A group formed by the New Mexico Department of Justice to address the crisis of missing indigenous people held its second meeting on Friday and heard some withering criticism during a 30-minute public comment period.
The DOJ started the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples Task Force group earlier this year. The governor had disbanded a similar prior panel after it created a state response plan.
Several commenters, many of whom said they lived on Navajo Nation near the Four Corners area, raised concerns about a public database of the missing that displays only scant information.
Most of the more than 200 entries in the database list nothing more than name, age, gender, and reporting law enforcement agency.
Attorney Darlene Gomez argued that without photographs of the disappeared and more details, the online information isn’t doing enough.
”And if all of you guys can stand up there and be on this task force and know that there's no pictures for the missing, then you really need to evaluate your police departments and where you come from," Gomez said.
"Because every time I see a 'Wanted' poster. You guys sure find the time to put pictures on the 'Wanted' posters for criminals, and you can't do it for our families?”
According to New Mexico in Depth, the DOJ went live with the missing persons database nine months ago.
Gomez, who said that she’s provided or is providing legal representation, free of charge, to 28 families who’ve lost loved ones, offered additional suggestions, including an alert system, more resources available for families, and for raising awareness of the missing.
”A feather alert—a statewide notification that informs the public when an indigenous person or tribal member is missing—something similar to California," Gomez said.
"You identify resources for families that are immediately accessible, money, materials for posters, and also access to press interviews.”
Task force chair Stephanie Padilla, of Isleta Pueblo, said that the DOJ had granted 200 thousand dollars to the task force to support its work.
Another issued raised by Gomez and others was the need for more training of attorneys and certification of others to advocate for the families of missing indigenous people.
Padilla said the task force has two central goals - to update the 2022 state response plan and to provide “ongoing legislative recommendations on how to address the missing and murdered indigenous people’s crisis in New Mexico.”
The task force went into private session after public comment to discuss those goals.
The force has two open seats for members—one for either an indigenous survivor or a family member of a victim, and one for a professional related experience in a tribal community.
