Aggie Almanac; 209 & 208; Women in History and Justice for Youth; Health Giving Horses and Immigration

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You You You You You You You Must dictate what was been taught rather than focusing on something like math or science and standards you know like testing she she espoused the idea that education should be more loose more free. Kayla Cratiger had never heard of Johnson before but coming from a family of educators herself Kayla grew to admire her. So I chose to then make it that my poster a statement on no child left behind that Bush era act that has established standards in education that say students need to get certain scores on tests or else the school doesn't

receive funding and that's what this text is here and here's a quote from Mary Adam from Johnson says that she focuses on freedom of expression love for learning and tolerance which I think is kind of lacking in education ideals today. Another student Elizabeth Nielsen did her screen printing on Rabbi Jill Hammer. When I chose her I was inspired by the idea of Jewish spirituality as it relates both to the environment and because she focuses a lot on traditional Jewish mythology and working with the binary and duality of the deity not seeing God as the father but God as this non gendered dual nature deity and a focus of worship that includes working with the earth and I tried to take that into account when I did the poster design. It's very simple it incorporates the child character from Lahim it's the character for life and the

floral design was based on the cabal cabalistic tree of life if you look at the placement I wanted something that looked very classic very traditional she is working with these wonderful over 6,000-year-old traditions but that would be fresh and clean and new and communicate that. I also chose to go with the more impressionistic portrait of her it's just those hands those could be her hands they could be someone else's hands they could be God's hands it is open their hands they're they're holding their embracing life. One of the women on the list of featured environmentalists works at NMSU. Many of you may think that sustainability is all about energy and solar panels and wind turbines and mass transit but my take on sustainability is always includes looking at the food system. In particular Connie Falk is passionate about sustainable food systems she came to NMSU in 1988 after receiving her PhD and she started reading about

organic agriculture. She was captivated with the idea of growing food without any toxins her endeavors were not appreciated at first. Someone found out that I was active in the Sierra Club and right away I was challenged whether that was something that someone in the College of Agriculture should be doing because of the conflict of interest and the other the other message I got right away was that I shouldn't be thinking about or working on anything related to organic agriculture the subtext was that that was automatically a criticism of conventional agriculture and the quote that I heard at the time it have since heard since is that plants don't care when the nitrogen comes from. But Falk went on to devote 20 years responding to those challenges she studied other women who had written on the topic. One of them featured at this event is Rachel Carson who wrote the book Silent Spring which gained her the title Mother of the Modern Environmental Movement. As early as 1952 the USDA yearbook of agriculture

indicated that pesticide applications would induce resistance in insects that was in 1952 that the USDA knew this 10 years later in her classic Silent Spring Rachel Carson wrote in response. The department does not say what will happen when the only chemicals left untried are those that render the earth not only insectless but lifeless. Falk decided in her own work to focus less on controlling toxins and instead look at building a new food system she started an organic production class in 2002 as part of a project called Oasis. We proved in that I think in that project over five years by growing more than 550 varieties of organic vegetables, flowers, and herbs that much more diversity is possible than what we currently experience here in southern New Mexico. Falk's work and this event on women's role in the environment are the perfect complement to a

declaration this year by NMSU's interim president Wadecruzado Salas of the Year of Sustainability at the University. When we talk about the year of sustainability and when we think about this month in specific what we are talking is about women leading sustainability. It's also known with another term this days it's known as feminine eco-leadership and what it means is it's an invitation for all of us to apply our innate systems and our relations ability to restore balance to the world to foster multi-sector partnerships across boundaries across genders and to build capacity in organizations in society and individuals to achieve sustainability in all its forms and when I say

sustainability in all its forms I think about economic, ecological, social, emotional, spiritual sustainability. Paving the way these women who most people never heard of a diverse group of some of the world's most talented and accomplished women honored by aspiring NMSU graphic art students using their own creative talents. We have very abstract, very concrete, lots of forecodes. It's just wonderful to see all these approaches to both design and the approaches that these women were using when they decided that the world as it was was not good enough that it needed to change. Now at the start of this segment we mentioned three other women from that list of environmentalists asking whether you had ever heard of them. In case you have not here's the rest of your

