Health
Not Invisible Act commission stops in Albuquerque to hear testimony on missing and murdered Indigenous individuals
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The Not Invisible Act commission is hearing testimony this week in Albuquerque to gather information about missing and murdered Indigenous women and relatives. The commission’s listening session in Albuquerque, which runs through Friday, is one of several hearings nationwide which started in Tulsa in April and will conclude in Billings in July to hear about state-wide problems and efforts regarding missing and murdered Indigenous women and relatives.
The commission will use the information gathered during the listening tour to compile a report in October to recommend how the government can better respond to the epidemic. The report will go to the U.S. Attorney General’s Office, Congress and other federal partners. The Not Invisible Act, sponsored by former U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland, who represented New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District and now serves as secretary of the Interior, became law in 2019 and increased coordination to identify and combat violent crime within Native land and against Native individuals. Haaland drafted the bill in response to the missing and murdered Indigenous people and human trafficking problem.