New Mexico House representatives will support impeachment push

New Mexico’s congresspeople have signed on to cosponsor articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after a Minnesota woman was killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer last week.

“I know a lot of people are feeling very frightened out there, but we want you to know that we are conducting oversight; we are taking action,” said Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M.

Videos of Renee Good’s final interaction with a federal immigration officer before he shot and killed her have flooded social media feeds and fueled a national debate over whether the shooting was justified. The fatal shooting sparked protests, including one in Albuquerque Friday where two people were arrested. It also boosted calls to impeach Noem.

Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., planned to file articles of impeachment against the DHS secretary Wednesday.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called the impeachment push silly.

“As ICE officers are facing a 1,300% increase in assaults against them, Rep. Kelly is more focused on showmanship and fundraising clicks than actually cleaning up her crime-ridden Chicago district,” McLaughlin said in a statement.

A Los Angeles Times analysis of court records found a much lower increase — a 26% increase in assaults on federal officers. An NPR analysis from last year found a 25% increase.

Impeachment seems unlikely to progress, given Democrats are the minority in the House, but Kelly has secured more than 50 Democratic cosponsors, according to Axios reporting. That includes New Mexico’s three House representatives, the Journal confirmed.

“For the last year, Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security, under the leadership of Kristi Noem, has terrorized communities across the country with a violent, authoritarian, and chaotic attack on our communities,” Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, D-N.M., said in a statement.

Her sentiments were echoed by Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M.

“Under (Noem)’s direction, we have seen masked ICE agents unleash increasingly violent tactics across the country that make our communities less safe, especially for people of color,” Vasquez said in a statement.

The articles allege a pattern of willful misconduct by Noem that undermines congressional authority, constitutional rights, federal law and public trust. The three articles include obstruction of Congress for denying members entrance to DHS facilities, self-dealing for awarding DHS contracts to a company run by the husband of her spokesperson and violation of public trust for allegedly denying due process to detainees. 

New Mexico GOP Chair Amy Barela thinks the push for impeachment will not find support among Republicans and believes the DHS secretary has done an amazing job.

“One (article) that stood out to me was willfully obstructed congressional oversight. I don't see how that's been done, because she is actually following orders under President (Donald) Trump to protect our country, to secure our border and to clear out all of the illegal immigrants that are here,” Barela said.

ICE reported 487 arrests in the El Paso sector in 2025. The sector includes the El Paso area and all of New Mexico. Over the past five years, arrests in the El Paso sector have followed national trends, peaking in 2023 with 2,726 arrests, according to ICE data.

The fatal shooting in Minnesota came after a surge in immigration enforcement there. Stansbury said the Trump administration is “very politically motivated,” pointing to child care funding being withheld from five Democratic states. So, she believes a risk for an immigration enforcement surge in Democrat-led New Mexico exists. 

“But I do think that our governor has also done a good job of continuing to keep an open line of communication, while also protecting New Mexicans,” Stansbury said.