history lesson. Rosalie Edge born in 1877 was the first woman to hold a prominent position in the conservation movement. She was called the glorious Joan of Arc of Conservation by her contemporaries. Mary Arlene Appelhoff who died in 2005 at the age of 69 was a biologist who among other things advocated using the lowly earthworm to recycle food waste into usable fertilizer. And Julia Butterfly Hill is a young writer who began her career as an environmental activist by living in a treehouse in a 1,000 year old California Redwood tree for two years to save the tree from loggers. And we will be right back. I'm very concerned about the national and especially when we look at the state of New Mexico the dropout rates among blacks and Latinos here and is slightly over 50 percent. Welcome back the statistics indeed demand our attention here are some of them. More than 50 percent of Hispanic students in New Mexico drop out of

high school. This state has the third highest teen birthrate in the nation. And the number of minorities in New Mexico jails far exceeds that of their white counterparts. Well those are among the many issues impacting youth that are believed to be interrelated and which were tackled in this year's J. Paul Taylor symposium held at NMSU. The event now in its fifth year is named for the former state lawmaker from Duniana County who is a strong advocate of social justice. The topic this year social justice issues affecting youth in education, health care, and the juvenile justice system. Experts from both outside and inside New Mexico gave talks and participated in panels and workshops during the three day event to discuss solutions to the social justice issues affecting young people. Well with us now one of the presenters in that conference who focused on education. She's Michelle Knight D.Op, a professor at Teachers College Columbia University in New York. Manhattan, right? Yes. How exciting. How long have you been in that position?

Actually I've been there 10 years now. Okay. Yes. And you came over to Las Cruces to take part in the J. Paul Taylor symposium and your message really is about education and specifically your area is how to help teachers become a little bit more culturally adapted to the kids they teach. Right, culturally using culturally relevant education to build off of the cultural strengths of youth in their families and communities. Because I know that this conference is about social justice for youth and I noticed that you're the first speaker. Yes I am. And your topic is education which leads me to believe that education is the first step. Maybe you know I know they mentioned also you know they're also talking about the prison reform and some other topics but obviously a key to this is education. Yeah the role that education plays in our lives for better opportunities for especially for Hispanic and Black youth in our country. Because it starts there. Yes it does. It starts with education in the homes the ways that families practice literacies in their own

homes and then as they go off to school the ways in which schools and community agencies can also support the literacies of our youth. And what is your message to this to this conference? What are you bringing to them? I'm very concerned about the national and especially when we look at the state of New Mexico the dropout rates among blacks and Latinos here and it's slightly over 50 percent which I think is in egregious injustice for us to continue to accept that. So my message is how can we as educators as professionals in the fields of health and criminal justice and education build on the strengths of youth in their communities and families to give them more access to educational opportunities in K through 12 as well as at the second I mean I'm sorry pre K through 12 as well as at the higher education levels. Now 50 percent you said it's a terrible rate. Yes. Yes. Compared to the rest of the nation. The nation is 70 percent but once you start looking at the Black and Latino

rate it drops down to 50 percent across slightly over 50 percent across the whole nation. Okay. When you say 70 percent that's the graduate. It's all students who are graduating. Specifically I'm going to quote statistics from 2005 the graduating class. Yes. So as far as minority students go here in New Mexico we're pretty much the same as other other minority communities across the country. We're not worse we're not better. Right. You're unfortunately that 52 percent 49 percent is on average with the rest of the nation. Well based on all the work that you've done in this area. Why? Why are these rates so much higher in minority communities drop out rates? I think part of the fact is we unfortunately tend to focus on deficits in communities as opposed to looking at the strengths that youth and communities have. So for example people focus on the fact that you know parents may be a one family structure or a blended family or two parent family. Those aren't things that we in education can change but what we can change are the school context. The ways in which we teach literacy.

The ways in which we look at the structures in schools that help young men because actually the rates for Hispanic young boys and Hispanic young men and Black young men is much lower even than Hispanic young women and Black young women. So what structures do we have in schools that really support these Latino males staying in schools. So for me I'm concerned about how do we build on those things that are interested to use and want to be in schools and we'll attract them to stay in schools and be engaged in schools. Well this is interesting that it's the boy is more than the girls and is there a reason that we've understood that we can understand why that is why they are more impacted why they are more likely not to finish school? I think unfortunately the testing structures are impacting them greatly. I think the fact that once again as I say the structures in school unfortunately when you go look at clubs more the girls are participating and our educators making sure there are structures that really speak to the relevancy of young males lives and what they want to do

