A federal council recently placed two proposed uranium mines in New Mexico on a select list of mining projects nationwide to receive streamlined federal permitting consideration, a designation the project’s owner says results from President Donald Trump’s push to accelerate nuclear energy production.

The Jara Mesa and Crownpoint-Churchrock mine projects are now two of six mining projects nationwide to get what’s known as the “FAST-41” designation, established under the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act.

The designation means the projects will receive “focused, hands-on permitting support” that aims to improve coordination and efficiency among federal agencies, according to the federal Permitting Council. The council notes, however, the designation doesn’t change any law or regulation, environmental or otherwise, required for federal permitting.

As a result of the change, three of six mining projects nationwide to receive the designation are in New Mexico, as the Grants Precision project was added in early May. The other three projects on the list are in Arizona, California and Colorado.

The permitting website shows both projects were added to the list May 30, and, last week, Laramide Resources, the company trying to build the mine in McKinley County, touted the mines’ inclusion as part of Trump’s domestic energy agenda.

“As momentum builds around a new era for nuclear power, it is important to recognize that uranium is the fundamental starting point of the entire fuel cycle,” Laramide CEO Marc Henderson said in a June 2 news release.

The statement cited a May 23 Trump executive order supporting the acceleration of nuclear development in the United States.

In addition to the FAST-41 designation, the Jara Mesa is one of two proposed uranium in the Mount Taylor Ranger District of the Cibola National Forest that forest leaders have deemed “priority projects,” as Source New Mexico reported in March.

The Jara Mesa mine’s proximity to Mount Taylor, a sacred mountain to the Navajo Nation and several pueblos in New Mexico, is one reason anti-nuclear opponents have forcefully pushed back against the mine for more than a decade. They also cite the legacy of the uranium mining industry in New Mexico, which has left decades of radioactive and cancer-causing waste in its wake.

In addition to the Jara Mesa Mine, the Crownpoint-Church Rock mine was also added to the FAST-41 list in late May. Laramide Resources touted the project as “one of the largest undeveloped uranium deposits in the U.S.,” which “has the potential to play a central role in securing a domestic supply of this critical mineral.”

A regulator with the state’s Mining and Minerals Division recently told Source New Mexico that, even though the federal government is seeking to streamline its approval of the uranium projects, the state will take its time for a review. He also said no project can legally move forward without a state permit, even though the mines lie largely on federal land.

An environmental lawyer in New Mexico also told Source that the Trump administration’s efforts to gut federal environmental impact reviews is likely illegal and would be subject to litigation if he tried to cut them in New Mexico.

The Laramide statement says while the FAST-41 designation helps its goal of breaking ground in what would be the first new uranium mine in New Mexico in more than 50 years, “continued policy support will be essential to overcome the longstanding regulatory and permitting challenges that have constrained U.S. uranium production.”

The other uranium mine proposal near Mount Taylor, known as Roca Honda, does not appear on the FAST-41 list. But it is on a list of “transparency” projects, one of about 20 selected by the federal Permitting Council to improve the public’s understanding of how the projects are progressing.

Because of the designations, the public gleans a clearer sense of when the federal permits might be granted: For La Jara Mesa, permitting is expected to be approved in March 2028; for Roca Honda, it’s November of 2027.

The permitting website does not provide an estimate of when Crownpoint-Churchrock mine might receive a federal permit.

The United States Forest Service oversees the La Jara Mesa project, whilehe Nuclear Regulatory Commission is listed as the agency overseeing the Crownpoint-Churchrock and Grants Precision project.

Management at a hospital in Rio Rancho violated workers’ labor rights by refusing to bargain over a series of layoffs in 2023, a state district court judge ruled this week.

Second Judicial District Court Judge Elaine Lujan issued a ruling on Tuesday upholding an earlier order by the state Public Employee Labor Relations Board, which found that the University of New Mexico Sandoval Regional Medical Center breached its legal duty to bargain with the union who represents workers there.

Through a prohibited practices complaint in May 2023, the United Health Professionals of New Mexico alleged the hospital had begun laying off more than a dozen workers.

That October, the Board’s hearing officer concluded that management broke the law by refusing to bargain over the layoffs, failing to respond to requests for information about the layoffs and implementing unilateral changes to some workers’ duties.

The Board in February 2024 adopted the hearing officer’s recommendations, and the hospital appealed the decision to Lujan, whose decision this week sided with PELRB.

“This ruling should shut the door on the hospital’s campaign to avoid bargaining in good faith and silence its workers,” UHPNM President and physical therapy Regina McGinnis said in a statement on Wednesday. “Its refusal to follow basic legal obligations under labor law is not only unethical but dangerous for workers and the patients they serve.”

UNM Health System Communications Director Chris Ramirez told Source NM on Wednesday that UNM Hospital respects the ruling.

