Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, right, speaks to media about the deadly mass shooting in Las Cruces, with Lt. Gov. Howie Morales, left, in the governor’s Cabinet room at the Roundhouse on Saturday, March 22, 2025. Photo by Michael G. Seamans/The New Mexican
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham speaks to media about the deadly mass shooting in Las Cruces in the governor’s Cabinet room at the Roundhouse on Saturday, March 22, 2025. Photo by Michael G. Seamans/The New Mexican
By DANIEL J. CHACÓN
The Santa Fe New Mexican
After a mass shooting the night before at a park in Las Cruces, a visibly angry governor said lawmakers should expect her to call a special session to tackle New Mexico’s public safety crisis after, as she sees it, they fell woefully short during the regular 60-day session that ended at noon Saturday.
The shooting, which claimed the lives of a 16-year-old boy and two 19-year-old men and injured 15 others, happened less than a day before the Legislature gaveled out of a session that was supposed to do big things on crime and public safety.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham expressed frustration and disappointment with the end result, saying only a small fraction of 270 bills dealing with the topics reached her desk.
“That is shameful,” the governor said at an end-of-session news conference in her Cabinet room Saturday. “There was not a single productive debate on reducing juvenile crime. Not one. And, in fact, even in the Senate, they failed to get over the finish line a weakened, watered-down juvenile crime approach.”
Lujan Grisham said she “can’t understand” lawmakers’ reluctance after she held more than a dozen town halls across the state in which New Mexicans voiced their concerns about crime. The governor championed her legislative proposals directly to residents after the Democratic-controlled Legislature ended a special session on public safety within five hours last year without taking up any of the governor’s anti-crime proposals.
“Accountability is missing in New Mexico and has been for quite some time,” she said.
The governor acknowledged the Legislature did pass a crime package of several bills, as well as a number of behavioral health reforms, about a month ago. But she recalled a news conference where lawmakers promised to do more on the crime front.
“I believe you all asked some pretty poignant and tough questions about, ‘Are we done?’ And I believe universally, we said, ‘We are not.’ Well, the end results of this legislative session would belie that commitment in large part,” she said.
Lujan Grisham said she had to put pressure on lawmakers to pass several public safety bills, including two dealing with racketeering and embezzlement.
The bills “would not have made it upstairs but for the pressure of the executive branch,” she said. “That would be code for the governor and her team going downstairs and making it a must-have, you will do it, and that’s not how this should work. If it’s a shared priority, that’s not typically what you need to do to move the needle.”
Lujan Grisham was particularly critical of the Senate and House Judiciary committees and the Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee.
“I don’t think there’s any other way to describe but what appears to be pretty purposeful efforts to prevent [bills from being heard],” she said. “In fact, I think the chair of the Senate Judiciary [Committee] said he’s proud of log-jamming these bills and not giving them a debate,” she said, referring to Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces.
“And I think New Mexicans need to weigh in about whether or not we think that’s appropriate given that they’re elected and this is the session to debate every single one of these measures,” Lujan Grisham continued.
Lujan Grisham said she stands “squarely in favor of a Democratic agenda” in light of what’s happening at the federal level.
“But let me say this, when you’re at the ballot box, if your legislator, irrespective of their party … is refusing to commit to you that they will fix this, then I think you should make a different decision,” she said, adding a bill to allow unaffiliated voters to vote in partisan primaries that passed this year is a step in the right direction and give New Mexicans “more opportunities.”
Lujan Grisham did not say when she plans to call a special session, saying the focus should be on the deadly shooting in Las Cruces.
“This is a shocking situation,” she said. “I think it’s the right approach, but I want a moment to make sure that I’m not dishonoring and disrespecting what the families need at this moment, that we have clarity about the strategies that we need.”
Republicans are on board with the idea of a special session and have asked the governor to call one to deal with crime and health care. However, House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, said Saturday that special sessions aren’t effective “if there’s not a whole lot of pre-work done — and the special session last summer showed that.”
“I do think that calls for a special session at this point are premature. Obviously, the governor has the authority to call a special session, and if she does, then we’ll all come to the table and see what we can work ahead of time,” he said.
“To rush special sessions is not a good idea,” Martínez said. “It’s a waste of taxpayer dollars, and quite frankly, it’s a waste of people’s time.”
Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, agreed that work has to be done on bills in advance of a special session to get them ready for consideration.
“Special sessions don’t work if the bills aren’t cooked,” he said.
The governor said she would want input from district attorneys, police and families affected by violent crime. She also said she shared the sentiment of Republican leaders in the House and Senate who called the 60-day session unproductive and disappointing.
“The likelihood is far stronger than not,” she said.
“They should expect it,” she added. “I don’t know how you don’t expect it.”