In another assault on law, the environment, and ag prodcuers, the Trump Administration has been illegally drilling water wells in drought-stricken New Mexico to build more superfluous border wall:
In its dash to build President Trump’s signature border wall, the federal government is drilling unpermitted wells into already-depleted aquifers in New Mexico, according to state officials.
The New Mexico Office of the State Engineer told Here & Now it counted at least six wells under development along the border, but none have the necessary permits required by state law.
One of the wells is on Russell Johnson’s cattle ranch, which shares an 8.5-mile border with Mexico.
“That’s where they’re currently drilling right now. It looks like they’ve hit water, too,” said Johnson, president of the Luna County Farm and Livestock Bureau.
Johnson said another well is near completion on his neighbor’s ranch.
…Johnson relies on a natural spring to supply water for his cattle and his home.
“These wells that they’re drilling for border wall construction, they’re talking about trying to attain 300-plus gallons a minute, and it’s going to pump us dry,” he said. “When you have livestock, you’ve got to water, they can’t wait. You can’t haul enough water to keep them in good supply, so it becomes an immediate disaster.”
A punishing drought has already hurt ranchers across the West. Groundwater makes up more than half of New Mexico’s water supply, and that reserve is shrinking.
“Most all of our wells are kind of struggling,” Johnson said [Peter O’Dowd, “Amid Blistering Drought, Feds Tap New Mexico Aquifers to Build Border Wall Without Permits,” WBUR: Here and Now, 2026.07.10].
Trump has claimed that he’s immune from New Mexico’s water permit rules, but yesterday the feds half-blinked and ordered border-wall crews to stop drilling for water:
A spokesperson for CBP said on Monday that border wall contractors in New Mexico have been instructed to stop drilling new wells, but did not comment on whether the wells already drilled could be pumped. The agency said they would collaborate with New Mexico and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop a groundwater strategy.
“CBP is committed to working collaboratively with local landowners to ensure that construction activities do not adversely impact their water needs,” read the statement.
…The New Mexico Office of the State Engineer, which monitors and approves wells across the state, said staff have counted eight wells drilled without the office’s permission along the southern border, but cautioned there could be more. Staff visited two wells in July and reported they were pumping 200 gallons per minute.
“All non-tribal wells in New Mexico, whether they are drilled on state or federal land, must have permits from the state engineer before they can be drilled or water can be pumped from them,” the Office of the State Engineer said in a statement [Mikella Schuettler, “Contractors Building Border Wall Ordered to Stop Drilling Wells in Drought-Stricken New Mexico,” AP, 2026.08.03].
This spring New Mexico increased the penalty for violations of its water code from $100 per day to $3,400 per day. Even if Trump’s contractors have stopped drilling, any use of water from unpermitted wells should be racking up thsoe fines. Those fines won’t make whole the ranchers whose water supply Trump is stealing.