and how do we also build on communities because sometimes there's a disconnect between what is happening in communities and what is happening in schools and so some of the Latino males in a study that I was working with they were involved in the communities they were tutoring they were being nominated by the borough president in New York City you know as being a great volunteer and community worker but the schools knew nothing about that and didn't build on that and see this person as someone who could really contribute to the school community as well so that disconnect between schools and communities has to be bridged as well to like see the kinds of things that they are doing in their communities that we could as educators build upon and strengthen. And what about the connection with parents? With parents? Yes. I think it's important to understand the ways in which families have changed over the years and I think we as educators aren't keeping up with the different family structures and understanding the the fact that many of the husband and parents in New York City they work two and three jobs they're working sixteen seventeen hours a day so the way we talk about parent involvement

is like we have to get the parents to the schools but they are concerned with feeding their children which I think we have to understand so therefore if we enlarge our understanding from just parents to parents and family members the fact that there might be another family member a grandmother or an aunt or even an older sister or brother that we could pull into the school system so I think when we only say it has to be parent involvement and we don't look at the larger structures of family supporting our youth in Hispanic and Black youth then we miss out on that opportunity to say like no no no we can bring our parents and families and so I think we need to broaden our understandings of ways to get families involved in schools. Now that makes perfect sense so when when you say that you try to teach you do you do research into helping teachers to do this better in the classroom and what are you finding works for them? I think they need opportunities to go into the communities they need opportunities especially because I don't know if you know many of the teachers over 80 percent are usually white, monolingual

not necessarily from city areas and when they go into urban and rural areas have they had experience with other cultures and if they haven't had that then our in their teacher ed programs are there ways in which they are becoming parts of communities. How do they learn about communities? How do they learn the ways in which mothers and parents and family members teach literacy in the home and then they can build upon that? So I think the it's important to understand like if you don't understand the community and which you're going to be serving youth Hispanic youth especially how do you find out about that culture? How do you find out the strengths of that culture? What can a teacher ed program do in their practices to enable you to understand better what is going on in the Hispanic community especially here in New Mexico? So how do you help teachers do that? They come from some completely different background. Well I have projects like the social justice projects so they might need to follow if they decide to follow a youth throughout their their school day and what happens to them and then they can follow them or they shuttle them into their other activities in the community and then they can see the reason why they need to get in the community is

because we might see a youth here in school and we may not think they're doing well or they're not adjusting to school but you might see them in a community-based organization a religious organization you've seen an entirely different child and if you see the curriculum and the ways the community is reaching their children and the ways they raise and nurture them what could we see as educators and learn from that? So I think it's important to see a child in multiple contexts so that we can reach and build upon their skills. So we need as educators to make sure our projects in our classrooms enable them to get out into the community. Now I know your work also looks not just to ethnicity but also language, gender and lots of other spirituality. Yes, I think unfortunately I caught that the sideline significance because usually in the academy people kind of like stay away from spirituality but what I found when I followed these 27 youth from 9 to 12th grade is like spirituality was actually they considered a major influence in on keeping them in school, supporting them and under when they would have a bad day to think like no god will help me to get through this

and for us to really see that and not put it off is like something that's not really important to youth but when you actually follow them and their lives what is supporting them that was one of the influences they mentioned as extremely important to helping them not only stay in school but actually going on to college and staying in college. That's amazing. Yes it is. This conference which is an amazing conference that we've had for like five years in J. Paul Taylor. I don't know if you had a chance to meet him. Not yet. A incredible man that's done a lot of social justice for us here in this area but the the topic this year is social justice for youth. Right. What does that mean? For me that means when we look at statistics such as the dropout rates, when we look at statistics such as who goes on to college, when we look at statistics as who's getting the jobs in in government or in particular areas, do we see representations of Latinos, blacks, other ethnic minorities, Native Americans in these positions? And so when we go to the college level once again what are the rates you know of seeing Latinos and blacks and Native Americans at the college level and not only do they get access are they

graduating. So for me when we say social justice for youth I'm concerned not only about educational opportunities that we provide during there's a pre-K through 12 but I'm also concerned like what are the educational outcomes we have to look at that. Plus this other concept at this conference which is that so many of these kids end up in jail. Yes. Yes and my concern is what is we as educators doing to prevent that from happening? What are we doing in our curriculum and that's why we go back to culturally relevant education? In what ways do our curriculum connect to youth so that they can stay in school so that they are attracted like this is something important and they see it as something significant in their lives. So I think we play a great role in either supporting youth to go on or unfortunately we're failing them. Now in the new Obama administration education they I think they you know they're saying they're going to take a fresh look at education. So what's your view on there on what they plan to do and do you see some hope for change? We've talked about changing the school system the education system for a long time. At this point I know they want to continue the no child left behind and my concern is how we need to

