, was described by Zelenskyy as a “gift” to Russia’s president.

He said Russia would use the money it raised from the fuel sales to invest in its war and that “any easing of sanctions” would play into Russia’s hands, “allowing it to kill more, wage war for longer”.

That prediction was realised hours later, when Ukrainian officials announced that a barrage of Russian strikes on the country’s south-east early on Saturday had killed 15 people, including three children.

“Today, Russia expressed its thanks for the lifting of sanctions on diesel exports by dropping five glide bombs on residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia,” Zelenskyy said on social media on Saturday.

“Last night confirmed once again that in Russia, they take any easing of pressure to mean they can keep fighting, to mean they can keep dropping bombs on cities. Different signals are needed,” he said.

There were also “large-scale power outages” in the capital, Kyiv, the country’s largest private energy provider said.

In stark contrast to Zelenskyy’s open frustration with Trump, a Kremlin readout of Friday’s call between the US president and Putin was glowing, with the Russian ⁠news agency Interfax ⁠quoting ​an aide as saying it was “very substantive and friendly”.

“Neither wanted to be the first to hang up,” the Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said of the two leaders. “They hung up simultaneously, literally at the same time.” ​Zelenskyy has previously said Putin is playing games with Trump.

The diesel deal disrupts four years of western financial pressure on Moscow and leaves Kyiv’s allies in Europe and Nato scrambling to adapt their sanctions plan. The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said the diesel deal “provides Moscow with more revenues to wage war”.

“This is not the time to ease pressure on Russia, and Europe won’t,” she said on Saturday. “On Monday, EU foreign ministers intend to approve the biggest set of sanctions listings targeting Russia’s war machine since the start of the war.” She was referring to plans to formally add 1,600 new individuals and entities to the EU’s sanctions blacklist.

Major European governments have attempted to balance their diplomatic and trade relationships with a mercurial Trump and their support for Ukraine.

The German government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said Berlin “remains committed to the sanctions imposed on Russia and is working with its European partners on further sanctions”, adding that support for Ukraine “remains unwavering”.

Ulf Kristersson, the Swedish prime minister, expressed “regret” at the US agreement, saying energy revenues were “a vital source of funding Russia’s war of aggression”.

Zelenskyy said on Saturday that Russia “must feel its losses” and has promised to respond. In the Russian-occupied ‌Luhansk ‌region, Ukrainian attacks in the past 24 hours had killed four ⁠civilians and wounded ⁠five, the region’s ‌Russian-installed governor, Leonid Pasechnik, said ​on Saturday.

Zelenskyy said that Ukraine was ready to take “de-escalatory steps” in the war but only if Russia did the same.

Russia’s fuel production has become a key point of contention between Zelenskyy and Trump, who has attempted to stop Ukraine from bombing Russian refineries, which he says exacerbates a global diesel shortage. The Ukrainian leader has rejected such requests unless Russia stops attacking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

The Financial Times reported that during the talks in Miami, Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner raised the possibility that US intelligence sharing could be cut off if Kyiv did not halt the strikes.

Details scarce on Grant County data center proposal

Developer says project is in conceptual phase

BY ALGERNON D’AMMASSA / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

October 10, 2026

SILVER CITY — The developer behind a proposed data center in Grant County made its introduction to local residents Thursday, but county commissioners and a gallery packed with community members wanting to learn more about the project left with many questions unanswered.

Ian Marcus, founder of New Yorkbased Granite Renewables, participated remotely to present a slide show and answer commissioners’ questions about the proposal named Site Layer 1, which the general public learned about through a public notice in the Silver City Daily Press seven weeks ago.

The notice announced the developer’s intent to file an air quality permit with the New Mexico Environment Department for construction of a data center “powered by (a) natural gas fired electrical power generation facility” consisting of 32 engines generating more than 300 megawatts with nearly 1.3 million tons of annual greenhouse gas emissions.

Thursday, Site Layer 1 was presented as a solar energy project “with potential future expansion to include natural gas presentation and a data center.”

Poor audio made Marcus’ presentation barely audible at times. During the hourlong discussion, he said Granite was contemplating an 8,000-acre development, maintaining an option to grow its footprint, located on private land currently used for ranching near Playas and the southern tip of Grant County.

