NM Voices in the News
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New Mexico joins states to extend post-birth Medicaid coverage
Santa Fe New Mexican--Amber Wallin, executive director of New Mexico Voices for Children, called the move “a game-changing” development for many New Mexico mothers. “This provides guaranteed, essential services for mothers during a crucial period” in their lives, Wallin said in an interview. “Maternal mortality is a major issue across the nation.”
Mixed emotions on Mother’s Day
Santa Fe New Mexican--Amber Wallin is always thinking about moms: working moms, moms who recently immigrated to the U.S., Latina moms who disproportionately bore the brunt of the pandemic-era economic fallout. "As we look at who was hardest hit by the pandemic, it was moms," noted Wallin, 40, who is executive director of the child advocacy organization New Mexico Voices for Children.
New Mexico to offer a year of free child care to most residents
Washington Post--Advocates welcomed the initiative at a time when families are still recovering from the economic fallout of the pandemic and are grappling with rising prices. “It is hard to overstate the impacts of ensuring that all families can afford great child care,” said Amber Wallin, executive director of New Mexico Voices for Children, an advocacy group.
New Mexico families are getting a needed tax break
Santa Fe New Mexican Tax Day 2022 offered a good reminder that lawmakers have made several improvements to our tax code in recent years that are providing important benefits for New Mexicans in need of financial relief.
New Mexico tax rebate likely, but amount uncertain
Santa Fe New Mexican--“We know there are families having trouble buying food, having trouble making the next rental payment. If the state can give more money to those people making a lower income, that would be great,” she said.
End of moratorium on evictions could lead to crisis, say family advocates
NM Political Report--With the moratorium ending on evictions for tenants with unpaid rent, this could lead to a crisis of unhoused families in New Mexico, Shiv said. “Evictions are really harmful and it’s incredibly destabilizing for families and children,” she said.
New Mexico’s children deserve a landscape free of orphaned wells
Carlsbad Current Argus--As proud New Mexicans, we know our state has the best scenery and natural beauty in the nation. While we want to keep it that way, that’s hard to when our landscape is dotted with old, pollution-spewing orphaned oil wells. Here's how to fix this problem.
Proposed new NM child tax credit sparks House debate
Albuquerque Journal--“We think this policy is really crucial right now because we know that so many of our families with kids are still struggling,” said Amber Wallin, the executive director of New Mexico Voices for Children, a nonprofit group that supports the proposed tax credit.
A new basic income pilot will give $500 a month to mixed-immigration-status families
Fast Company--Amber Wallin of New Mexico Voices for Children added during a press call that Hispanic New Mexican parents were more than twice as likely as white parents in the state to have lost wages since the pandemic began, and more than three times as likely to be unsure about whether or not they can make their next housing payment.
Cash Assistance
Santa Fe Reporter--Undocumented immigrants paid almost $68 million in state and local taxes, according to a 2020 report from New Mexico Voices for Children. Still, 60,000 undocumented immigrants are often excluded from benefits provided during emergencies, including unemployment insurance and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP.