Candidates clash at length over controversial ICE operations.

Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico

This article was originally published by Source New Mexico.

The two candidates vying to represent New Mexico’s Second Congressional District participated in a lively debate Friday evening.

Incumbent U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.), who first won election to the seat in 2022, and Republican challenger Greg Cunningham, a retired Marine and former Albuquerque Police Department detective, spent much of a Friday evening debate on KRQE criticizing each other. Vasquez often characterized Cunningham as a MAGA devotee, while Cunningham repeatedly characterized Vasquez as an ineffectual member of Congress.

That divide was on display particularly when KRQE anchor Dean Staley asked candidates questions about border policy and controversial tactics employed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents under President Donald Trump’s administration. Vasquez lamented seeing footage of “Americans getting killed at the hands of ICE,” referring to this year’s killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, while Cunningham blamed liberal policies in sanctuary cities for infringing on ICE agents’ abilities to do their jobs.

The contested race for the district, which includes much of southern New Mexico and stretches to the north to include a small portion of Albuquerque, is considered one of the most closely contested Congressional races in the nation.

Vasquez unseated his Republican predecessor, Yvette Herrell, in 2022 by less than one percentage point. Trump endorsed Cunningham’s bid to flip the district red and U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has visited New Mexico twice to stump for him.

Throughout Friday’s debate, Vasquez several times promised to fight the “disastrous economic policies of the Trump administration.” In response, Cunningham was often quick to ask what Vasquez has done in his current term to combat the president’s agenda.

“You’re our Congressman. We sent you there to solve these problems,” Cunningham said, adding that Vasquez was acting “like it’s all somebody else’s fault.”

The two candidates discussed a number of other issues, ranging from immigration and affordability to the war in Iran and artificial intelligence.

Immigration

The discussion around immigration and the Trump administration’s emphasis on ICE raids provoked the sharpest disagreement between Vasquez and Cunningham.

The two found a brief truce. When Vasquez expressed a desire to reform the path to citizenship, Cunningham said it was the “one thing that I do agree with you on.”

Beyond that, though, the two clashed as Staley asked both candidates where the nation’s immigration policies can improve and whether they agree with Trump’s decision not to apologize when ICE agents have killed American citizens.

Cunningham said that broadly, he looks at law enforcement agencies such as ICE and sees “men and women, our brothers and sisters and family members that got into law enforcement to do the right thing and are risking their lives every day.”

Vasquez pushed back, alluding not only to the killings of Good and Pretti but to recent controversial ICE arrests in New Mexico, as well.

“I see American citizens getting killed at the hands of ICE. I see our own Native American citizens with tribal IDs being detained right here in New Mexico,” Vasquez said. “The policy of this administration is cruel. It is separating families, it is orphaning children all across our country and it’s targeting people that look like me and you, Greg.”

SNAP, Medicaid cuts

New eligibility requirements for programs like Medicaid are set to take effect in 2027, and could result in some 89,000 New Mexicans losing healthcare coverage.

Vasquez said he is “fully in support” of targeting and addressing waste, fraud and abuse in programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, but said the new requirements — particularly for food assistance — will unfairly punish children.

“That is nothing but cruel policy,” he said. “We have to reverse those SNAP cuts as soon as we get the House majority.” 

Cunningham said it’s disingenuous to equate the new eligibility requirements to “throwing” people off the program.

“Asking for work requirements, asking for a healthy adult that doesn’t have children to give their time in their community or to work a few hours a week, that’s not throwing them off the program,” he said. “That’s asking them to adhere to a set of standards and requirements.” 

Affordability

When asked about how they would address affordability for New Mexicans, Cunningham said that he would have advocated for cutting taxes on tips and overtime if he were in Vasquez’s position.

“One of the ways to make things more affordable is to let people have more money in their pockets,” he said.

Vasquez said, if re-elected, he would continue working to end the Iran war and to reverse federal cuts to programs like SNAP and Medicaid.

“It is an understatement that times are tough right now,” he said, adding that he believes Trump broke his campaign promises to not start new wars and to bring down the cost of everyday goods. 

Artificial intelligence, data centers

The hot-button topic of AI provided the final thin sliver of common ground the two candidates found during the course of Friday’s debate.

Both agreed the federal government needs to play a greater role in regulating the technology. 

Cunningham said that he believes New Mexicans should scrutinize how much water and energy the costly developments consume, and acknowledged a need for “federal guardrails,” but maintained that leaders in individual communities should have the final say in whether or not they’re built.

Vasquez, who has previously advocated for moratoria in New Mexico communities with pending data center proposals, said that, “We can’t spare a drop of water for billionaires who are not going to invest in our community.”

Iran war 

Throughout the night, Vasquez touted his long-standing opposition to the ongoing war in Iran and pledged to continue fighting it, if re-elected. In fact, he opposed it so frequently throughout the debate that Staley posed his question on the matter solely to Cunningham after telling Vasquez, “I think I understand your position on this.”

As a combat veteran, Cunningham said that “nobody wants this war over faster than the men and women that are serving in it.”

But when Staley pressed him on whether he supported the war, he only said that, “I support Iran not having a nuclear weapon and being a nuclear threat to its neighbors and to the rest of the world.”

Vasquez later addressed the matter in his closing remarks.

“The disastrous economic policies of the Trump administration have hurt families far too deep, and we have got to put an end to the war in Iran,” he said. “We have got to bring sanity and civility back to Congress.”

Joshua Bowling is a senior reporter for Source New Mexico. He's reported in New Mexico, where he broke stories of lavish spending at Western New Mexico University and more, since 2022.