Susana Martinez, only US Latina governor, denounces claim she is racist

The nation’s only Latina governor is denouncing a claim by a white former mayor of Santa Fe that she is a racist because of her effort to make it more difficult for people in New Mexico illegally to get driver’s licenses.

During a rally Monday for immigrant rights advocates, former Santa Fe Mayor David Coss told activists that moves by New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez were based on racism and compared her to President Donald Trump – who Martinez sharply criticized during the presidential campaign.

Coss told the audience that he was proud to live in New Mexico, a state “that rejected the racism of Donald Trump, that rejected the racism of Susana Martinez.”

The former mayor then said people had suggested that he not call anyone a racist. “Well, you know what? When you’re a racist, and you try to implement racist policies in my community, it makes me angry,” Coss said.

The white liberal said the effort by Martinez, a Republican, to change New Mexico’s law that allowed immigrants already in the country illegally to obtain driver’s licenses was “racist, and that was wrong.”

Chris Sanchez, a spokesman for Martinez, criticized Coss’ remarks late Monday.

“Mr. Coss’ inflammatory remarks about the nation’s first Hispanic woman governor are sad and ignorant, particularly since the overwhelming majority of Hispanics in New Mexico supported her initiative to end the dangerous practice of giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants,” Sanchez said.

The El Paso, Texas-born Martinez was elected in 2010 and became the nation’s first elected Latina governor. She is a former Democrat and grew up in a Mexican-American household near the U.S.-Mexico border.

After Martinez became governor, she sought to reverse a law signed by her predecessor, former Gov. Bill Richardson, that allowed immigrants living in the country illegally to obtain driver’s licenses. But she met resistance in the Democratic-controlled House and Senate.

Last year, after pressure from the Obama Administration to comply with the federal REAL ID Act security requirements mandating proof of legal U.S. residency for driver license holders who want to use the state IDs to access areas of federal buildings and board commercial flights.

State lawmakers and Martinez agreed to revamp the New Mexico state driver license law with a compromise that created a two-tier system.

The new law allows residents to apply for REAL ID compliant driver’s licenses. Immigrants in New Mexico illegally are allowed to get “driver’s authorization cards,” and residents can do so if they want to.

Martinez after becoming a Republican soundly defeated two white Democratic opponents in her gubernatorial races in a state with the largest percentage of Hispanic residents.

Her 2014 gubernatorial opponent, Gary King, claimed Martinez did not “have a Latino heart.”

In 2011, state lawmaker Rep. Sheryl Williams Stapleton, D-Albuquerque, was forced to apologize after called Martinez a “Mexican” during a heated exchange with a Republican state lawmaker in the Capitol.

The term “Mexican” is sometimes seen as a slur when used against Mexican-American.