Federal authorities are eyeing a 7-acre parcel of New Mexico trust land near the Santa Teresa Port of Entry for border wall construction.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection offered in March to purchase the land for nearly $798,500 in a letter that threatened to use eminent domain to obtain the land. After the State Land Office declined to agree by an April 1 deadline, CBP informed Public Lands Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard it would proceed with a court filing Friday to condemn the land.
“We intend to reject CBP’s offer because we do not agree that this would be a good use of state trust land,” Joey Keefe, the State Land Office spokesperson, said.
Garcia Richard, a Democrat nearing the end of her second and final term as commissioner, called the move a land grab that followed years of trespassing and apparent confusion over where the federal government has access.
“This land was granted to us by the federal government, so we have very little recourse in this situation,” Garcia Richard told the Journal in an interview. “It is a condemnation for a public use — that’s the necessary criteria — and that should be terrifying to every single New Mexican.”
The office said it would review legal options in the matter. Garcia Richard’s successor will be elected in November and take office at the start of 2027.