broaden that because when we focus only on test scores we miss the fact that there's so much more to our youth than a test score and when we don't have multiple measures of the way that they're achieving in school or we as educators and as community members don't have ways of thinking what is the fullness of being an adult and what is the fullness of being a youth as an engaged critical citizen. So I also do work around civic engagement with immigrants and what that means to them. So it's not just studying for a test score so I would wish the Obama administration would look beyond just test scores as a sole measure but understanding how do we teach to the whole child and not just a test score. Great message. Well Michelle Knight-Dia from Teachers College Columbia University Manhattan. Thank you so much. Thank you for coming to the conference and sharing with us here in Southern New Mexico and I'm sure we have a lot to learn from your your research. We appreciate it very much. Well it's time now for our amazing Aggie of the Week when we honor someone on campus involved in something we think is well amazing. Her teachers say she is an outstanding undergraduate scholar with the potential

to be a leader in the field of Endocrine research and now they know they're right. That's because Kellyanne Herado, a junior double majoring in biology and psychology at New Mexico State University, was awarded the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. It's a prestigious undergraduate award designed to encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in mathematics, the natural sciences, and engineering. Herado was among the 276 students from around the nation who received the $7,500 award. In her Goldwater proposal Herado wrote about the importance of understanding the role of the hormone leptin in reproductive function. The research focuses on the potential that the hormone has in treating certain types of obesity. Well if you'd like to nominate an amazing Aggie or have any comment about the show give us a call at 646-2818 or send an email to AggieAlmanac at Yahoo.com

and that's our show for this week. I'm Gary Worth. Thanks for watching. Coming up on AggieAlmanac, they are people with disabilities who are getting into the saddle to get a new lease on life.

The horse can bring out all sorts of things that it would take forever to do in therapy. And he came to an MSU with a message that immigration reform will require a partnership. The official definition of the United States government is that undocumented immigration is a domestic problem which is not. Hi I'm Gary Worth and thanks for watching AggieAlmanac and today show a look at a very special program for some very special people. It's a class designed to help students who want to work with animals in a professional way while at the same

time offer an unusual kind of therapy to people with disabilities. Liliana is nine years old. A year ago she never would have dreamed of riding this horse. Now it's like second nature to her and it's changing her life. Liliana has a disability and this unique program at NMSU is designed to help people just like her. Their beauty courseback riding is using horses with other people and their abilities to improve their quality of life and different things that they want to work on. The horse is a great motivator in helping people be able to do things that they didn't think they were able to do before. Now I know that that is huh. All right you're going to put it on all by yourself right? Ready? You push and I'll help you. Push, push, push. We have all sorts of people coming. We have people that have autism, ADHD,

Down syndrome, cerebral palsy. Therapeutic horseback riding is so successful for people with these problems that NMSU has decided to offer a course on the subject on campus. We're going to have Jenna, Sarah and Lily come out. So Philip I'm going to have you go get babe and you're going to be working with Jenna you're going to be a horse handler and Jackie and Mallory you guys are going to be her sidewalkers. Let's try to do an ankle hold to start off with and then try to like go from there when we're trotting you can definitely hold on to it by one how to be as independent as possible. The class is aimed at any student that wants to get more information about horses and learn how to work with horses in a professional way. We are hoping that this class can turn into a certification program as well. We already have I think five people that would like to become certified

like I am. So we're hoping that we can turn it into something a little bit more like that. I'm asking the open isn't it hot? I'm just putting it over his ears. Now it's hooked and coming in on and hook up his chest strap. Therapeutic horseback riding has all sorts of different areas that it goes into. I'm certified through NARA which is North American riding for the handicap association and they started back on the East Coast early 1900s and it was people that had the same idea of therapeutic horseback riding but wanted to continue to educate other people and make sure that everyone was on the same page and so they started the certification program and the training program for NARA. The students in the therapeutic horseback riding program get plenty of experience here but some take away a bit more.

