Former Interior Secretary and Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Deb Haaland announced her campaign’s public safety plan on March 5, 2026, alongside former New Mexico State Police Chief Pete Kassetas. The plan includes limiting where ICE agents can operate in New Mexico and creating a statewide alternative response department for 911 calls regarding mental health crises. (Joshua Bowling/Source NM)
Former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland on Thursday announced her gubernatorial campaign’s plan for public safety issues, which includes overhauling the troubled Children, Youth and Families Department, creating a statewide behavioral health response department and prohibiting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from operating near places of worship, parks and government buildings.
Former state Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino, former State Police Chief Pete Kassetas and New Mexico Behavioral Health Providers Association President David Ley all joined Haaland at a news conference outside a shuttered Albuquerque behavioral health clinic to endorse her plan…