All eyes on Vasquez

By Matthew Reichbach

Editor’s note: Each Monday NM Political Report will feature a column from long-time journalist and Digital Editor Matthew Reichbach, covering New Mexico’s congressional delegation.   

President Donald Trump’s second administration has hit the ground running with a flurry of executive orders and apparent attempts to hamstring the federal government since he reassumed the presidency last week after four years out of power.

While the resurgent far-right president takes actions, New Mexico has an all-Democratic delegation in a state where Trump lost to former Vice President Kamala Harris by 6 percentage points. 

The biggest focus is on Gabe Vasquez, the second-term congressman who represents the state’s 2nd Congressional District. Vasquez won a very expensive race in November, defeating Republican former Representative Yvette Herrell by slightly more than 4 percentage points — in a district won by Trump.

Despite this, Vasquez has differed from Republicans — and some conservative Democrats — on immigration. He voted against the sweeping immigration bill supported by all Republicans and 46 Democrats. That bill eventually passed; no New Mexico member of Congress voted for the bill.

But he is also publicly speaking out about the hot-button immigration issue, including being directly critical of Trump. 

Vasquez spoke at a Congressional Hispanic Caucus press conference and spoke about some of Trump’s executive orders, particularly one that sought to overturn birthright citizenship (a Reagan-appointed federal judge slapped down that executive order calling it “blatantly unconstitutional”).

“I’m deeply concerned about President Trump’s executive orders, especially his attack on the 14th Amendment. Doing away with our constitutional rights impacts everyone, not just immigrants,” Vasquez said. “Sorry, Mr. President, you cannot rewrite the American Constitution with the stroke of a pen.”

He also denounced plans for mass deportations, saying they would hurt the economy.

Still, in the same press conference, Vasquez said there “there are opportunities to work with Republicans” on immigration, citing “fighting cartels” and stopping drugs from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. 

Then, Vasquez went on CNN to speak about immigration.

“I think the president has said in the past that he’s going to target violent felons for deportation under his purview. And executive orders that he’s issued, it is just the opposite,” Vasquez told CNN. “Federal resources right now should be focused on those violent felon criminals and all other folks who should be targeted.”

Vasquez’s immigration rhetoric has led to immediate pushback from Republicans. Republican groups are reupping their attacks on Vasquez; the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Congressional Leadership Fund each have sent out press releases targeting Vasquez on immigration. The NRCC spent over $2.5 million trying to unseat Vasquez in 2024, per OpenSecrets. The Leadership Fund, meanwhile, went even bigger, spending $3.9 million (Democratic groups also spent big in the race, actually outspending Republicans).

This is only week one, and only on one issue, but it’s something to watch in the coming months.

Other highlights

• U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich said he would stay in the Senate and would not seek the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2026. Heinrich was rumored for years to be a potential gubernatorial candidate. This leaves former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland as a likely Democratic candidate and 2nd Judicial District Attorney Sam Bregman as a possibility.

Confirmation hearings

Overshadowed by the executive orders and everything involving Elon Musk, the Republican-controlled Senate has been advancing Trump’s cabinet picks at a rapid clip.

Heinrich, as the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said earlier this month that committee chair Mike Lee (R-Utah) broke protocol in the hearings for Doug Burgum. 

Heinrich ended up voting to advance Burgum’s nomination, along with that of Chris Wright to lead the Department of Energy, a key employer in New Mexico.

Meanwhile, Ben Ray Luján made headlines for criticizing Office of Management and Budget nominee Russell Vought. 

Luján called Vought “a chief architect of Project 2025” and said the nominee “has a long and clear record of proposing drastic cuts to vital programs for pregnant mothers, babies, and early childhood education.”

Luján sits on the Senate Budget Committee, which held a hearing on Vought’s nomination last week.

Odds and Ends

• Luján again introduced legislation, along with Missouri Republican Josh Hawley, to expand compensation for radiation victims. 
• Vasquez introduced legislation with Montana Republican Ryan Zinke that would ban the sale or transfer of most public lands by the Interior Department and the U.S. Forest Service.
• Another Vasquez-backed bill, the Fix Our Forests Act, passed the House. It aims to help prevent catastrophic fires.

Teresa Leger Fernandez was also at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus press conference on Trump’s immigration push. “Our economy depends on immigrant workers and women showing up so that other women can also go to work, and that becomes a downward spiral when we start deporting the women we depend on,” she said, per Source New Mexico.