Doña Ana County commissioners remove National Day of Prayer proclamation after heated debate

Doña Ana County commissioners voted April 22 to remove a proposed proclamation recognizing the National Day of Prayer from the meeting agenda after several commissioners and members of the public debated whether county recognition endorses a particular religion.

The motion to remove agenda item 16 was made by Commissioner Sanchez and seconded by Commissioner Reynolds; the motion passed on a roll call vote. Vice Chair Chaparro cast the lone recorded “no” vote while the other commissioners voted to remove the item.

The vote followed a brief discussion among commissioners about the county’s role in proclamations. Commissioner Sanchez said he opposed the county formally recognizing the National Day of Prayer and suggested public gatherings on county property should be left to the public to organize. Commissioner Reynolds and Chair Hernandez said they and many constituents view a general day of prayer as an important tradition. Vice Chair Chaparro and Commissioner Sanchez both said recent outside speakers at past events had included language they considered exclusionary and hateful; Sanchez said he did not want the county’s name associated with that speech.

Public commenters at the meeting reflected the same deep division. Several speakers who identified themselves as religious urged the commission to keep the proclamation or said prayer is an important civic tradition; other speakers called for strict separation of church and state, arguing government proclamations for religious events can be exclusionary. Jim Wilcox, who identified himself during public input, argued the principle of separation of church and state protects minority faiths and that allowing religious advocacy in public meetings can in some circumstances amount to government endorsement. Other public speakers — including those who said they would attend National Day of Prayer events — called the day a long-standing civic tradition and urged the commission to recognize it.

The motion to remove the item was placed on the record and adopted; commissioners later read the amended agenda aloud and moved on to other business. Several public speakers returned to the podium afterward to announce local prayer-related events scheduled for May 1, and some criticized the commission’s removal of the proclamation.

The action is procedural: the commission removed the proclamation from the agenda rather than issuing or adopting a county proclamation. Commissioners and members of the public framed their remarks as matters of principle — whether the county should formally associate itself with a religious observance — rather than as a request to ban private prayer or public gatherings on county property.

The meeting continued with the consent agenda and other items after the removal vote.