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# Last in Schools, First in Food Stamps: Inside the "New Americans Division" Santa Fe Built for Non-Citizens
- URL: https://www.newmexicomadness.com/new-mexico-new-americans-division-hb124-budget/
- Published: 2026-10-26T13:37:28.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-26T13:37:28.000Z
- Description: While 30 of 33 New Mexico counties drown in poverty and 32,000 local youth sit out of work, lawmakers quietly created a permanent agency to import foreign labor. Now the taxpayer bill just tripled.
- Author: Reid Rothchild
- Tags: State

When President Donald Trump posted on social media last week that New Mexico should rename itself "New America," Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and state Democrats rushed to the microphones to mock the idea.

They left out one glaring detail: seven months earlier, Lujan Grisham literally signed a law creating the **New Americans** Division inside state government—and rewrote New Mexico statute to define non-citizens as "New Americans."

If you only watch Albuquerque's three evening news networks or read the state's legacy newspapers, you probably have no idea what House Bill 124 actually does. When it passed during the fast-moving 30-day legislative session in February, local TV stations dutifully copy-pasted the state's celebratory press releases under hollow headlines like *"State office to help 'new Americans' find economic success."* Print outlets buried it in four-sentence roundup blurbs. Zero context. Zero follow-up. Zero dot-connecting on what this means for struggling New Mexicans.

So we pulled the bill text, the floor amendments, the fiscal impact reports, and a brand-new Fiscal Year 2028 budget request quietly filed last month. What they reveal is an insult to every working family in New Mexico—and to every legal immigrant who spent years following the law to earn American citizenship.

## They Aren't "New Americans"—And Lawmakers Refused to Require Legal Status

In plain English, an American is a citizen of the United States. Not in Santa Fe.

Sponsored by top House Democrats—including Majority Floor Leader Reena Szczepanski, Caucus Chair Raymundo Lara, Rep. Cristina Parajón, and Sen. Cindy Nava—Section 1 of House Bill 124 amends state law to declare that "new Americans" means people residing in the United States who are not citizens of the United States or who were not citizens of the United States at birth.

They are not "New Americans." By the law's own definition, they are foreign nationals and immigrants.

During the February 10 House floor debate, Rep. Angelita Mejia (R-Roswell) introduced Floor Amendment .233966.2 to insert a single word—"lawfully"—before "residing" so that state taxpayer resources would at least be restricted to legal residents. After an hour of debate, House Democrats voted to table her amendment, passing the bill 40-21 before the Senate rubber-stamped it 22-12.

Why did Democrats fight so hard to keep "lawfully" out of the bill? Look at page 8 of the FY28 Appropriation Budget Request filed by the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions (NMDWS) on September 21, 2026\. In black and white, the agency admits the new division is the central clearinghouse for "foreign-born workers, including lawful permanent residents, temporary workers, refugees, and individuals in other statuses."

"Individuals in other statuses" is bureaucratic code for illegal immigrants—and state government just built them a permanent concierge desk.

## The $750,000 Bait-and-Switch

How did lawmakers slip a permanent new government division through a 30-day session without an uproar? Outside money.

The Office of New Americans launched in 2024 as a two-person pilot project funded by private philanthropic grants and guided by a national consortium run by World Education Services (WES) and the American Immigration Council. Because private grants covered the staff through June 2027, supporters pitched HB 124 as "free" for FY26 and FY27, telling the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) in February that the division would only cost taxpayers an estimated $250,000 a year once state funding kicked in for FY28.

Even then, LFC analysts warned in their Fiscal Impact Report that NMDWS had provided **zero** outcome metrics showing the office actually raised wages or employment.

That didn't stop the bureaucracy from tripling the tab. Once HB 124 was safely signed into law, NMDWS quietly submitted its September 21 budget request asking the Legislature for **$750,000** in General Fund taxpayer money for the Office of New Americans in FY28—three times what they told lawmakers seven months ago.

## America's Poorest State Prioritizes Everyone Except Its Own

To grasp how backwards this priority is, look at the economic crater New Mexicans are living in right now:

- **Poverty:** 30 of 33 New Mexico counties are poorer than the U.S. average (12.5%), with statewide poverty at 17.8% and 11 counties still worse off than the state's 2013 peak.
- **Children:** 90,276 New Mexico kids live below the poverty line (20.5% statewide), and in 10 counties—including Luna (33.3%), McKinley (31.9%), Cibola (33.4%), San Miguel (36.3%), Socorro (37.5%), and Catron (38.5%)—at least one in three children grows up in poverty.
- **Dependency:** New Mexico ranks #1 in America in food stamp reliance, with 21.9% of residents on SNAP and one in four households on SNAP in eight counties, including Chaves County (Roswell) at 25.0%. Meanwhile, 57.3% of all New Mexico children (283,403 kids) are on Medicaid, topping 60 percent in 21 of 33 counties.
- **Workforce:** Just last week, state labor reports showed New Mexico's labor force participation rate sagging at 56.6%—dead last among neighboring states—while unemployment rose to 4.7% (hitting 10.9% in Luna County) and roughly 32,000 New Mexico youth (ages 16 to 24) sit completely disconnected from school and work.

