Walt Rubel: Model City program not so bad, but qualifier is

I had originally intended to write a rebuttal column this week to one penned recently by New Mexico Senate Republicans criticizing city officials in Las Cruces and Albuquerque for not applying for the Trump Administration’s “model city” program.

And, there was a lot to work with. For one thing, none of them signed their name to the column. None of them live in Las Cruces. And, they make the absurd claim that the only reason city officials balked was so the president wouldn’t get credit. Heavy sigh.

Beyond that, the idea that a “model city” can be achieved through law enforcement alone is just warped.

I was about a third of the way done before I did the obligatory research, going to the Justice Department website to see just how horrible this was. I expected to find a lot of drivel about “law and order,” and there was some, accompanied by a dystopian view of a future society under constant police surveillance.

What I found instead was a comprehensive and well-considered proposal dealing with multiple aspects of public safety. Yes, there was discussion of new surveillance technology, and I’m not comfortable with any of that, including the city’s new Flock cameras.

But it also offered funding for mental health and substance abuse services; victims assistance services; re-entry programs and transitional assistance for those leaving prison; youth crime prevention programs; and for the hiring, retention, training and professional development of officers. All are things we need. But there’s a catch.

A previous column by City Council members Johana Bencomo and Becky Corran explained that only cities that assist the federal government with the enforcement of immigration laws can qualify for the funding. And that’s a deal-breaker.

We all saw what happened in Minnesota, and continues happening to this day. It’s what you get when you rush to certify under-trained, over-stimulated young men who were recruited through TV ads that make the job look like a video game.

All of the professional development services that the Justice Department will be offering to local law enforcement agencies through this new funding are being bypassed when it comes to their own law enforcement officers. All these months and deaths later,  and they are still struggling just to equip ICE officers with body cameras.

This government-induced chaos and violence on our streets is in service to what? The forced removal of our friends, neighbors and co-workers.

As is so often the case, the Biden Administration invited this with its incompetence. The waves of new immigrants that he allowed to flow into the country were certain to prompt a law-and-order response by Republicans.

But I didn’t think it would go this far. And, I didn’t anticipate this level of cruelty. Alligator Alcatraz? Kristie Noem posing for glamor shots in front of half-naked men in an El Salvadoran hell hole? Deporting Latin American immigrants to Africa? Repelling from a Blackhawk helicopter onto the roof of an apartment building in Chicago? Not in my name.

And so, I was wrong about the model city program. It's a lot more balanced and potentially useful than I had thought. But if signing on to all of the above and more is the price of admission, we’ll just have to find another way.


Walter Rubel can be reached at [email protected]

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