New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) has put crime on “hyper blast” thanks to left-wing measures like little-to-no bail for criminal suspects, Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Ronchetti says.
During an exclusive interview with SiriusXM Patriot’s Breitbart News Daily, Ronchetti blasted Grisham for what he describes as a mix of lax immigration enforcement and a far-Left no-bail agenda that has culminated into a Catch and Release policy for criminals in New Mexico.
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“New Mexico is the forgotten border state for exactly that reason … [Grisham is] soft on the border and we’re also a sanctuary state, combined with Catch and Release,” Ronchetti said, citing the case of illegal alien Joel Arciniega-Saenz accused of murdering 51-year-old James Garcia in Dona Ana County, New Mexico, the day after Father’s Day.
“Breitbart covered it a year or so ago, the story of Joel Saenz who basically was accused of murder and then he got out because they dropped the murder charges, then was charged with four fourth-degree felonies,” Ronchetti said.
“Then they let him out there basically on a no-cash bond and he committed a murder where he effectively went up to a homeless man, assaulted him and then eventually ended up cutting off his head and playing soccer with his head in a Las Cruces park,” he continued.
“He was here illegally and this is the kind of thing that’s happening over and over again in New Mexico, that is people committing these violent crimes, going to jail for the better part of a couple of days, at most, and then turning them right back out again,” Ronchetti said.
Ronchetti also noted the case of Jacqueline Vigil, a 55-year-old wife and mother of two, who was leaving her home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 2019, when three-time deported illegal alien Luis Talamantes allegedly murdered her in the driveway.
“It’s one of those situations where yet another violent crime happens here,” Ronchetti said, blaming the state’s sanctuary policy that shields criminal illegal aliens from arrest and deportation.
“The amount of murders in Albequerque has almost quadrupled,” Ronchetti said.
“What’s [Grisham’s] solution? Her solution was to go in and remove qualified immunity for police … what did that do? That basically stopped all recruitment of police officers into the state of New Mexico … that effectively put all of this on hyper blast,” he continued.
The New Mexico GOP gubernatorial primary election is set for June 7.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.