Lujan Grisham Highlights Two Lordsburg Students from Hidalgo County as Lieutenant Governors

New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham highlighted two Hidalgo County students from Lordsburg after they served as “Lieutenant Governor for the Day” during the legislative session, the original report captured by county sources states. The students are identified as Jesse Chavez, a 3rd grader from Lordsburg, and Amarley Reyes, a 6th grader from Lordsburg; the report adds that the young leaders appeared on the front page of the Hidalgo County Hera.

The original report does not specify exact dates for Chavez’s and Reyes’s appearances or name the legislative session year. The item’s notation that the students “appeared on the front page of the Hidalgo County Hera” is recorded verbatim in the material provided to this newsroom, but the publication name is truncated in that source and a full publication title or publication date was not supplied.

State-level context in the Office of the Lieutenant Governor’s materials frames the recognition against broader border and state leadership activity. A press release posted by the Office of the Lt. Governor is dated Feb 20, 2019 and carries the headline “New Mexico Lt. Governor Praises Gov. Lujan Grisham’s Leadership on Border Wall Opposition.” That release includes the line, “Lt. Governor Howie Morales had strong words of support for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s leadership following President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency in the service of his demand for a border wall,” and the direct statement, “The President’s declaration diverts funds crucial to the protection of New Mexicans away from their proper channels, and puts New Mexico’s economy and people at risk.”

The Office of the Lt. Governor materials also note travel by Lt. Gov. Howie C. Morales with Gov. Lujan Grisham “earlier this year” to the border near El Paso, TX for a fact-finding visit, and a separate stop at the Lordsburg, NM border station where Morales met with agents “in order to collect facts and information.” The source text uses the phrase “earlier this year” without providing calendar dates for those visits.

The materials provided do not tie Jesse Chavez’s and Amarley Reyes’s “Lieutenant Governor for the Day” roles to the Feb 20, 2019 press release or to the documented border visits; no quotes from Gov. Lujan Grisham, the students, schools, or parents are included in the captured text. Lujan Grisham’s highlighting of the two Lordsburg students places local children in the state spotlight, while the Lt. Governor’s Feb 20, 2019 release and border travel notes underscore continuing state attention to border policy and visits to the Lordsburg border station. Questions about the event date and the full Hidalgo County publication name remain unconfirmed in the available materials.