By Javier Sanchez

This Easter Season, I was reminded that I don’t matter, that regardless of what I do or who I think I am, or even if I consider how hard I try, I just don’t matter.

Redemption comes not from the things I think I do, but the way we serve each other. Jesus died on the cross to give us another chance, to lead the way, and to abolish death. When we replicate that life — in our very small and meager way — we must do so with service and tradition in our hearts.

I am reminded of a sermon given many years ago wherein the priest asks the eternal question of how to get into heaven. Though he admits he has no direct knowledge of what it takes, he knows one thing for certain: When asked by St. Peter why we deserve to go through the pearly gates, you had better not start your sentence with the word “I.” As in, “I have worked hard to go to church and do the right thing.” Or “I have done all of the things Jesus has said in the Bible.”

Rather, one should recognize that “He” said I could come. We are given redemption and a chance at everlasting life, not because of my ego, but because of the chance that God has given us to serve one another. It is no small task to help those in need.  But it is an even greater obligation to repeat the same service so often that it becomes tradition.

During the Lenten season in Northern New Mexico, small restaurants continued the small tradition of making panocha. Panocha is newly-sprouted wheat that only local millers produce for our community. They know what it takes to transform it into everyone’s favorite dessert. It takes eight to nine hours to make. Some of you leave it in the crockpot overnight, letting it bubble over onto your counters. Socorro at Socorro’s Restaurant makes some of the best around. At La Cocina, we too, use grandma Jessie’s recipe to cook up some pretty darned good panocha.

Thanks to Sennie of Big Dawg’s catering, we served salmon patties with torta de huevo, beans and potatoes on Fridays at Apple Valley Kitchen. More than food, our local community serves up tradition that inspires, feeds and reminds us that redemption comes from hospitality, love and service.

Service to others takes many shapes. Rio Arriba lost a great leader and deputy when Sheriff Billy Merrifield passed away on Easter Sunday. His unexpected loss comes at a time when his department was charging full steam ahead. He was responsible for bringing more than $3 million to Northern New Mexico with hard lobbying at the state. I have all the confidence that his well-trained team will continue his legacy of serving our county and state with honor.

This week, we also recognize the loss of our spiritual leader, Pope Francis and supreme pontiff of the Catholic Church who passed away on Monday. His lifetime of service was unmatched, becoming ordained as a priest in 1969 at the age of 32.

He led a long career focusing his sermons on mercy, kindness and humility — the three pillars of society we often find lacking. Again, the tradition of succession and service will take us through this difficult time.

We take these inspirations from Pope Francis to guide our lives. We look at the good deeds of our leaders and officers. They inspire us to do the little acts of kindness, like making traditional panocha for our friends and family. We seek to gain the grace of God with acts of mercy, not for ourselves, but for others. To serve, to protect, to feed others and accept God into our life. It is the only way toward humility and mercy.

Happy Easter. May the season of redemption be with you.

Javier Sanchez is the former mayor of Espanola, an independent businessman, columnist and El Rito Media investor.

Cal Thomas

In politics, creating and then owning the narrative is the best way to deceive the public, especially when a compliant media helps promote it and ignores later information that contradicts the initial narrative.

Such has been the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a native of El Salvador, who violated U.S. immigration laws and has lived in Maryland for the last 13 years. The media describe him as a “Maryland man” simply because he has been living in that state, but for fewer years than he lived in his native country.

The Department of Homeland Security characterizes him quite differently. Assistant Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin has an alternative and accurate narrative: “Garcia is an MS-13 gang member, illegal alien from El Salvador, and suspected human trafficker. The facts reveal he was pulled over with eight individuals in a car on an admitted three-day journey from Texas to Maryland with no luggage. The facts speak for themselves, and they reek of human trafficking.

The media’s sympathetic narrative about this criminal illegal gang member has completely fallen apart. We hear far too much about the gang members and criminals’ false sob stories and not enough about their victims.”

Garcia has also been described in some media reports as a “family man.” In 2021 his wife applied for a protective order, saying he beat her. He has admitted never to have been a legal U.S. resident. In April, 2019, an immigration judge ordered him detained until a deportation hearing. In October of that year, another immigration judge ordered Garcia deported, but the order was never overturned and has never expired, and he remained in Maryland.

Donald Trump was president in 2019. He must have missed that one.

Last week, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and a real “Maryland man” visited Garcia in his upgraded prison surroundings and came back claiming Garcia had been denied “due process.” As noted, Garcia received due process before two immigration judges. Is Van Hollen that misinformed? Several Republicans and conservative commentators have noted Van Hollen has said virtually nothing about the victims of MS-13 and victims of other criminal aliens.

Does Van Hollen think this is the best way for Democrats to improve their dismal poll numbers? Maybe he should join Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont democratic socialist, and AOC, a socialist congresswoman from New York, on their anti-oligarchy road show. There are probably a few seats available on that large $15,000 per hour private jet ferrying them around. Oh, the carbon footprints they are leaving!

