El Rito Media News Services

ESPANOLA — Those hoping for the Oñate Bridge to reopen, to relieve traffic congestion, will have to wait longer.

The bridge will remain closed and a date for reopening has not been determined.

The New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) completed a study of the bridge and will start a $500,000 project to slow erosion around the bridge’s pier and riverbed, State Sen. Leo Jaramillo said in a video posted on social media.

He said NMDOT is working on a second report to determine a long-term solution to prevent continued erosion, which will cost an estimated $5 to $20 million.

“It could involve work on the riverbank, the channel or even parts of the bridge itself,” Jaramillo said. “Now, once that’s ready and combined with the structural analysis, the community will be invited back to review all the options, including a full bridge replacement.”

For now, NMDOT will place A-Jacks, which are made of heavy interlocking pieces of concrete, and riprap, large angular rocks, under the bridge to slow further erosion.

An underwater inspection completed in 2019 showed erosion on the bridge’s pier, and a follow-up inspection completed in January of this year and hydraulic monitoring showed more deterioration.

Danielle Prokop

Source New Mexico

The federal government will seek to exempt itself from more than two dozen federal laws in an effort to build border barriers faster along more than 100 miles of New Mexico’s border with Mexico.

In a Wednesday announcement published in the Federal Register, Department of Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem said the effort to build between Sunland Park to the eastern edge of the state’s bootheel, near Antelope Wells is in effect as of Oct. 8.

“There is presently an acute and immediate need to construct additional physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries,” the order stated.

The order further waives requirements for the construction to follow 27 federal laws, including the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act and National Environmental Policy Act. This is similar to other waivers to speed up border wall construction projects in Arizona and New Mexico, including Mount Cristo Rey.

Noem recently visited the border at Santa Teresa to deliver news that the administration would paint the barriers black to burn people’s skin and deter crossing. At that event, officials noted that border crossings were down 98% from a high in 2023 of 2,400 people crossing the border to only an average of 39 people apprehended crossing the border region in 2025.

In a statement provided to Source NM, U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-NM) whose district encompasses the state’s southern border, called “securing our border” a top priority. However, he said, “as [Defense] Secretary [Pete] Hegseth acknowledged when I questioned him at a recent committee hearing, a wall simply doesn’t make sense or promote public safety in every case. In those areas, I support utilizing technology like towers, sensors, and aerial systems that are better for the natural environment, wildlife corridors, and public land access; are a better use of taxpayer dollars; and are better for our national security.”

Environmental groups said the order would devastate fragile ecosystems, fragment habitat and cut the public out from the process.

Laiken Jordahl, Southwest conservation advocate based in Tucson at the Center for Biological Diversity, told Source NM that for bighorn sheep, cougars and other animals living in the area the habitat fragmentation will be “devestating.”

“I mean, basically, they could show up tomorrow with bulldozers and break ground without consulting any wildlife experts, historical experts, or any of the tribes that have resources in these areas,’ he said. “The waiver gives them just an unbelievable amount of power to inflict as much damage as possible as zero accountability.”

Patrick Lohmann
Source New Mexico

New Mexico’s Motor Vehicle Division will no longer issue or renew commercial driver’s licenses or learner’s permits to certain foreign-born drivers, according to a recent news release.

The announcement last week came about a week after the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued emergency interim rules seeking to crack down on what it says are immigrants illegally, and unsafely, driving semi trailers on nationwide highways. The MVD says its change announced Thursday complies with those interim rules.

According to the MVD, the division will only issue commercial licenses or permits to foreign nationals who have valid, unexpired foreign passports that have an I-94 form documenting their most recent entrance into the United States.

That is also true for those with certain employment-based, non-immigrant visas — namely, the H-2A, H-2B and E-2 visas — according to an updated form MVD published this month listing the documents required to receive a CDL.

The change mirrors those that have occurred in other states, and it comes after federal Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy publicly threatened to withhold funding from New Mexico and two other states if they didn’t comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order requiring commercial truck drivers to be proficient in English.

New Mexico, Washington and Florida were all targeted with the funding cut threat because Duffy accused all three states of playing a role in a fatal crash involving a foreign truck driver in Florida. In that case, a Florida driver, an immigrant from India who did not have permanent legal authority to be in the country, made an illegal U-turn on the Florida Turnpike, caused a crash that killed three people in another vehicle, according to local reports.

The driver had a commercial license from California and Washington, and had been pulled over for speeding in New Mexico prior to crashing in Florida, Duffy said in August.

The interim rules the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration published said five fatal crashes this year, including the one in Florida, involved “non-domiciled CDL holders,” which typically refers to foreign-born commercial truck drivers.

New Mexico has issued 204 CDLs and commercial learner’s permits to “non-domiciled” people in the state. According to federal data, about 37,178 drivers have active CDLs in New Mexico.

After Duffy threatened to withhold $7 million in funding from New Mexico, a spokesperson for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told Source New Mexico that the state’s “thorough and federally compliant process for issuing CDLs” requires English proficiency.

“We believe that a full review of the incidents in question will demonstrate that New Mexico is in full compliance with federal law and that New Mexico State Police are effectively enforcing safety regulations on our roadways,” spokesperson Michael Coleman said.

Source NM Staff

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Friday signed most of the legislation passed during this week’s special session of the New Mexico Legislature, according to a news release from her office.

She did not sign Senate Bill 3, which would expand the New Mexico Department of Health’s authority to purchase COVID-19 vaccines for children, as well as allow the department to use additional sources than a sole federal advisory committee to create guidelines for school and daycare vaccination policy amid federal upheaval. The bill drew hours of Republican opposition during hearings and failed on Thursday to receive the two-thirds majority vote required to include an emergency clause that would have made it effective immediately.

In a news release on Thursday, Lujan Grisham, in a statement, said she was “deeply disappointed in Republicans for voting to restrict vaccines,” and that “there is no good reason for Republicans to make New Mexicans wait 90 days for vaccines they need to protect their health.” The governor’s Deputy Communications Director Jodi McGinnis Porter on Friday responded to Source’s query about the unsigned bill via text message to say that the governor “is still deliberating on it and we will have something on it next week.”

The governor signed the other four bills passed —most of which respond to federal funding cuts — and said in a statement: “When federal support falls short, New Mexico steps up — that’s our commitment to families who depend on these services. This funding protects the basics: food security, affordable health care, and access to care.”

House Bill 1 includes $162 million in emergency funding, including $66 million for the state Health Care Authority; $16.6 million to maintain federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program; and $8 million for food banks and pantries, among other food-related expenses. The bill also includes $17 million to reduce health insurance costs on the state BeWell marketplace. HB1 transfers $30 million into the state’s emergency contingency fund and $50 million into the rural healthcare fund.

House Bill 2 addresses the expiring Affordable Care Act premium health insurance tax credits, which have become a line in the sand in federal budget negotiations. The bill allows New Mexicans above 400% of the federal poverty level to receive assistance through the state’s Health Care Affordability Fund if they meet other eligibility requirements. The $17.3 million to do this for the current fiscal year is included in HB1.

Senate Bill 1 transfers $50 million from the general fund to the Rural Health Care Delivery Fund to “stabilize existing health care services at risk of reduction or closure in rural and underserved areas across New Mexico, and “broadens eligibility beyond counties with populations under 100,000 to include providers in federally designated high-needs health professional shortage areas and tribally operated facilities.”

Senate Bill 2 takes effect immediately as an emergency measure and allows metropolitan court judges to preside over criminal competency proceedings, reversing a prior change earlier in 2025 that required all such cases to go to district court.