Source NM By: Patrick Lohmann - April 17, 2026
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency intends to seize seven acres of state trust land along the New Mexico-Mexico border, according to the State Land Office.
The federal government first awarded the parcel near Santa Teresa to the State Land Office in 1898 to generate money for local schools. But over the last several years, according to correspondence the Land Office provided along with a news release Friday, the federal government has sought to purchase a strip of it along the border to beef up border infrastructure.
According to a March letter the Land Office provided, CBP officials in March determined acquiring the parcel was needed “to construct new border infrastructure along the United States/Mexico border, namely, steel bollard border barrier, the installation of detection technology, and roads.”
The CBP in March offered the state roughly $800,000 for the parcel, which a U.S. Department of Justice attorney wrote is the fair market value for the property. After the Land Office did not respond to an April 1 deadline to respond to that offer, CBP officials alerted the state that it intended to seize the property and would file necessary paperwork to do so Friday, according to Land Office spokesperson Joey Keefe.
More:
https://sourcenm.com/briefs/nm-land-commissioner-decries-trump-land-grab-along-new-mexico-mexico-border/