President Trump ran on and won largely on closing the border and deporting those who broke the law to come to America. Polls show a majority still support his deportation efforts.

Last week the mother of Rachel Morin appeared in the White House briefing room. Patty Morin described how her daughter, a mother of five, was raped and murdered and her body stuffed in a tunnel drain. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt asked where was Van Hollen’s sympathy for her and other victims?

Good question. I sense a campaign theme for Republicans in next year’s congressional elections with relatives of others who have been raped and murdered telling their stories to the public. Voters are largely on their side and not on the side of Democrats who have again picked the wrong issue, mistakenly hoping it will return them to power.<n><n>

Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com. Look for Cal Thomas’ latest book “A Watchman in the Night: What I’ve Seen Over 50 Years Reporting on America” (HumanixBooks).<n><n>

Mary Sanchez

How about a round of “Who said it?”

“We have been unable to crack down on the multitude of tax-exempt foundations that feed left-wing political causes.”

“We have been unable to obtain information in the possession of the IRS regarding our political enemies.” “Don’t know what the law says, but clearly registering Black teenagers and Mexican-American teenagers is not an enterprise that is going to be advantageous in November; and it should not be done with either tax-exempt or corporate funds.”

The quotes are from those who seek to weaponize taxpayer data, and they aren’t from the current administration, nor are they from President Donald Trump’s pals at DOGE. Although, it’s hardly a stretch to believe that Trump wants control of sensitive personal information so he can use it against his perceived enemies.

The quotes are from former President Richard Nixon’s era. White House counsel John Dean said the first two, and Nixon’s advisor Pat Buchanan uttered the third. The latter wrote about his dismay that Black and brown teenagers were being encouraged to become voters through projects funded by philanthropic dollars.

Nixon and his supporters dearly wanted to politicize the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). They wanted the ability to hand an enemies list to the IRS and have those people or organizations put under the microscope of tax investigators.

Reforms came after Watergate, and after Nixon’s resignation over the scandal.

Decades later, there’s a new president, with a similarly devious intent. It’s also tax season, with the April 15 deadline fast approaching .

The tariff drama has kept most Americans on the edge of their seats. But while most were focused on the markets, the Trump administration managed a procedural coup, picking away at barriers intended to protect taxpayer privacy.

Trump used a proven winning formula: Go after immigrants first. Apathy about their plight will keep critics at bay.

On April 7 an agreement was reached between the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security stipulating that tax information will be shared between the agencies for the purpose of deporting immigrants.

The IRS staff had to be brow beaten into submission. Top IRS leadership announced their resignations in opposition.

Immigrants might now see their tax filings, home addresses, places of employment, earnings, and other data used against them in deportation cases. The government claims that this will happen sparingly, involving only immigrants with prior orders to leave the country, or who the government is investigating.

That’s a wide net. And it severely undercuts existing law and standards on confidentiality on tax filings. The Trump administration would rather chase immigrants out of the country than collect their tax dollars.

It’s a calculation, a statement on Trump’s obsession with immigrants, regardless of the negative consequences for the nation. This opens a door to abuse.

The administration has already admitted mistakes in its ramped up efforts to deport the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants from the country.

The only upside to the data-sharing agreement between Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the IRS is an opportunity to educate.

Undocumented immigrants have long paid into the tax system. In 2023, they paid $66 billion in federal taxes, according to the Yale Budget Lab. They do so largely through payroll deductions, but since 1996, also through an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN).

The ITIN is a 9-digit number, assigned by the government for the purpose of tax collection from people without a social security number.

If that sounds contradictory, welcome to the federal government.

Everyone who is working is expected to pay income taxes, even immigrants who might be doing so without legal status.

The same government has proven unwilling to allow enough pathways for those workers to legalize, but Uncle Sam wants his taxes, nevertheless.

For decades, undocumented immigrants have paid in, with the assurance that doing so wouldn’t be used against them. Many pay the taxes with the hope of establishing a history of doing right by the government, of being good citizens without U.S. citizenship.

Undocumented people don’t collect Social Security or most government benefits. They’re not eligible. They pay in, but they don’t take out.

By some calculations, they are keeping the system afloat for the baby boomer generation, which is retiring in droves and needing their benefits, while the workforce is no longer supported by equal numbers of workers in the labor market, largely due to declining birthrates.

That could change if people find that their willingness to play by the rules can be used against them or their neighbor.

The agreement between ICE and the IRS cracks longstanding safeguards on taxpayer privacy.

Don’t be surprised if the administration begins placing more people under scrutiny – legal immigrants, U.S. citizens, or anyone Trump feels vindictive toward.

Mary Sanchez writes for the Tribune Content Agency.