Letters to the Editor

Late payment is an insult

Editor:

On Tuesday, Nov. 4 2025, dozens of our fellow citizens awoke earlier than usual and reported for a very special work shift.

Starting at 6 a.m., they began the long and detailed process of opening and administering polling sites for our recent local elections in Valencia County. Their day was complex, challenging and, most of all, long.

By the time many of those poll workers went home that evening, many of them had spent anywhere from 14 to 16 hours on their feet doing a service for this county that few if anyone will ever know about.

This past election day came in the midst of the longest government shutdown in American history. Federal SNAP benefits for November hadn’t been paid. For some poll workers, their backs weren’t exactly up against the wall, but if they reached back with their hands even a little, it could definitely be felt.

Now imagine being told that your work was of such vital importance to the county that they can expect to be paid no earlier than Friday, Nov. 28 — three weeks after the election, and the day after Thanksgiving.

How many people in our county government do you think have been paid for their services since Nov. 4? The folks in finance could have made sure that poll worker pay came through as soon after the election as possible? The commissioners could have voted a special resolution to ensure that poll workers got paid immediately after their work was done? How about the scores of folks who were in charge of making sure we got our property tax bills sent out incorrectly this year — have they been paid even once this month, maybe twice between the Nov. 4 and the Nov. 28?

Did anyone who knew exactly when our election would be held (last) month have to wait even an extra minute or day for their pay to come through when the government was still closed and SNAP payout benefits were being debated in the courts?

Everyone who works the polls will tell you that their team is the absolute best one out of all those in the country, and every one of them is absolutely right. My team as usual was amazing this year, but I heard horror stories about what some of them were having to endure because of how hard times have been these past few months.

This stipend represents keeping the lights on, the heat going, the water running in their homes for another month. Most of all, it could mean the difference between a turkey dinner or bologna sandwiches for Thanksgiving dinner this year.

I am angry and disappointed and exasperated at the folks who in their ignorance decided that it was a good idea to pay election workers weeks after an election that everyone knew was coming, on what day and at what times. That isn’t mere incompetence — this time, it’s also heartless and cruel.

Torres Leyba

Meadow Lake

Need a job? ICE is hiring

Editor:

Can’t find a job because no one will hire you? Been arrested, especially for assault or harassing people?

There’s a job for you with ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement!

No physical fitness required! High paying jobs with ICE funded by American taxpayers. Extra points if you were arrested while trying to take back the country at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Be sure to wear a “Make America Great Again” hat to your interview.

Once hired, you can go around wearing a mask and uniform without any identifying information about who you are or even what agency you work for. You can pull over and rough up anyone you suspect isn’t a “true American,” especially anyone who isn’t lily white.

There are no limits! You will be able to separate parents from young children and harass the elderly and handicapped at will. If you pull over and rough up an actual American citizen, no worries! You won’t have to apologize. You won’t suffer any legal consequences like being arrested. You have a blank check to keep on doing the same thing.

Apply now; get in on the ground floor as ICE will be hiring thousands more “true Americans” like you. By getting in early, you can look forward to rising in the ranks and maybe get the chance to tell a meddling federal judge to mind his or her own business while you are saving America.

Good luck and happy hunting!

James Rickey

Los Lunas

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