Marcus said the project would include a solar power installation generating 715 megawatts of energy and a 715MW battery energy storage system, but repeatedly demurred on the size and scope of its operations, saying the project was still assessing the site and the feasibility of building at the location. He indicated that an interconnection application was pending and that requests for transmission interconnections and a large power load request would be filed later in October, while studies to determine the location’s feasibility were in process.

Asked directly whether solar would be the primary source of power with gas as a backup, Marcus said that wasn’t clear, either.

“You don’t know what you’re going to build until you know how much energy and power you have at a site, and until that is settled, that is actually the beginning point of design,” Marcus said.

However, he said the data center would feature a closed-loop cooling system and consume less than 25 acre-feet of water annually, equivalent to the estimated need of up to 50 households. Beyond that, he told commissioners there was no water plan yet.

While his slideshow suggested benefits including tax revenue, “thousands” of construction jobs and up to 300 operational jobs and local economic growth, Marcus also said, “We do not want folks to anchor on any specific numbers because we do not know the size of our data center yet.”

Lawrence Hurt, cattle rancher and owner of the land proposed for Site Layer 1, told the commissioners the project’s potential benefits for his business and the county far outweighed negative impacts on the land and water.

“I feel that we need to have data centers in the United States, built on United States soil,” Hurt said. “I think we need to work together, figure this out and do it correctly.”

Commissioner Nancy Stephens attempted to examine what technology the project would support. “If you develop it, would you then sell it?” she asked. “What’s the purpose? Is it going to be used for cloud storage? Is it going to be used for AI?”

“We can say with certainty that we do not know the end purpose,” Marcus replied.

On Sept. 18, state Environment Secretary James Kenney informed Marcus by letter that its air quality permit application would be considered incomplete unless the public is provided with contact information for the company with opportunities to field questions and provide input. Kenney required documentation of local engagement including meeting dates and presentation materials.

Kenney wrote again on Sept. 29 to express concern about “Site Layer 1, LLC’s lack of community outreach and engagement in the relevant New Mexico communities,” other than virtual meetings Marcus reported holding with Hidalgo and Grant county officials during 2025. Kenney also requested that Marcus set up a meeting with the department’s air quality bureau to discuss “a clear project description, anticipated emissions and equipment information.”

Granite Renewables did not respond to a query from the Journal.

The presentation came weeks before a state election cycle where data centers, their environmental impacts and proposed moratoriums to pause their development have been prominent campaign issues. Grant County is set to consider its own data center moratorium later this month, and many residents in attendance flashed signs that read, “No data centers in Grant County.”

“I don’t think this meeting really counts as community engagement,” Allyson Siwic, executive director of the Gila Resources Information Project, said in an interview after the meeting. “The transparency all along has been pretty lacking. People couldn’t hear. Only the commissioners could ask questions. The public didn’t really get a good opportunity to review the material. … The company really needs to do more community engagement — to be more transparent on the project.”

Suit: New Mexico firm profited from illegal rendition flights to a prison in El Salvador

Civil action seeks damages on behalf of more than 200 men subjected to ‘systematic abuse’

BY OLIVIER UYTTEBROUCK / ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

October 10, 2026

A group of Venezuelan men flown from Texas to a notorious Salvadoran prison last year have filed a lawsuit against a New Mexico-based aviation company and a subcontractor that carried out the flights under contract with the Trump administration.

The lawsuit alleges that CSI Aviation Inc., an Albuquerque-based firm, and a subcontractor transported more than 230 Venezuelans to El Salvador in violation of a federal court order to halt or return the flights.

The March 15, 2025, rendition fights attracted national media attention because the three aircraft departed a Texas airport as a federal judge held an unusual Saturday evening hearing and issued an order prohibiting the Trump administration from deporting the men to the Central American country.

The recent lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges CSI Aviation and Florida- based Global Crossing Airlines, also known as GlobalX, violated the civil rights of the men subjected to “extreme physical and psychological torture” at El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT.

Officials with CSI and GlobalX and their attorneys did not immediately respond this week to phone and email messages seeking comment about the suit.

Rendition flights

CSI and GlobalX “rushed to provide transportation services essential to the scheme’s success, even as proceedings before a court in (U.S. District Court) seeking to halt the flights were unfolding, alongside widespread public reporting and scrutiny,” the suit said.

On March 14, 2025, President Donald Trump signed a proclamation invoking an 18th-century law, the Alien Enemies Act, as authority to remove Venezuelans, alleging they were members of the Tren de Aragua gang. The next day, the men boarded three GlobalX planes at an airport in Harlingen, Texas, and were assured they were returning to Venezuela, the suit alleges.

