
The University of New Mexico
NEWS RELEASE
Media Contact: Sari Krosinsky, 277-1593, michal@unm.edu
November 15, 2006
UNM Law Students Successfully Advocate Repeal of Alien Land Act
The clinical law program at the University of New Mexico School of Law successfully completed a long-term drive to amend the New Mexico Constitution to repeal the Alien Land Act, a discriminatory provision of New Mexico's constitution since 1921.
The Alien Land Act prohibited land ownership by all immigrants ineligible for citizenship. This law formalized anti-Japanese immigration sentiment prevalent in the U.S. in the early 20th century.
Nikko Harada, Christopher Frey, John Sugg, Nicholas Marshall and Adrian Vega, students in Jose Martinez's Law Practice Clinic, advocated for and wrote op-ed pieces about the legislation.
The constitutional repeal provision was placed on the Nov. 7 ballot through the advocacy of students in Carol Suzuki's spring 2005 Community Lawyering Clinic, the Asian American Law Students Association, Chris Fritz and professors Rob Schwartz and Norman Bay. State Senator Cisco McSorley (Dem., Bernalillo County) sponsored the joint resolution in the legislature. Evan Blackstone, a 2004 graduate of the school, helped develop resolution language as a member of the Legislative Council Service during the 2005 legislative session.
Prior efforts to repeal the provision include an attempt to get the resolution through the state legislature by the Community Lawyering Clinic and AALSA in spring 2004. This matter came to the law school's clinical program as a project of the Southwest Indian Law Clinic, taught by Christine Zuni Cruz. Many students enrolled in the clinic have worked on it over the years. Although the clinic successfully advocated for placing the repeal provision on the 2002 ballot, it failed to pass at that time.
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