I like seeing how the kids start out that are really kind of nervous around the horses and then by the end of the class periods and everything they get really comfortable and they're really having fun and they're actually wanting to do things instead of before you know we're like wow okay we'll trot for a little I don't know like can we trot now please can we trot and then what do we do once we've leaped through and we're down here at the bottom we don't leave through twice and then we trot. I think a lot of them have helped it on like socially they've gotten to where they can vote they can vocalize you know what they want to do okay I want to turn my horse and it's also how to put their voice and like coordination together so they say okay well I'm gonna turn to the left and then they physically turn the horse to the left say it again louder a little bit more and tell them again fast it's helped me understand more about what this program does and how helpful it can be not just to myself and it's helped me in a lot of ways and

and I mean there's so many ways let's help me I'll go ahead and get my certification to go ahead and start working with therapy programs like this one and go wherever that takes me across the country maybe around the world you know it's dedication on the part of students like Bethany who believe so strongly in therapeutic horseback writing that is giving the field so much promise promise that interaction between humans and horses can change lives it works by the horse actually has a similar movement to the human walk which is where physical therapy and occupational therapy comes in so we can bring in people that have never been able to walk before and put them on the horse and the horse stimulates the same movement on the human and it tells the nerve and the brain that that person is actually walking and it'll stimulate new muscles that haven't been working before so it can have a huge effect that way they also

are a great motivator but they also can encourage people so we can get someone up on a horse and tell them that if they do this then they get a trot on the horse which is so much more fun and so they'll do something that you normally wouldn't do just so they can ride the horse or just so they can trot and do something more with the horse. Diana hook back on and Sarah Jenna and Lowe you guys can put your reins on your horse's neck and then it also gets into the horse and the interaction and it just creates a connection for the two and it's a great way to work together for therapy it's something different and the horse can bring out all sorts of things that it would take forever to do in therapy which is a reason that it works really well as well as bringing in the third aspect of the horse and the horse can bring in so many different

opportunities and different things to do. You just do want now but Natalie really likes this yellow one. Yeah. What other color do you want? Blue. Blue. There you go. Let's do it. But of course riding a horse can be dangerous so precautions are needed. Did she take off too fast of you? Yeah. What happened? Did you kick too much or was she just excited today? She was okay. Do that scare you or are you okay? You want to Lowe huh? All right let's just walk around for a minute. Just with horses in general you always have to be careful that they they can kick and bite even the best behaved horses can always act up. There's also concerns bringing people in in that we have a whole safety checklist that each participant and student has to read and make sure they're aware of and they can follow as well as everyone that rides a horse

has to wear a helmet so we try to make sure we can be as safe as possible while still having fun out here. All right Jenna do you want to do the pull pattern now? The course uses the same horses used in other animal science classes but only those with certain characteristics. We select the horses on their behavior and we make sure that they're calm and that they're not going to spook easily as well as horses that like to interact and like to play and then we take it from there and we start desensitizing them to different things we use. A lot of these horses have never seen bean bags or wheelchairs or canes or balls or basketball hoop or poles. There's all sorts of stuff we use that they haven't seen before so we start desensitizing them to that and make sure they're okay with it and we also do mock sessions where my students ride the horses before we ever put anybody from outside in the community on the horses so they're pretty mellow and understand what's going on before we get anybody

up there. And once the riders are in the saddle they discover which activity they like doing best. Jumping over poles. It's fun. Yeah I love horses. I'll say try to find that bean bag game. What do you think? Flaming in the rope in the pattern. Watching. Well yeah. Animus use therapeutic horseback riding program is gaining momentum and recognition. This class just started this semester. Next this semester it was offered as a special topics class and next semester it's set up with its own number so it'll be a permanent class from here out. The class wasn't even offered until August and I already had nine students

sign up and six participants sign up which is a pretty good success for the first semester and we already have a waiting list for next semester as well as more students interested so I think it had a great start and that it's just going to keep growing from here. You already decided. Your therapeutic horseback riding is in fact growing all across America. It is used all over the country as well as in other countries as well. NARA currently has 3,000 centers and up to 60,000 patients a year and that's worldwide but so there's a lot of people that are involved in there. There's also think about 15,000 horses that are included in that. The program started off very very small NARA itself itself started out small and each year there's always new changes and adjustments and new things that are coming about through that program. It's growing because it's working.

