Congressman Gabe Vazquez Visits Chaparral and Joins Senator Hendrich at Santa Teresa Port of Entry

When one travels down the road from Alamogordo to El Paso located near the New Mexico Texas border is Chaparral, New Mexico. As one drives by they see signs advertising land for sale by the Colquitt Company, founded by P.K. Colquitt and his son in the 1960s, around the time when many colonias started to develop along the borderlands of New Mexico and Texas.

What began as a few dozen lots with mobile homes grew rapidly into a small city, that to this day, is unincorporated and vastly ignored by politicians in Otero County and garnering minor attention by Doña Ana County officials.

Chaparral is New Mexico’s largest colonia, one of the many unincorporated communities in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, all characterized by high rates of poverty and lack of access to basic public services. It is only 10 minutes past the farthest northeastern reaches of El Paso, but it feels a galaxy away from the city’s nearby suburbs, with their two-car driveways and stucco houses and infrastructure.

The only major employers in Chaparral are the prison and the immigration detention center on the community’s northern outskirts. Both are owned by Otero County and run by a private company, Management and Training Corp. When Chaparral is in the news, it is usually because of the Otero County Processing Center, which holds detainees on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In the colonia of Chaparral New Mexico with a population of nearly 15,000 (officially), but closer to 25,000 (unofficially), it is made up of Hispanics or Latinos of any race with 64.49% of the population, 1.26% African American, 1.29% Native American, 0.43% Asian, 0.18% Pacific Islander, 21.38% from other races, and 4.77% from two or more races, per US Census Data. 

Most political leaders have all but ignored Chaparral, New Mexico with it's poverty, low voter turnout and unincorporated status. It is the fastest growing population center in Otero county and due to growth needs focus. 

Congressman Gabe Vasquez, this past week hosted a listening session and a discussion on immigration hosted in Chaparral. He highlighted it's growing importance and influence due to rising population. Citizen engagement in Chaparral is key to eventually incorporating into becoming a city. 

Vasquez has noted the importance of the borderlands on multiple occasions. This region is a tremendous economic powerhouse and the state’s biggest net exporter, with more than $1.7 billion in export activity in Doña Ana County alone, surpassing Bernalillo County as the state’s biggest net exporter several years ago. The Santa Teresa Industrial Park, just south of Las Cruces, is one of the state’s largest economic hubs, and continues to explode with growth thanks to international trade with our southern neighbors, per a statement from Vasquez in an interview in 2021. 

In his most recent visit,  Vasquez emphasized the importance of participation in voting and offered insight into border security, immigration and a pathway to citizenship under Democratic leadership in Congress. Most of the small crowd present was engaged and listened intently. Most afterward spoke about concens for public safety, lack of infrastructure and a need for their voices to be heard. But many admitted distrust for most public officials, and a significant distrust to local county leadership and law enforcement officers from Otero County. 

In Chaparral, those costs of little citizen engagement with county government is visible wherever you look at the lack of sidewalks, and the absence of street lights. This lawlessness feel manifests itself in the high rate of teen pregnancies, crime and poverty with median household income of $24,900.

In an unincorporated community, there is no local government — no police department, no sanitation services. The colonia lies in two counties — Doña Ana to the west, and Otero to the east and is seen by those in the Otero County seat of Alamogordo as "no mans land."

Doña Ana recently started building a sewer system to reduce the community’s reliance on septic tanks, but it only reaches a fraction of households. In 2006, there was a vote on whether to incorporate Chaparral, which would have given residents more control over management of the town, but it failed. People were afraid of higher taxes and more government oversight however the tide is changing with population growth and more attention of the press and federal political leaders such as Vasquez. 

While in Chaparral, Congressman Vasquez said, "I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm committed to ensuring New Mexico is not left behind and that includes our colonias and border towns. Chaparral deserves real investments in jobs and economic opportunities...that's while I'll continue to fight every day to ensure Southern New Mexico gets the attention and resources it needs to thrive."

Congressman Vasquez's visit to Chaparral follows a visit on August 12th to the Santa Teresa Port of Entry and the New Mexico High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA). On that visit U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) joined U.S. Representative Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.) highlighting how investments they have secured are helping law enforcement agencies tackle the fentanyl crisis and strengthen border security.

"Last year, we lost more than 110,000 Americans to overdose deaths. Here in New Mexico, we have the 6th highest rate of drug overdose deaths in the entire country. Congressman Vasquez and I refuse to accept this reality — it’s why we’re working to deliver tools law enforcement personnel need to keep deadly fentanyl off our streets and out of our communities,” said Heinrich. “From securing hundreds of millions of dollars to help Customs and Border Protection personnel crack down on fentanyl trafficking, to delivering funding to New Mexico’s state and local law enforcement to improve fentanyl detection, to passing historic legislation that gives agencies new resources to go after the illicit fentanyl supply chain, we’re taking action to save lives and help put an end to the flow of this deadly drug into our communities.”

"Since day one my goal is clear: to enhance our border security and drug interdiction efforts to keep our communities safe. From my visits and discussions with officials at the Santa Teresa Port of Entry, I understand that our border personnel need more resources to do their job effectively. That's why I'm proud to introduce the Stop Fentanyl at the Border Act, a bipartisan, common-sense solution," said Vasquez. "Our bill will increase the presence of state-of-the-art technology at our ports of entry and support our law enforcement officers on the ground. I am committed to working across the aisle to pass this bill and ensure that we provide the resources needed to tackle the fentanyl crisis head-on."

Heinrich and Vasquez began their day visiting the Santa Teresa Port of Entry to  discuss how $400 million they secured for new, state-of-the-art inspection technologiesfor U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is helping law enforcement personnel crack down on fentanyl trafficking and strengthen border security.

The funding, which Heinrich announced in March and helped secure as a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, is helping CBP improve the detection and seizure of fentanyl and other narcotics. The funding included $75.5 million for non-intrusive inspection equipment for in-bound and out-bound operations at ports of entry, $10 million for task forces dedicated to countering fentanyl, and $6 million for maritime operations to counter fentanyl.

In the afternoon, the lawmakers visited the New Mexico High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Program to receive a briefing on interdiction efforts and highlighted their extensive work to tackle the fentanyl crisis.

HIDTA is working alongside federal agencies including the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to coordinate with our state and local law enforcement agencies in New Mexico to effectively stem the flow of these illicit substances into our communities. These collaborative partnerships are essential to investigating and stopping drug trafficking operations.

Senator Heinrich is leading comprehensive efforts to tackle the opioid epidemic and protect New Mexico communities from fentanyl, most recently securing more than $1 million for local law enforcement to detect illicit fentanyl, helping to pass the historic FEND Off Fentanyl Act into law, and authoring legislation to require the DEA to establish a nationwide fentanyl tracking system.

Find an extensive list of Heinrich’s actions to tackle the fentanyl crisis here.

Find an extensive list of Vasquez’s actions to tackle the fentanyl crisis here.

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