Crisis intervention by civilians seen as way to protect the vulnerable from interactions with armed police

Vanessa G. Sánchez
Born and raised in Ecuador, Sánchez has written in-depth stories about issues affecting underrepresented communities, including migrant workers and asylum seekers in the U.S. She contributed to the award-winning investigations “Essential and Exposed” and “Printing Hate.” As an intern and Bradlee Fellow at The Washington Post, she covered education, local government and politics in the Baltimore-Washington region. She joins Searchlight as a yearlong Roy W. Howard fellow to cover health policies affecting children and families in New Mexico. Sánchez holds a master's degree in journalism from the University of Maryland.
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Eastern New Mexico is restricting abortion — one ordinance at a time
Roosevelt County is the latest to ban access
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A Navajo-led search and rescue group looks for missing and murdered Indigenous people — going where no one else will