On Wednesday, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham responded to those concerns by holding a crime-focused town meeting at Alamogordo’s Tays Center.

Southern New Mexico is host to what conservationists say are some of the state’s most imperiled species of fish, birds and reptiles.

Republicans in southeast New Mexico said they were preparing to defend the region’s defining oil and gas industry, while batting away Democrat proposals GOP leaders said could derail the state’s main economic driver.