Most of the families that have come in here have been great and they all treat their children and their family members like anybody else and know that they have special abilities and that's the greatest thing. I think the biggest group it changes is the students and the student realizing that they're just like anybody else and that horses are great equalizer as well as helper and all sorts of ways. Good job. All right. And you guys can go walk your horses back up there. So Lily can lead us, Ginny, you want to go next? No, it's okay, you can hang out back here. If you are interested in learning more about therapeutic horseback riding you can check out the website for the North American riding for the Handicapped Association or contact NMSU's Sarah Vider. We'll be right back. The official definition of the United States government is that

undocumented immigration is a domestic problem which is not it by definition bilateral. Welcome back Ill Legal Immigration. It's one of the most hotly debated topics in the US and even now with the troubled economy capturing most of our attention. The immigration issue has not disappeared which is why NMSU recently hosted a conference on the topic and invited a well-known immigration expert to give the keynote address. Jorge Bustamante works with the United Nations for the Human Rights of Migrants and is also a professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame. He has more than two decades of experience studying immigration issues. He came to NMSU to help shed light on what causes people to cross the border illegally into the US. The conditions that migrant workers face and the debate regarding the possibilities for immigration policy reforms from the Obama administration. Bustamante told KRWG's Fred Martino who interviewed him in our studio that right now many undocumented workers in

the US are returning to Mexico. Dr. Bustamante thank you so much for joining us. Sure. Your presentation at NMSU looked at Mexican immigration in 2009 and beyond. Let's talk about trends in that area. Well it's right now because of the economic crisis there is a return of migrants to Mexico because they obviously come to the United States in search for a job and that's what is now so scarce. So they are they been forced to return to their communities and that of course represents an increasing cost for the families and the communities because they have one additional member to feed and and that of course every migrant that returns represents one migrant less to send remittances

to the families and that of course has an impact on on the conditions of poverty in the communities of origin which tend to be poor communities of where there is a lot of poverty. So fewer Mexican immigrants due to the economic crisis here less chance to make money to get jobs in the United States has this been balanced at all by folks who are leaving Mexico due to the violence in Mexico. No no actually the violence is something that is viewed in the United States in a kind of a different way that is viewed in Mexico because violence is the result of a bilateral factors that shape the violence namely the number one the demand for drugs in the United States which in the United States is the highest demand for drugs in the whole world

and that tend to finance the purchases of weapons which of course are related to violence that is related to the control of these very profitable markets of drugs at the border which are shaped by the demand from the United States and the supply from Mexico. So I take it if the economy improves in the next few years from where it is right now you would expect the trend to reverse and again we would see more Mexican immigration to the United States. Well that will depend on the conditions of the demand for the labor force of the migrants which is something that again is not considered very commonly in the United States. The phenomenon of migration including undocumented migration is shaped by factor located at the two sides of the border. On the United States side is the demand for the

labor force of the migrants. On the Mexican side the supply and the conditions that that make that supply happen so that's an interaction of actors. Therefore there is a co-responsibility on the two countries, the two governments and the two countries to solve whatever problems that arrive from that phenomenon. In terms of undocumented migration how effective do you believe measures are like the border wall increased border patrol activities? Well very limited because number one because the sustainability of this factor that even right now there is a situation of economic crisis there is a demand for the labor force of the migrants that you find in restaurants hotels and in certainly in agriculture. So that the persistence of that demand

make the persistence of the phenomenon. In terms of how Mexican citizens view the United States how much damage would you say has been done by the building of the border wall? Well so far very little because the border wall has not had a very significant impact on the on on the flows as we measure them. The flows have been maintained in fact. Now there is a return as I said to Mexico and that it's something that is conjunctural in terms of the effect of economic crisis but the wall has two dimensions. One is a legal dimension which has to do with the sovereign right of the United States to build a wall in their own in its own territory. That's the legal aspect. The political aspect is that it is not a friendly gesture. It's actually a gesture that correspond

that would correspond to an enemy country defined by the presence of a wall which is something that you don't do with friends. You do with enemies. Along these lines as far as the image of the United States I know you offer guidance to the United Nations on the human rights of migrants in the U.S. I want to talk about some of your recommendations some of the things that I read in a report that you gave to the United Nations are quite alarming and I would guess many people don't realize this in the United States the kind of treatment of migrants here. Well what happened is that it's very common to have a view in the United States that human that migrants for the fact of entering without documents to the United States they don't have any rights. That's false. The United States government has