“Since acquiring UNM Sandoval Regional Medical Center in 2024, UNM Hospital has bargained with and entered into collective bargaining agreements with two labor organizations, including most recently UHPNM,” Ramirez said in a statement. “UNM Hospital is committed to working with its labor partners to ensure that it fulfills its mandate to the community by providing high-quality patient care. UNM Hospital looks forward to continuing this dialogue with its labor partners.”

According to a news release, UHPNM is currently reviewing the Public Employee Labor Relations Board’s remedy “to determine whether the employer has complied or whether further legal action is required,” and noted ongoing “serious concerns” about the hospital’s compliance given its past behavior.

“This is a public hospital, funded by public dollars, and there must be public accountability,” McGinnis said. “Health care workers deserve more than empty apologies and legal delays. They deserve respect and a lawful seat at the table.”

Last Saturday around 8 a.m., as she followed her husband to a mechanic in Albuquerque’s South Valley, Daniela Marina Diaz-Ortiz says she and her 5-year-old daughter watched, terrified, as federal immigration agents leapt out of four SUVs and pulled her husband to the ground.

“They stopped him and took him out of the car. They didn’t ask him for any identification. They didn’t tell him he was under arrest or anything like that,” she told Source in Spanish in an interview outside her home Monday afternoon. “They just pulled him out of the car, threw him on the ground, putting their feet on his back and head. At that moment, they also lifted him up by his neck and forced him into the truck.”

Jesus Jose Carrero-Marquez, 30, was hospitalized at the Presbyterian Hospital emergency room for hours, potentially due to injuries sustained in the arrest, his wife and others told Source NM.

Agents who waited outside Carrero-Marquez’s room told hospital workers that the detainee was a violent gang member, according to New Mexico Rep. Eleanor Chavez (D-Albuquerque), who advocates on behalf of working conditions for healthcare workers across the state. Chavez said she learned of the arrest from a hospital worker and relayed to Source what the worker told her.

Diaz-Ortiz adamantly denied her husband is violent or a criminal or in a gang. Source’s review of state and federal criminal records for Carrero-Marquez showed only a local traffic ticket in January.

Instead, Diaz-Ortiz said he is a father and husband who makes a living as a Doordash delivery driver, while seeking asylum on behalf of himself and his family after being injured in a protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro several years ago. The lawyer representing his appeal did not respond to requests for comment.

Diaz-Ortiz showed Source photos the family is using in its asylum appeal that show what appear to be injuries to Carrero-Marquez’s leg and back, which left him with a punctured lung and a limp, she said.

Source could not determine why federal immigration authorities arrested Carrero-Marquez on May 31; why they purportedly took him to the hospital; where he is being detained; or whether he’s been deported.

A spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to questions from Source about Carrero-Marquez’s arrest, their alleged use of force or his current location. A spokesperson said the agency would respond but had not as of publication time after multiple requests. Source will update the story as necessary.

Advocates, including Chavez and immigration lawyers, have tried since May 31 to find him, including enlisting the help of U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich’s office. A Heinrich spokesperson said the office had made efforts to find him but that “ICE is not providing timely or helpful responses to our inquiries.”

A recent change to Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention policies has made it difficult to determine whether someone is in jail and, if so, at which detention center, said Sophia Genovese, a lawyer for the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center who joined efforts this week to find Carrero-Marquez.

Following his arrest, Carrero-Marquez called his wife from detention somewhere in El Paso, Diaz-Ortiz said, and described severe pain in his head and back from the arrest, she said.

The last time she spoke to him, on Sunday, her husband “told me that they were taking him away, that he didn’t know where they were going, that he hadn’t seen a judge to decide whether he would be ordered to leave the country or not.”

When she hadn’t heard from him again on Tuesday, Diaz-Ortiz told Source she felt certain he was gone.

“I believe my husband has already been deported,” she said, because otherwise, “I believe he would have called me.”

On Wednesday morning, Diaz-Ortiz said she woke up after a long night of making deliveries to check ICE detention records for updates, which she’s done multiple times a day since his arrest.

She discovered, and Source confirmed, he was no longer listed in custody as of Wednesday morning. And he still had not called her, she told Source..

“I still don’t know anything about what happened to him,” she said.

Carrero-Marquez’s arrest follows the pattern of recent ICE detentions, which leave little trail for lawyers or advocates to follow, said Genovese with the Immigration Law Center.

After being arrested and hospitalized, Carrero-Marquez called his wife from his hospital bed, she said. But hospital workers would neither confirm he was there nor allow her to see or speak with him in the emergency room, she said.

While the hospital would not confirm that Carrero-Marquez was hospitalized, a spokesperson said it has “Do Not Announce” protocols as part of federal patient privacy regulations and that patients may be under that protocol “for many reasons.”

The hospital staff had no choice but to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, the hospital worker told Chavez, the state representative. A spokesperson for Presbyterian told Source that, while it cannot discuss specific patients, it is legally required to cooperate with all law enforcement agencies.

“We do not have policies designed to help or hinder any law enforcement or other governmental agencies,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement Friday.

The officers took Carrero-Marquez to jail, likely to the Torrance County Detention Center in Estancia, Genovese said, though jail records never showed him being held there.