As two of the planes headed to El Salvador, “Chief Judge James E. Boasberg expressly prohibited the Administration from carrying out the removals,” the suit alleges. “It made no difference. CSI and GlobalX hurriedly shuttled al l three planes to El S a lvado r, anyways.”

An attorney representing the Venezuelan men said in a phone interview on Friday that the lawsuit seeks to hold the government contractors responsible for actions they carry out on behalf of federal agencies.

“ The government’s conduct in this scheme is already before the courts,” said Anthony Enriquez, the vice president of advocacy and litigation for the Kennedy Human Rights Center. In that case, Boasberg ruled last year that the Trump administration attempted to evade judicial review.

“But the government needed planes, crews, clearances, landing permits and private companies to carry out that evasion, and those private companies chose to provide those services for profit,” Enriquez said. “The law doesn’t excuse a company for carrying out an unlawful act just because the government is its customer.”

The lawsuit is assigned to Boasberg, the same judge who presided over litigation involving the March 2025 flights. CSI Aviation and GlobalX have until Nov. 12 to file a response to the suit.

The suit was filed on behalf of three Venezuelan nationals and seeks class certification for more than 230 Venezuelans who were on the March 2025 rendition flights.

The suit seeks unspecified damages, alleging CSI and GlobalX knowingly conspired with ICE to falsely imprison the men, resulting in their “confinement, torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.”

The men ultimately were returned to Venezuela in July 2025 as part of a prisoner exchange negotiated between the U.S. and Venezuela, Enriquez said.

ICE contracts

The lawsuit of fers insights into the relationship between the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and CSI Aviation, which the suit describes as “the single highest-value recipient of ICE contracts.”

On March 1, 2025, about two weeks before the CECOT rendition operation, CSI Aviation was awarded a $585.5 million no-bid contract with ICE “to provide daily scheduled large aircraft and special high risk charter flights” to support ICE rendition operations, according to federal contract records.

“Almost one year later, in February 2026, CSI was listed as the single highest- value recipient of ICE contracts, with the company’s revenue from ICE in the first year of the Administration totaling $1.23 billion,” according to the suit.

“CSI continues to dominate ICE contracting, recently receiving the largest new ICE Air contract for 2026, with a potential value of $1.5 billion,” the suit said. “It remains the contractor responsible for brokering nearly all ICE Air flights for the Administration, which have reached unprecedented levels.”

CSI Aviation serves as ICE’s charter broker and GlobalX operates many of the planes involved in the deportation flights, according to the suit filed July 17.

The suit notes that CSI Aviation provided its private hangar at the Albuquerque International Sunport, where then-candidate Trump held a campaign rally in October 2024, shortly before his reelection. Trump made immigration a theme of the rally and promised to end the “migrant invasion,” the suit said.

Allen Weh, a former state Republican Party chairman who was the GOP’s nominee for an open U.S. Senate seat in 2014, is CSI Aviation’s founder and president. Voice messages left for Weh were not immediately returned Friday.

Weh, who was among the 7,000 people who attended the rally, made $205,000 in campaign contributions to Trump’s political committee in 2024, according to Federal Election Commission records.

GlobalX received a fiveyear contract to provide charter air services for ICE as a subcontractor to CSI, which was selected as the prime contractor, according to the firm’s second-quarter 2024 financial statement.

GlobalX first began providing services to CSI under an emergency contract in September 2023, according to the firm’s second-quarter financial statement.

GlobalX was awarded a five-year contract to provide air operations for ICE as a subcontractor for CSI that was expected to generate about $65 million a year in revenue, the statement said.

Trump immigrant purge could cut social security for Americans by $2,000 a year

New report on economic cost of anti-immigration campaign projects 8.6% reduction in retirement payments by 2034

By Alexandra Villarreal  for The Guardian

October 9, 2026

Elderly Americans can expect to lose an average of $2,152 in annual social security benefits each, a projected 8.6% reduction in their retirement payments, by 2034 and every year after as a direct consequence of the economic fallout from the Trump administration’s anti-immigration campaign, if that carries on, according to a new report shared exclusively with the Guardian.

Already, US food prices are up, housing permits to build new homes are down – and even native-born Americans are losing out on potential jobs after the sudden exodus of 1.2 million foreign-born workers over the last two years as a result of Donald Trump’s policies, the report finds.

