SANTA TERESA, New Mexico (Border Report) – As a former secretary of the Interior during the Biden administration, Debra Haaland oversaw wildlife agencies and the conservation of public lands.
So, it wasn’t out of character for her to question the impact construction of hundreds of miles of border wall is having on wildlife and the environment in southern New Mexico.
“When I was in Congress, the border wall was a big issue and I’ll tell you I did not favor a border wall,” she said. “We have animals and (our ecosystem) that thrive in this area of New Mexico, Mexico and Texas. Animals don’t know political boundaries. There are butterfly migrations and other forms of wildlife that concentrate in this area.”
The former New Mexico 1st Congressional District representative was in Santa Teresa on Thursday as part of her gubernatorial campaign.
A Democrat, Haaland is trying to replace Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who is ineligible to run again due to the state’s term limits. Other Democrats running for the office include Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman and former Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima.
Haaland’s visit focused on the thriving industry in the four industrial parks in Santa Teresa, where workers are already clearing brush from the future site of a $165 billion artificial intelligence data center being developed by Oracle and OpenAI.
She heard about the proliferation of solar farms in the desert generating increasing amounts of clean energy for the West Texas-Southern New Mexico region. She asked questions about water consumption, recycling and the football-field long wind turbines being assembled in Mexico and coming into the Santa Teresa port of entry, which is considering an expansion.
She also took a stand on the Trump administration tariffs she says not only threaten industry but already are hurting the pocketbooks of New Mexicans.
“Oh, dear heaven. The tariffs are so negative, causing everything to be more expensive,” Haaland said. “Everybody cites the tariffs as to why their grocery bills are going up. The tariffs are a scam; Trump should take those down immediately.
“New Mexicans rely on the trade relationship with Mexico. […] I just feel when they implemented these tariffs it was not a well thought out plan, it was done to punish countries but, as we see now, it’s punishing Americans, it’s punishing New Mexicans.”
Mexico last year surpassed Canada as the United States’ principal trading partner. Billions of dollars in parts and merchandise come across the El Paso trade corridor every month, and just west of the Texas state line, Santa Teresa gets a chunk of that traffic.
New Mexico Democratic primaries are scheduled for June 2, 2026. The New Mexico general election is Nov. 3, 2026.
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