Diaz-Ortiz was the first person to hear from him, a few days after the arrest, when he called from El Paso, she said.

Before Wednesday, when his name disappeared completely, ICE records didn’t say where he’s being held, and instead only said “Texas,” instead of a facility name and address. According to Genovese, he could have been held at either the El Paso Service Processing Center or at a nearby former Border Patrol holding facility intended for short-term use that ICE recently took over.

The ICE takeover of the holding facility has resulted in confusion and difficulty for lawyers seeking to speak to their clients. It also means no one knows where detainees are being held.

“This is like a new trend, where we’re seeing a lot of people have the exact same situation where… it just says, ‘Texas.’ It doesn’t provide a detention facility,” Genovese said.

As for why he might be in jail in the first place, Genovese said ICE agents increasingly have less discretion about detaining people who, like Carrero-Marquez, are appealing denials of asylum claims.

According to online records and a document provided by Diaz-Ortiz, a judge denied Carrero-Marquez’s asylum request in February. Records also show he is appealing that denial, and that the appeal is pending.

While he has not yet received a final removal order, ICE has discretion to detain him during “removal proceedings,” his current status., Genovese said.

That said, given the sheer number of people currently in “removal proceedings” with pending appeals, ICE typically would not find and detain people until a final removal order is issued, Genovese said.

But President Donald Trump’s push for mass deportation has removed ICE’s choice about when and where to arrest people, she said.

“It’s changed now under the Trump administration, where there is a mandate, a requirement, that ICE make thousands of arrests per day,” she said. “And they are targeting people with active removal proceedings, many of whom do not have any sort of interaction with law enforcement which would trigger mandatory detention.”

Carrero-Marquez’s daughter recently celebrated graduation at a South Valley school. His wife shared a picture showing the three of them smiling, with her in a graduation gown.

Since witnessing her father’s arrest, the girl is depressed, Diaz-Ortiz said, and afraid of anyone who looks like a police officer.

Diaz-Ortiz doesn’t know whether ICE will come next for her or her daughter, whether she should enroll her daughter back in school or what to do next. But she still has to work.

On Tuesday, she took her daughter along with her as she made deliveries for DoorDash, she said, suddenly the sole caregiver and sole income earner in her family.

Amid the confusion and uncertainty about her husband’s whereabouts, Diaz-Ortiz said she is terrified about the prospect of him being deported back to Venezuela due to his injuries and the government’s repressive policies.

“In Venezuela you can’t speak freely or say what you want because they attack you,” she said. “We came here for a better future.”

Green chile worker ‘caught’ in machine – Josh Lee, nm.news A worker injury at one of the state’s largest green chile producers highlights the life-threatening consequences that can occur when companies ignore safety regulations. Young Guns Chile Co. was recently cited by the New Mexico Environment Department’s (NMED) Occupational Health and Safety Bureau (OHSB) for failing to follow safety regulations, resulting in a serious injury that reportedly landed one employee in the hospital. According to the OHSB citation, the Hatch-based company violated a number of safety regulations, including failing to provide proper machine guarding to protect workers from rotating parts. At least one employee suffered a serious injury in August 2024 when they were “caught by machine parts.” That injury resulted in a hospital stay. “Every New Mexico business has the responsibility to protect its workers, chiefly by following OHSB regulations,” says Bob Genoway, Deputy Director of Compliance and Enforcement at OHSB. “When businesses don’t follow the rules, employees are the ones who pay the price. This case is a prime example of that.” Young Guns Chile is considered one of the largest players in the New Mexico green chile game, processing approximately 40 million pounds of chile during the summer harvest season out of a 60,000-square-foot facility in Hatch. The company’s fresh and frozen green chiles are a regular sight in grocery stores across the nation, and it also supplies a number of nationwide foodservice providers. Its products can be found in big-name stores like Kroger, Smith’s Food and Drug and even on Amazon. With that much experience under its belt, it may come as a surprise that the company failed to provide basic protective equipment to keep its employees from having their limbs injured, but that’s exactly what state inspectors discovered. Worse yet, the inspection took place in October, around 66 days after the incident—and there were still no methods of machine guarding in place. According to state regulations, the company was also required to report any accident that results in amputation, loss of an eye or inpatient hospital admission within 24 hours. But inspectors said Young Guns never reported the incident, and the state only learned about it during the October inspection. Inspectors found two other serious violations in October as well. Young Guns was dinged for failing to certify periodic machine inspections of equipment that utilized the state’s energy control procedures. These procedures are in place to keep equipment from accidentally release of hazardous energy during maintenance. It was also hit for failing to properly train employees on the procedures, “due to inadequate and conflicting training material and policies.” The inspectors also found that fire extinguishers on the property were not inspected monthly, although it designated this an “other than serious” violation. The company was hit with five citations in all, but penalties were only given for the three serious violations—each costing $14,464 for a grand total of $43,392. Young Guns Chile did not respond to requests for comment.