For ten straight years, New Mexico has ranked **50th** in the nation in K-12 education. We have failed a generation of our own children, watched 32 of 33 counties fall into primary-care doctor shortages, and heard NMDWS Cabinet Secretary Sarita Nair admit just days ago that 250,000 New Mexico households are now cost-burdened on housing.

Instead of fixing our 50th-ranked schools or training our 32,000 disconnected youth to step into trades, construction, healthcare, and tech jobs, HB 124 directs NMDWS to help employers recruit "global talent," navigate employment visas, and fast-track state licenses for foreign workers. For employers seeking cheaper labor, it is a state-subsidized H-1B pipeline without the visa hurdles. For New Mexicans, it means suppressed wages and stiffer competition for the exact same entry-level rentals, starter homes, and rural hospital beds we already cannot access.

## The 24-State Exodus Forecast—And the Dec. 1 Deadline

Want to see where this policy leads over the long term? Look at the other states in the Office of New Americans State Network that New Mexico just joined as its 24th member.

According to the latest U.S. Census domestic migration data, the top five states in America losing their own citizens—California (-229,077), New York (-137,586), Illinois (-40,017), New Jersey (-37,428), and Massachusetts (-33,340), along with #8 Colorado (-12,100)—all run Offices of New Americans.

The pattern is identical everywhere: skilled, tax-paying working families pack up and leave over high taxes, unaffordable housing, and failing public services, while state politicians backfill the population loss with foreign nationals plugged directly into government-subsidized programs. In Illinois, that "modest" program has already ballooned into a $20.2 million taxpayer line item for deportation legal defense.

And New Mexico's next expansion is already on the clock. Under Section 4 of HB 124, NMDWS and the Health Care Authority—the exact agency running our overloaded Medicaid and SNAP rolls—must deliver a formal plan on expanding the "work, economic impact and structure of refugee resettlement in New Mexico" by **December** 1, 2026.

New Mexicans deserve journalism that reads the bills and checks the budget filings before the ink is dry—not legacy media outlets that polish government press releases while 90,000 local kids sit in poverty. Charity begins at home, and it is time Santa Fe started working for the citizens who already live here.

#### Endnotes & Sources

1. ****New Mexico Legislature — House Bill 124 (2026 Regular Session, Enacted Text, Laws 2026, Chapter 61):** Creating the New Americans Division in the Workforce Solutions Department; statutory definition of "new Americans" (Section 1) and December 1, 2026 refugee resettlement study mandate (Section 4). [View Bill Text at nmlegis.gov](https://www.nmlegis.gov/Sessions/26%20Regular/bills/house/HB0124.HTML?ref=newmexicomadness.com) [nmlegis](https://www.nmlegis.gov/Sessions/26%20Regular/bills/house/HB0124.HTML?ref=newmexicomadness.com)
2. ****New Mexico Legislature — House Floor Amendment .233966.2 to HB 124 (Feb. 10, 2026):** Introduced by Rep. Angelita Mejia (R-Chaves) to insert "lawfully" before "residing"; tabled by House majority. [View Floor Amendment at nmlegis.gov](https://www.nmlegis.gov/Sessions/26%20Regular/floor%5Famendments/.233966.2.pdf?ref=newmexicomadness.com) [nmlegis](https://www.nmlegis.gov/Sessions/26%20Regular/floor%5Famendments/.233966.2.pdf?ref=newmexicomadness.com)
3. ****New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) — Fiscal Impact Report for HB 124:** Documenting philanthropic seed funding for FY26–FY27, projected $250,000 minimum recurring General Fund cost starting in FY28, and LFC warnings regarding unmeasured wage and employment outcomes. [View LFC Report at nmlegis.gov](https://www.nmlegis.gov/Sessions/26%20Regular/firs/HB0124.PDF?ref=newmexicomadness.com) [nmlegis](https://www.nmlegis.gov/sessions/26%20Regular/firs/HB0124.PDF?ref=newmexicomadness.com)
4. ****New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) / NMDWS — FY28 Appropriation Budget Request (631-DWS, Filed Sept. 21, 2026):** Requesting $750,000 in General Fund appropriations for the Office of New Americans and defining target clientele to include "individuals in other statuses" (Page 8) . [View FY28 Budget Filing at nmdfa.state.nm.us](https://www.nmdfa.state.nm.us/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/631-DWS-FY28-Appropriation-Request.pdf?ref=newmexicomadness.com)
5. ****New Mexico Workforce, Housing, and Healthcare Data (Oct. 2026):** Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) and NMDWS September 2026 labor force participation (56.6%) and unemployment (4.7%) reports ; NMDWS Cabinet Secretary Sarita Nair remarks on 250,000 housing cost-burdened households (**Santa Fe New Mexican*, Oct. 17, 2026) ; Think New Mexico and Legislative Health and Human Services Committee healthcare workforce shortage reports .
6. ****County Poverty, Child Poverty, Medicaid, and SNAP Data:** U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates (Tables B17001, S2704, S2201), Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE, released Jan. 2026), and USDA Food and Nutrition Service FY2025 state SNAP rankings .
7. ****Office of New Americans State Network & U.S. Census Net Domestic Migration Data:** American Immigration Council and World Education Services (WES) ONA State Network rosters ; U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025/2026 state-to-state net domestic migration flows .