Elected officials in Las Cruces have debated public safety, border security and even prayer. According to Juan Garcia, chairman of the Coalition of Conservatives in Action (CCIA), the challenges facing the city require more than discussion—they require nonpartisan action.
Garcia leads CCIA, a community advocacy group focused on local concerns and state issues when necessary. The organization began as the Hispanic Coalition of Conservatives, but Garcia moved to broaden its mission. “I wanted to appeal and deal with everybody and not by color, not by race,” he says. “We welcome Democrats, we welcome Republicans,” he says. “We are not aligned with any party.”
Garcia did not set out to be an advocate. “I had no desire–absolutely none whatsoever,” he says. After two retirements and a return from overseas contract work, he expected a quieter life. That changed when then-chair Isabella Solis encouraged him to get involved in 2019-20. “I didn’t even know how to spell advocate,” he says, but the role soon drew him in.
Garcia says responses vary when engaging with elected officials in Las Cruces. “Some of the Democrats and progressives will engage, and there’s some that won’t because they have their own agenda that doesn’t necessarily tie with what we’re after.” That divide was evident in the commission’s recent vote to end opening prayers. Garcia says he was not surprised, citing a history of opposition from certain commissioners to events like the National Day of Prayer. “It was just a step in that direction that they would remove prayer from the agenda.”
A push to eliminate prayer from public meetings has been active in Las Cruces, Garcia says, and while some faith leaders reacted with disappointment, he believes more could have been done beforehand. “If they really were that concerned about it, they should have been more actively involved,” he says. According to Garcia, prayer must be matched with effort. “God provides us the opportunity, but it is up to us to get off our seats and do something.”
But Garcia puts crime at the top of his group’s priorities. “Why would you want to bring a new business into Las Cruces when we have break-ins, we have crime?” He points to rising juvenile crime, violence in schools, and incidents like the shooting at Young Park as urgent concerns. “If you were to solve the crime issue… that all ties together” with the challenges of homelessness, economic development, and border security.
Garcia says opinions split on border issues along ideological lines. “If you are on the progressive side, you believe that legal and illegal immigration is all one in the same. And it’s not.” As the son of immigrants who came legally in the early 1960s, he supports clear distinctions. “We need a solution. But allowing everybody to just pour across the border is not the way to do it.”
Garcia invites residents to get involved with CCIA by monitoring local government agendas, writing letters, organizing events, or offering leadership. “We call ourselves Conservatives in Action because we want to do something,” he says. But he cautions; “We’re not a club that meets once a month and talks about the weather.”
