OPINION: New Mexico needs action on the MMIWR crisis — not symbolism

For decades, Indigenous families across New Mexico have lived with a heartbreaking reality: daughters, sisters and mothers, along with sons, fathers, uncles and cousins, vanish, and too often the system fails to find them or bring justice. As an attorney representing families of murdered, missing,  Indigenous women and relatives (MMIWR), I have sat across kitchen tables with parents who still leave a porch light on for a loved one who never came home. I have heard the same painful question again and again: Why doesn’t anyone with power do more?

That question is especially painful when we talk about former Congresswoman and Cabinet Secretary Deb Haaland.

When she became the first Native American to serve as secretary of the Interior, many Indigenous families hoped that finally someone in Washington understood the crisis personally and would move mountains to fix it. Symbolically, it was historic. But symbolism alone does not solve cases.

Yes, the Interior Department created a Missing and Murdered Unit within the Bureau of Indian Affairs to coordinate federal efforts. At the time, the MMU didn’t spend enough time consulting the tribes. And the reality on the ground for families in New Mexico has barely changed. Cases still languish. Jurisdictional confusion still slows investigations. Tribal police departments remain under-resourced. And families still do much of the searching themselves.

In a state with 23 federally recognized tribes and nations and one of the highest rates of missing Indigenous people in the country, we needed relentless leadership and measurable results. Instead, too many families feel the crisis remained a talking point rather than the top priority it should have been.

What Indigenous communities need is not another press conference or task force. They need a governor who will treat this crisis like the public-safety emergency it is.

Three years ago, when Haaland was asked to speak at the University of New Mexico School of Law, families of the murdered and missing Indigenous women and relatives showed up to speak with her. Not only did she not speak with us, but she banned us from entering the building, which is a public building. She had a heavy police presence (UNM, New Mexico State Police and Secret Service) inside and outside the building. She left us outside in the rain, and the police banned us from going inside. We felt intimidated. We were women, children and elders.

Haaland had her assistant pass out a few business cards, but when we called, she never answered. Never scheduled a meeting with us. That’s not fierce. That is fear.

New Mexico has made very little progress assigning resources and money to the MMIWR crisis. Acknowledgment is not justice.

Justice is solved cases.

Justice is accountability.

Justice is families finally getting answers.

For too long, Indigenous families have waited.

It’s time for leadership that delivers results.

Our daughters, sisters and mothers, along with our sons, fathers, uncles and cousins, deserve nothing less.

Darlene Gomez is a murdered, missing, Indigenous women and relatives activist and attorney.