Oct. 30, 2016: Just nine days before the presidential election, Donald Trump, then the Republican nominee, rouses a diverse crowd at a rally in Albuquerque. He draws some of his biggest cheers of the night when he reiterates his promise to build a wall on the state’s southern border.
Nov. 8, 2016: Trump is elected the 45th president of the United States, though New Mexico goes blue.
Nov. 9, 2016: Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, whose relationship with Trump was rocky leading up to the election, extends an olive branch. “I may have taken issue with some of the rhetoric on the campaign trail, but I believe that President-elect Trump was a better choice than Hillary Clinton, and I congratulate him on his hard-fought victory,” she says in a statement.
Nov. 17, 2016: The late Javier Gonzales, then mayor of Santa Fe, goes on the national media circuit as the face and voice of sanctuary cities. Sanctuary cities such as Santa Fe had drawn the ire of Trump, who had vowed to “cancel all federal funding” to such cities the day he takes office.
Jan. 18, 2017: The Santa Fe City Council considers a resolution that would denounce many of Trump’s policies, from his proposal to build a wall along the border with Mexico to his plans to gut the Affordable Care Act. The resolution, called divisive, dies in a tie vote.
Jan. 23, 2017: State Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero, D-Albuquerque, introduces a bill that would prohibit state and local police from arresting people based solely on their immigration status.
Jan. 29, 2017: A trio of Democratic lawmakers invite then-Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to visit the United States after he cancels a trip to Washington in response to Trump’s plans to build a border wall.
Feb. 6, 2017: Hundreds of people pack into the Rotunda of the state Capitol to protest Trump’s clampdown on illegal immigration and his vow to build a wall between the United States and Mexico.
March 2017: A federal judge in Albuquerque approves a settlement that prohibits the San Juan County jail from holding inmates past their release date at the request of federal agents based only on their immigration status — an order advocates say is a direct rebuke of the Trump administration.
May 1, 2017: More than 100 people gather in the parking lot of the Somos Un Pueblo Unido office, an immigrant advocacy group, off St. Michael’s Drive to march for labor and immigrant rights.
Jan. 9, 2018: Former state Rep. Bill McCamley, D-Mesilla Park, announces plans to introduce legislation that would prohibit the use of state land in the construction of a new wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
April 4, 2018: Martinez signals she’ll collaborate with Trump as he seeks to enlist Southwestern governors in his enhanced crackdown on border crossings. Albuquerque police officials soon ask Martinez to prevent the city’s police officers who serve in the National Guard from being deployed to the border.
April 9, 2018: Martinez orders 80 troops from the New Mexico National Guard to the border to serve in a support role for the U.S. Border Patrol. About 100 more are sent later.
May 21, 2018: Martinez is among several governors and Cabinet officials who join Trump at the White House for a meeting on border security.
June 2018: Martinez says she supports the federal government’s decision to separate children from parents who cross the border illegally under the Trump administration’s zero tolerance effort.
June 20, 2018: Michelle Lujan Grisham, then a congresswoman and Democratic gubernatorial candidate, calls for Martinez to cancel the deployment of New Mexico National Guard troops to the border.
June 28, 2018: New Mexico State Police arrest about a dozen people who took part in a protest over immigration issues at the state Capitol, ending an hourslong peaceful standoff.
Aug. 14, 2018: Lujan Grisham tours a segment of the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Sunland Park as part of a listening session with the police chief and mayor about issues affecting the city.
Nov. 6, 2018: Lujan Grisham is elected governor of New Mexico in a race against Republican Congressman Steve Pearce.
Jan. 10, 2019: Martinez, now the former governor, defends Trump’s call for a border wall as part of a deal to end the federal government shutdown, saying “it’s disgusting” not to call the situation on the U.S. Mexico-border a crisis.
Jan. 11, 2019: After another visit to Sunland Park, Lujan Grisham says she sees she no immediate evidence of the security crisis described by Trump and presses U.S. officials there for more information about conditions inside a short-term detention facility for immigrants.
February 2019: Lujan Grisham pulls back New Mexico National Guard personnel from the state’s southern border.
Nov. 18, 2019: U.S. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich ask federal authorities to investigate the conditions and oversight of immigrant detainees held in facilities such as the Otero County Processing Center in New Mexico.
May 4, 2022: The Republican Governors Association launches a television ad slamming Lujan Grisham on border security — an issue she is constantly criticized on as she seeks a second term.
Nov. 8, 2022: Lujan Grisham is elected to a second term in a race against Republican TV meteorologist Mark Ronchetti.
Oct. 13, 2023: Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez calls for better cooperation between Texas and New Mexico after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott orders members of the Texas National Guard to install razor wire along the state’s border with New Mexico.
Jan. 16, 2024: Republicans criticize the governor for her proposals on border security and other issues after her State of the State address.
May 4, 2024: In an op-ed published in The New Mexican, Republican state Reps. Jim Townsend and Randall Pettigrew take aim at the governor over border security, writing she “is not performing her duties to protect her constituents.”
May 21, 2024: During a CNN interview, Lujan Grisham calls Republican presidential candidate Trump “the candidate of chaos” on the border for pushing to block a border security bill stalled in Congress due to Republican opposition.
Oct. 31, 2024: Trump, the GOP nominee, attacks Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, on border security during a boisterous rally in Albuquerque in which he accuses Democrats of lax border enforcement that has allowed “criminals and terrorists [to] flood in your towns with deadly drugs and death [and] given your jobs to illegal migrants.”