“When the Trump administration says things, it’s not always data-driven. And we wanted to see what the data shows, and what other people have found the data shows,” said Michael Ettlinger, one of the report’s authors. “Turns out that refutes what the US president primarily is asserting.”

The blowback on the economy from Donald Trump’s crackdown is wide-ranging, even as the federal government’s aggressive mass deportation campaign quietly ramps up further.

“We are just beginning to see the harms in terms of what is happening here domestically. But the impacts of these policies, of these efforts, are going to be long-lasting. And I think that is by design,” Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of the pro-immigration reform organization America’s Voice, told the Guardian.

The report, Economic Impacts of Trump Administration Immigration Policy, was commissioned by America’s Voice and conducted by researchers at Economic Insights and Research Consulting, a firm focused on economic analysis.

Its conclusions underscore how recent federal policies revoking immigrants’ legal protections or targeting them for enforcement have had dire effects on the nation’s affordability crisis and job market, especially in regions and industries that rely disproportionately on foreign-born workers.

In the US agricultural sector, where 42% of crop workers are undocumented and 68% are foreign-born, farmers across the country are warning that the vast majority or in some cases all of their workforce has disappeared overnight, leaving produce to fall to, or rot in, the ground and go to waste.

Food products heavily reliant on immigrant labor have experienced much sharper price increases than food overall since Trump retook the White House, according to the report.

Examples of immigrant-reliant food price increases that have exceeded the average increase in grocery prices over the last 19 months, compared with the 19 months before Trump returned to office in January 2025, are: fresh whole milk up by 5.7%, canned vegetables up by 6.3%, and apples up by 7.2%, the report found.

In that period before Trump’s inauguration, the vast majority of foods that principally depend on immigrant labor for production saw prices rise more slowly compared with other foods and some prices even fell outright, according to the report.

“One thing that changed was the [immigration] policy. Before, the trend for all those goods was a lower inflation rate. And afterward, the trend was higher inflation. So the trend was reversed, and that was quite striking,” said Robert Lynch, one of the report’s authors.

The construction industry, where foreign-born workers fill almost a third of all occupations, has also been severely affected. States more dependent on immigrant labor have seen costs for new single-family homes soar 10.9% in 2026, compared with the first eight months of 2024, bringing building projects’ monetary value from an average of $305,752 to $338,752.

And the issuance of housing permits to build single-family homes has dropped 10.6% nationwide since January 2025, with higher declines in regions more reliant on foreign-born workers, the research found.

Meanwhile, native-born Americans are missing out on potential income in hard-hit states like California, Nevada, New Jersey, Florida and New York, where construction employment is on the decline – because when there are no immigrant roofers to build a home, American electricians and plumbers lose that project, too.

“It’s not like someone can go work in construction and just not have any skills. And we’re losing people who have been here for decades working in construction. That could be fixed, but it’s going to take time,” Ettlinger said.

Other industries with soaring costs and severe labor shortages include healthcare, including home health care, nursing homes, adult daycare, lawn care, landscaping and groundskeeping, where immigrants have historically comprised a disproportionate share of the workforce and expertise.

By September 2025, less than nine months into the second Trump administration, native-born workers had already lost an estimated 51,000 to 297,000 jobs because of changes to US immigration policy, the report said. The labor force shrunk by an estimated 919,000 people during the 18 months of Trump’s second term, while job growth has slowed to roughly a third of the rate it was before he retook office.

The federal government risks losing a large segment of the $26bn in payroll taxes from unauthorized immigrants who help to support the US social security fund that pays out to American seniors – while not being able to access those benefits themselves. Now, social security trustees, including the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, health and human services secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, labor secretary, Keith Sonderling, and social security commissioner, Frank Bisignano, are warning that lower net immigration than expected is threatening worse finances for the flailing retirement benefits system, which could mean cuts to Americans’ entitlements.

“The share of that annual loss due to the Trump immigration policy would be $2,152 [per person on average]. Thus, the Trump immigration policies, if continued, would reduce projected average annual Social Security benefits by 8.6% in 2034, and every year thereafter,” the report’s authors write.

They told the Guardian that if the administration’s immigration agenda continues as expected, the implications for the US economy could get even worse.

“We would expect higher prices,” Lynch said. “We would expect more job losses, slower economic growth and the affordability crisis getting worse – partly because prices are higher, partly because people are losing their jobs and their incomes and they can’t afford as much.”