Sandoval County manager clears the air on sanctuary status, federal funding

BERNALILLO — After the United States Department of Homeland Security released a list of sanctuary counties or counties in “non-compliance with federal statutes,” Sandoval County was named publicly as one of those counties.

Even though DHS retracted the list from public view June 2, Sandoval County Manager Wayne Johnson discussed that distinction, which he says is inaccurate.

“Sandoval County has no policy in place one way or the other, and our policy in general is to follow the law, and that means cooperating with the federal authorities. We do that with both our jail and the sheriff’s office, and that’s always been the case as far as I’m aware here at Sandoval County,” he said in a June 4 interview.

He added that he doesn’t know why Sandoval County is on the list, saying he even called DHS to find out why and how it can be removed from the list. The county has not specified if it is “sanctuary” or “non-sanctuary”, according to Johnson. He believes many counties had the same confusion that Sandoval did when the list was released.

Johnson also clarified that the county didn’t panic when the list was released because of the inaccuracy and because of the tumultuousness of government in general.

“The sanctuary policy, the list that came out — which has been pulled down at this point — but there’s an example of let’s not overreact and start sending out press releases,” he said.

Johnson also clarified that the Sandoval County Sheriff’s Office does not enforce immigration due to U.S. Supreme Court case law that says they can’t.

“That’s the federal government’s purview, so we don’t go out there and enforce immigration law. On the other hand, we do cooperate with federal agencies, including ICE, and serve the public and within the law itself. We don’t violate the law just because we may or may not disagree with it,” he said.

Johnson also responded to questions about potential impacts from federal funding cuts. He said Sandoval County has not felt any impact so far.

“We’re knocking on wood. There’s a lot going on at the federal government. We haven’t seen anything affect us directly. I do know that there are some impacts on Medicare, Medicaid, but I wouldn’t be qualified to really talk about that,” he said.

If the county were to feel those impacts, Johnson said it would most likely be on the AAA side. “It’s going to happen because the funding for the senior meal program comes from federal dollars, but at this point, we haven’t seen anything that significant. We are worried about grants funding, funding opportunities, but nothing that we’re concerned about with existing funds.”

Johnson did say, however, that it is important to keep a watchful eye on any administration, whether it be at the federal or local level or anything in between.

“In the private sector, lack of revenue makes you reassess how you’re doing things. That’s not something that Sandoval County has actually had to deal with, fortunately, not since I’ve been here anyway. It’s something we have to be careful of in the future, and we’ve always been pretty careful about how we expand and grow,” he said.

“It’s always a good idea to keep your eye on government at all levels, whether that’s county government, or whether it’s federal government or state government or your city government. We all can affect lives in positive ways, but we can also affect it in negative ways.”

He added that if something comes along that will negatively impact the county, the county figures out how to mitigate the impact and reassess.

“I think (Ronald) Reagan said that ‘a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth,’” Johnson said, referencing the former president’s 1964 “A Time to Choose” speech.

The county will let people know when there needs to be concern locally, but so far Johnson says residents don’t have anything to worry about.

“I would say the sky’s not falling. Your elected officials in your county who are watching what’s going on very closely, we keep in mind that our main priority is to keep them safe and to keep them healthy, and so we will be watching any changes from any administration, not just this one, as they present themselves to make sure that we act in a way that benefits the public and benefits them because that’s our job,” Johnson said.