committed to the protection and the fence of the human rights of migrants as human beings and that is that obviously make the migrants holders of rights that are not necessarily respected in all kinds of activities. So the role of a spatial reporter of the United Nations as I am is to report what the government and the civil society are doing for the protection of the human rights of migrants. And you you made some specific recommendations I know. Yes yes which are related to the facts that I observed related very particularly to the raids that immigration police authorities made very often on the homes of areas of the city for their concentration of migrants and the separation of families and

the children that are left behind sometimes with no protection and and obviously the bird wolf and physical abuses that are in part of the operation which is something that I've heard from a large number of victims of that's these violations. In terms of the conditions of detention and the sometimes inability to get a fair hearing on the ability to stay in the United States is it safe to say from your observations and your report that things have gotten progressively worse over the last 10 years? Yes if you're talking about 10 years yes because particularly in in the last two years before elections tend to have been actually more difficult for the migrants more regulation reported from the migrants than before.

Okay a difficult question as we wrap up if you were in charge of immigration reform in the United States as it relates to creating a past to citizenship for immigrants what would you suggest? Well for I will suggest something that it is not even discussed in the United States which is the bilateral nature of the phenomenon of migration which is by definition international it's migrants from one country entering to another country that is not theirs that makes the phenomenon bilateral so a phenomenon that is bilateral by nature cannot be solved by unilateral measures such as the those that are taken in the United States for the official definition of the United States government is that undocumented immigration is a domestic problem which is not it by definition as I said bilateral and so my recommendation would be

to negotiate with the origin of these migrants and to commit to negotiate to commit the Mexican government to collaborate in the factors that would make this phenomenon disappear this is a phenomenon that on the one side it has it could have a cost and benefits for the two countries and on the other hand it's dominated by political dimensions ideological definitions not by facts of course president bush faced a revolt in his own party in trying to accomplish immigration reform do you believe if president obama attempts immigration reform over the next few years he'll have any better prospects I think so in the sense that he has indicated a new approach to foreign

policy to have it less unilateral and more multilateral with recognition of negotiations and dialogue with other countries to the extent that that is extended to the field of immigration I think that we will have more rational approach to the phenomenon well our thanks to care WG's Fred Martino for that interview with Jorge Bustamante on the thorny immigration issue of Bustamante by the way was born in Tijuana Mexico and was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by mexico's congress well it's time now for our amazing Aggie of the week when we honor someone on campus involved in something we think is well amazing today we're here to honor Lydia Kington it was an impressive outpouring of appreciation from an audience of co-workers

students friends and family all here to honor a woman who has served in a mission for nearly three decades Lydia Quintana started out as a records tech and accounts receivable but in 1985 she began working part-time for ASNMSU the student government they loved her so much they made her full time in 1996 as their fiscal advisor her career at this institution spanning some 28 years demonstrates a sincere commitment to the students to the institution and the community her motivation and dedication are entirely genuine and based upon so much more than simply doing her job she loves working with students and is encouraged and motivated countless student staff and leaders in her time with this university for her commitment Quintana was given the Stephen W and Robert E. Roberts Memorial Staff Award the award was established in 1983 in memory of former NMSU Vice President George Roberts

two sons who died in a car accident members of the Roberts family were on hand as Quintana received this honor if you've ever heard the expression it's hard to soar like an eagle when you work with a bunch of turkeys I work with a bunch of eagles I work with the best of the best now if you would like to nominate an amazing Aggie or have any comment about the show give us a call at 646-2818 or send an email to AggieAlmanac at yahoo.com and that is our show for this week I'm Gary Worth thanks for watching you

coming up on AggieAlmanac NMSU celebrates women who have worked to save the planet each he espoused the idea that education should be more loose more free and she says it's time to stop talking about the high school drop out raid and to do something about it is slightly over 50% which I think is egregious injustice for us to continue to accept that Hi I'm Gary Worth and thanks for watching AggieAlmanac and today's show a history lesson but not the kind you might be used to this one which comes courtesy of NMSU focuses on saving our planet

and important women who through the past decades have worked hard to reach that goal these are pictures and names you've probably never seen or heard a couple are well known most of us are familiar with Jane Goodall the wildlife researcher who studied chimpanzees and went on to become their leading crusader and Sally Ride remember her she was the first American woman in space but what about the others did you ever learn about Rosalie Edge what about Mary Arlene Applehoff or Julia Butterfly Hill what these people have in common is that they are all women and they are all environmentalists individuals who dedicated their lives to making the planet better here's the problem with women's history month we still need it we still need it because these things are still not well known and we need to

make them well known Mary Bonanti is an assistant