New Mexico Wild Statement Opposing Senator Lee’s Border Lands Conservation Act
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Sally Paez, Staff Attorney, (505) 350-0664, sally@nmwild.org
Albuquerque, NM (October 16, 2025) – Earlier this month, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, introduced the Border Lands Conservation Act (S. 2967), legislation that would fundamentally undermine the Wilderness Act and devastate millions of acres of public lands along the United States border. The bill is unnecessary to further border security objectives and would harm treasured public lands across Southern New Mexico, including wilderness areas, the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, and the biodiverse Bootheel region.
The legislation would amend the Wilderness Act to give the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) unlimited authority to construct roads, walls, observation towers, and barriers; use motor vehicles and aircraft; and conduct a wide variety of surveillance activities in any designated wilderness area. It also strips the Department of Interior (DOI) and Department of Agriculture (USDA) of any authority to limit DHS activities on public lands within 100 miles of the international borders, effectively industrializing these protected landscapes.
“Senator Lee’s so-called conservation act is an anti-wilderness bill masquerading as border security,” said Sally Paez, Staff Attorney at New Mexico Wild. “Existing systems carefully balance the need for border security with the need to protect wild places for the benefit of current and future generations. Senator Lee’s bill would destroy this balance. We are furious about this latest attempt to steal Americans’ public lands heritage. If Congress is serious about addressing security and environmental impacts along the border, it should increase funding for our chronically underfunded land management agencies, not strip them of their authority and resources.”
The existing 2006 Memorandum of Understanding between DHS and land management agencies already provides the necessary framework for border security while respecting wilderness values. This bill would destroy that balance.
New Mexico Wild stands with the National Wilderness Coalition and over 35 conservation organizations in opposing this destructive legislation. We urge New Mexico’s congressional delegation to reject this bill.
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