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Aggressive public commenter says he is speaking for Santa Feans who won’t Oct 25, 2026 A long line of people waited to speak during public comment on a Santa Fe City Council proposal to prohibit the use of city property for immigration enforcement purposes. One after the other, they approached the podium facing the city councilors and urged them to vote in favor of the ordinance, which passed unanimously at the Sept. 30 meeting. One man who spoke had a different perspective, berating the councilors for what he described as pandering. “ICE will be here,” he said. “They are coming. And they are going to come strong. And when they laugh in your face, mayor, I’m going to laugh with them, because you are a joke.” The harsh invective came as no surprise to the councilors. Since February, the man — who refuses to provide his name and often wears a shirt bearing the statement “end all sanctuary cities now” — has become a regular presence during the public comment portion of City Council meetings, where any member of the public is given the opportunity to address the council for two minutes. Speakers are sometimes harshly critical of the city, but the man’s aggressive comments, complete with cursing and screaming, has injected a new element into council meetings, which otherwise this year have been largely calm. While they vary in topic, his remarks often focus on opposition to illegal immigration and accuse city leaders of turning their backs on Santa Fe residents. The man’s behavior has drawn mixed reactions in a tense political environment that has included threats against New Mexico politicians. ‘It’s their constitutional right’City spokesperson Peter Olson said the city is not aware of the man’s identity or his motivations for coming to every council meeting for the better part of a year. Santa Fe police officers have been a more visible presence in the council chambers this year, regularly standing in the back of the room during meetings. Olson said police are there to help maintain decorum during the discussion of potentially contentious issues. While the man has sometimes gone over his two allotted minutes of speaking time and had to be told repeatedly by Mayor Michael Garcia he is no longer permitted to speak, neither he or anyone else has been ejected from council chambers this year. Olson said the city takes it's responsibility to protect people’s First Amendment rights seriously. “Sometimes not everybody agrees with what's being said, but we want everybody to have that chance,” he said. “It's their constitutional right, and we make it happen at the meetings.” Councilor Pilar Faulkner said that while she is “100% for freedom of speech,” she does not think it is appropriate for people to scream and curse during public comment, noting that sometimes children are present at meetings. “People don’t need to yell to be heard,” she said. Faulkner said the increased police presence this year was a request from herself and some of the other councilors. “You want people to feel safe and not intimidated by police, but you also want people to feel safe that when they come to City Hall, they're not in danger of physical harm,” she said. “Having a moderate police presence is one way to do that, especially if the police aren't really engaging, they're just observing.” Faulkner had raised concerns about councilors’ safety last year following a spate of bomb threats at the homes of Democratic state lawmakers in September 2025, including then-Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth and his wife Carol Romero-Wirth, a city councilor at the time. The city was affected again Thursday by what city police described as a "suspicious package" delivered to City Hall that prompted the evacuation and closure of the building for several hours. Garcia, who police said the package was meant for, said in a statement the city “will not be intimidated” by threats of violence. Santa Fe’s charactersSeveral people who are regular speakers at public comment said the man’s behavior had not been a deterrent for them. "We're not particularly uncomfortable, because his tirades are limited in space and time,” said Los Alamos Study Group Executive Director Greg Mello, who described the man as polite outside of when he is speaking at the podium. Mello and other members of the anti-nuclear organization have been coming to City Council regularly since this summer to urge councilors to pass legislation opposing nuclear weapon production at Los Alamos National Laboratory, putting them into close contact with the man. Mello said the man’s communication style is “unfortunate,” as he is alienating the people he is speaking to: “He has things to say, and they deserve to be heard.” He noted the man is far from the only unique regular meeting attendee. “Santa Fe has always had characters, and that's part of being the City Different,” he said. Elizabeth West, a former city employee who regularly attends and speaks at council meetings, said the man’s behavior does not frighten her after she had a respectful one-on-one conversation with him earlier in the year, “but he does disturb other people unnecessarily.” Chainbreaker Collective spokesperson Cathy Garcia said the tenants’ rights organization always prepares members who come speak for the possibility someone could be aggressive or disruptive. “The reality is when vulnerable folks are standing up for their rights, there's always people who aren't happy about that,” she said. She added Chainbreaker’s members, many of whom are working class immigrants, are used to pushback. “They face retaliation from landlords, they face discrimination from government agencies,” she said. “On some level, one guy yelling at City Council is the least of their worries.” ‘This is my legacy’The man, who declined to provide his name but said he is a Santa Fe native, said during an Oct. 14 interview he was initially drawn to start coming to meetings because of the start of Mayor Michael Garcia’s term in office. While he said he hoped Garcia would stand up for Santa Fe’s culture in a way former Mayor Alan Webber did not, he accused the new mayor of “not defending our culture and not preserving it,” as well as using city money to support people living in the country illegally. Some of his other grievances are more in line with the mayor’s own beliefs, however, including a concern with the effect high housing costs are having on the city. He described himself as speaking on behalf of the city’s conservative political minority, many of whom he said are apprehensive about speaking publicly. “A lot of people in this town are afraid to actually come to these meetings and speak because we're such a small town,” he said. “If you speak out if you're Republican or you're MAGA or you're an independent and you say anything, they're going to go after you.” Why refuse to give the council his name? “I'll give them my name when they earn my respect,” he said. Does be believe his comments are making a difference? No. “They don’t care,” he said of the councilors. Then why keep coming back, month after month? Because, he said, he’s upset about the changes happening in Santa Fe and this is his way of expressing that. “I don't have children,” he said. “I don't have a legacy to leave. This is my legacy." |
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