Quote:State legislators, the state’s entire congressional delegation and local protesters on Thursday stepped up criticism of the publication of a syndicated political cartoon, which many called racist, on the editorial page of Wednesday’s Albuquerque Journal.

Roughly 50 people protested Thursday evening outside the Journal offices, and the cartoon prompted a 30-minute critique from the state Senate floor and a swirl of social media criticism.

Hundreds of angry readers also called, many demanding an apology.

Journal Editor Karen Moses issued an apology Thursday morning and later said in an interview that there will be more scrutiny of editorial cartoons in the future.

“Looking back, we erred, and it should not have appeared in the Albuquerque Journal,” Moses said of the syndicated cartoon.

The cartoon showed a frightened white couple being accosted at gunpoint by a terrorist and a member of MS-13, an international criminal gang targeted by President Donald Trump whose members are primarily from Central America.

The husband tells the wife: “Now, Honey … I believe they prefer to be called ‘Dreamers’ … or future Democrats …”

Journal Editorial Page Editor D’Val Westphal said she chose to run the cartoon because she interpreted it as criticizing fear of immigrants and the broad-stroke racism of calling all Dreamers criminals.

But nearly all of the hundreds of readers who called and commented on the cartoon saw it as anti-immigrant and racist.