Uncertainty was the theme of a town hall held Saturday in Alamosa. It was organized with a panel of local experts who shared the effects President Donald Trump’s massive cuts and sweeping executive orders have had on the community.
U.S. Representative for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District Jeff Hurd was invited to the town hall by the organizers from Indivisible Crestone/Baca Grande, but he did not show.
Society Hall was at capacity for this event; people were turned away at the door.
Each panelist provided updates, gave facts and data, and shared their worries. There was uncertainty for what’s to come and anger at what has already occurred. Cuts to veterans benefits and Veterans Affairs, proposed cuts to Medicaid, and the privatization of public lands for resource extractions were at the forefront of worries for the panelists and the public.
Federal Employees
Cathy O’Neill worked for the Natural Resource Conservation Service for 31 years and just recently took the early retirement offered by DOGE. At first, she didn’t want to. She didn’t want to lose her 31 years of service, “I didn’t want to just resign and give up my position.”
A midnight drive-by occurred at O’Neill’s home last June. Luckily, no one inside was injured, but the trauma has had lasting impacts. Alamosa Police say it was done with a fully-automatic weapon. The case remains unsolved.
This event led O’Neill into thinking of retiring.
Then the “Fork in the Road” email came in offering employees a deferred retirement option.
She called the firings of her colleagues and the deferred retirement options as “very slash and burn and very dishonest. I would call it a train wreck.”
Elon Musk and his team at DOGE gave all federal employees who didn’t take the offer to quit or retire an ultimatum: justify your position. Emails were sent to employees asking them to bullet-point five things they did that week.
“It’s been a nightmare,” O’Neill said. “I’ve heard someone you know call it a comedy of errors and it would be if it wasn’t so devastating to so many people and their lives.”
Veterans
Eric Francis a disabled veteran, former Department of Justice agent, and former president of the American Federation of Government Employees union, spoke on the impacts that veterans will face.
“I’m quite pissed nowadays,” he said.
He joined the army at 17 and has said the recent cuts to veterans assistance in an already crippling system to navigate will be devastating. “I feel like I’ve been called back into service.”
He and his wife brought their kids to the San Luis Valley more than 10 years ago. He hoped by moving here he wouldn’t have to speak publicly. What’s happening has brought him back to the podium.
Since the federal changes began making the rounds, Francis has been locked out of accessing his retirement benefits and has lost his doctor. All of his future VA doctors appointments have been cancelled. A problem not exclusive to him. More than 1,000 health care workers from the VA were let go in February. The government is working to reinstate some of those workers, but the firing and rehiring has created delays in critical systems.
He worried that suicide rates will increase. According to the VA, about 22 veterans kill themselves every day. Francis said without critical services, even things like the VA suicide hotline, the number could increase dramatically.
He said there’s a precipice point coming up and encouraged the public to “do our best to come together.”
Agriculture
Kyler Brown, a potato farmer and cattle rancher in Rio Grande County, highlighted the uncertainty surrounding agriculture.
Though he has a small operation, he is deeply connected to the food, agriculture supply chain, and labor systems that keep the country fed.
“In agriculture we already have a lot of uncertainty,” he said. Commodity prices are low and so are potato prices. “The only thing that’s really hot right now is cattle.”
Tariffs will impact his operation. He said a recent conversation with his fertilizer supplier really showed him how tied to the whole complex picture he is. The conversation unfolded and “what becomes an interesting world of the global complexity of how my small, little farm here in the San Luis Valley and how it connects to this really weird global food chain.”
Brown’s farm is in a cooperative with about 10 other farms that ship their potatoes across mostly the southern U.S. They also ship about eight semi-loads of potatoes to Mexico each week.
Trump, after taking office, signed sweeping tariffs of 25 percent on Mexico and Canada in an attempt to address the trafficking of drugs across the border. Since then, Trump has gone back and forth on enforcing these tariffs after concessions were made by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. As of right now, the tariffs are delayed.
For a farmer like Brown, this makes day-to-day life uneasy. “It’s hard to kind of keep up.”
The price point for delivering potatoes to Mexico, Brown said, was “one of our few bright spots in terms of market.” The tariffs pretty much bring all that to a standstill. Brown said the marketer who they run their potatoes through said sending potatoes to Mexico with a 25 percent tariff isn’t worth it.
There is a possibility with the tariffs imposed on Canada, that potatoes won’t come from Canada. “So it could actually help the price of potatoes, which is not doing well. So I was really scratching my head to try to understand, is this a good thing or a bad thing? And I think that’s what continues to happen–is scratching.”
Immigration
Anjelica Raya Trejo, an advocate from the San Luis Valley Immigration Resource Center, spoke on the fundamental changes happening to the Valley’s immigrant population.
“In recent months, immigrants have grown increasingly fearful, as their rights are being systematically undermined, even those without a criminal history are now being deported without the fundamental right to a legal counsel, despite the legal protections in place to safeguard them,” she said.
She said in the nine weeks of Trump’s administration they have already witnessed many rapid changes. They knew that immigration and immigrants would be targeted. “What caught us off guard was how quickly these changes were being implemented.”
One of the most alarming policy changes to have occurred was the passing of the Laken Riley Act. This was the first bill Trump signed into law after taking office. The act allows police and immigration enforcement to detain undocumented or unauthorized immigrants accused of committing theft and violent crimes, or as the bill states, those “who have been arrested for burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting.”
“This is not limited to undocumented immigrants,” Trejo said.
Recently, she said, some legal permanent residents have been arrested and placed into Immigration and Customs Enforcement proceedings because of their past records.
She also noted alarming changes aimed at expedited and sweeping deportation proceedings leaving many who get deported “without a chance to defend their cases.”
“These changes are deeply affecting our community, especially families with mixed status,” she said. Mixed status is typically a household made up of undocumented immigrants and legal residents.
“When news spread about ICE raids happening in Colorado, many people became terrified to leave their homes.”
They will impact the Valley industries which rely on the labor provided by immigrants, primarily agriculture and the service industry. “Workers are afraid to go to their jobs fearing a raid that could lead to deportation.”
She said even immigrants with legal status are afraid to go out, even to doctor visits and religious services. “This administration has made it clear there are no safe places for them. But we need to understand that the situation does not just affect immigrants. It is affecting all of us.”
The overall dynamic of the community is changing, she said.
“Immigration is a complex and controversial topic,” Trejo said. “However, we must think of the human impact. These policies are not just affecting people we don’t know. They’re impacting our families, friends, coworkers, and neighbors. By pushing people into the shadows, we are telling them they’re not worthy of living in our community with dignity and respect.”