Published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
‘Feeling intense pressure’: Groups gather to discuss federal cuts’ impacts on kids and families
By Esteban Candelaria ecandelaria@sfnewmexican.com Jun 2, 2025
A time of adversity is often the best time to pull together.
In the face of proposed sweeping federal funding cuts to programs affecting thousands of New Mexico’s children and families, dozens of community members, advocates and nonprofit leaders gathered for an “All in For Kids Town Hall” Monday evening to discuss the expected impacts and the ways they can pull through the problems together.
Panelists at the event, held at Christ Church Santa Fe, encouraged community members to call on their state and federal legislators to oppose cuts proposed by President Donald Trump’s administration and Republican lawmakers. They also urged nonprofits to work together to fill gaps caused by funding cuts.
“We’re all feeling intense pressure, because the needs of our families are really growing, the stressors that our families are experiencing are growing,” said Kate Mitchell, a volunteer program manager for Communities In Schools of New Mexico. “And so we just want to make sure that there’s a network there to provide the support as best we can, despite the federal cuts.”
A significant program to fall to federal cost cutting is Communities In Schools of New Mexico’s Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention program, which reaches schools across the state — especially in rural and tribal areas. It helps train educators how to see the signs of struggling young people and help them.
Over the past year and a half, the program has trained nearly 4,500 school staff, students and community members throughout the state, special projects manager Adrian Sotelo said, saving over a dozen children in the process.
But funding was stripped away earlier this year, leaving just until the end of June for the program to continue operating. Sotelo and a colleague will lose their jobs.
“We hope this is only a long pause in our ability to offer this free, lifesaving training for rural New Mexico communities,” Sotelo said.
‘Basic promise is under attack’
Top of mind for many at Monday’s town hall were proposals to significantly cut Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program under a budget reconciliation bill recently passed in the U.S. House and on the table in the Senate.
The measure, referred to by Trump as “One, Big, Beautiful Bill,” would, among many other changes, provide trillions of dollars in tax breaks and allow for increased spending on border security. Lawmakers and the president have expressed an interest in fast-tracking the measure, hoping to get it on the president’s desk by July 4, The Washington Post has reported.
New Mexico could see a reduction in federal participation in its Medicaid programs — which cover approximately 38% of all residents and 70% of children — by roughly $700 million, according to a recent analysis by the Legislative Finance Committee. The reconciliation bill could increase New Mexico’s matches for SNAP benefits, or food aid, to as much as $288.7 million, another analysis found.
The belt tightening in food assistance programs for New Mexicans would be far too much to overcome with charity, said Jill Dixon, executive director of The Food Depot, a Santa Fe-based food bank that serves a wide swath of Northern New Mexico.
“Make absolutely no mistake that we cannot do it. The charitable food system cannot compensate for the loss that we are facing,” she said. “… We’ll do our best, but we cannot replace the meals that we’re talking about; it is not financially possible. And the state of New Mexico cannot accept the cost share.”
New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty health care director Arika Sánchez also decried the federal plans to slash Medicaid funding.
“We believe that every New Mexican deserves access to health care, dignity and the peace of mind to care for our families,” she said. “We know that right now, that basic promise is under attack.”
‘A way of inserting this fear’
The pressure felt by community organizations also stems from threats made by the Trump administration — even though it’s too soon to tell whether the administration will make good on them.
The cities of Santa Fe and Albuquerque, for instance, appeared alongside nearly two dozen New Mexico communities designated as “sanctuary jurisdictions” by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, news station KOAT-TV reported.
The list, which has since been removed from the federal agency’s website, was published in after an executive order by Trump calling for the suspension of certain funds to such so-called sanctuary jurisdictions.
What that meant, exactly, was unclear, said Ivan Cornejo of the city of Santa Fe’s Immigration Committee. Still, the threat to Santa Fe — and cities like it — was quite clear, he noted in an interview.
“It is definitely a way of bullying,” he said. “It is definitely a threat. It is definitely a way of inserting this fear to our communities.”
Esteban Candelaria is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. He covers child welfare and the state Children, Youth and Families Department. Learn more about Report for America at reportforamerica.org.
