Commissioner Garcia Richard Declines Signature of Programmatic Agreement with U.S. Customs and Border Protection: “The Land Office Won’t Give Cover to Border Abuses”

SANTA FE, NM – Commissioner of Public Lands Stephanie Garcia Richard today declined to sign a renewal of a Programmatic Agreement between the New Mexico State Land Office and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). In declining to sign the Agreement, Garcia Richard sided with nearly three dozen New Mexico based community organizations and individuals that signed onto a letter urging her not to work with CBP because of their “history of discriminating heavily against people of color at our nation’s southern border in the name of national security.”