The following is the transcript of an interview with New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on May 11, 2025.
ED O’KEEFE: Welcome back to “Face the Nation.” We turn now to New Mexico’s Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, who is joining us this morning from Santa Fe. Governor, great to see you. Part of the reason we wanted to hear from you this week is Republicans here in Washington are debating the future of Medicaid and are proposing all sorts of potential changes to the program. Your state’s got the highest Medicaid enrollment per capita, last we checked. We- hoping to get some clarity this week on what it is exactly Republicans are thinking of doing with their budget blueprint regarding Medicaid. But I understand 70%- more than 70% of Medicaid coverage in your state, comes from federal funding. If they start to make cuts of any sort, do you have a plan to make up the difference?
GOV. MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM: Well look, Ed, I think every state, including this one, is going to do everything they can to protect the people that they are serving. And so, we’ll do the very same- and in fact, we’ve created sort of these Medicaid and related health care state funded programs and trust funds. But this is very simply an effort to destroy health care as we know it, to rip it away from everyday Americans, make it more costly for everybody else, it will close hospitals- think something like 432 hospitals across the country are on the edge right now. About a third of their funding comes- or more, comes from Medicaid. So you have less providers who have fewer access points. No state, including this one- no state can take this kind of cost shifting. And you know, businesses then don’t have employees because they don’t have access to health care. It has a huge economic factor that they aren’t talking about, which is outrageous- and I only want to do one more quick point, because I know we want to get to other stuff. We had a governor who was trying to- I think, right before me, my- Governor Martinez, and to her credit, was looking at ways in a recession era economy in New Mexico, to look to have cost savings. They completely cut behavioral health out of Medicaid, and more than a decade later, we are still digging out providers left, contractors left. People don’t have access. People died, more drug abuse, more drug addiction, more behavioral health. High risk issues. It is a disaster, and people will die. Children will die.
ED O’KEEFE: I do wonder- as part of this potential rollback, would you have to revisit the decision to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act if the federal government cuts back on funding?
GOV. LUJAN GRISHAM: So I’m committed in New Mexico to invest in quality and access. If we were to roll back those expansions, we can’t do that. I would assume that my legislature is going to expect me, so I’m going to- it’s a teaser that I’m going to come out for making sure that we hold Medicaid and tell- if those cuts come, we get Congress- so this is a plea to everyday Americans. You call your member of Congress, you let them know what this impact means to you and your family. Women- remember, fewer OBGYNs, fewer access points, higher maternal health mortality rates, higher infant mortality rates–
ED O’KEEFE: Yeah.
GOV. LUJAN GRISHAM: We need to make sure that Congress understands this is no way to adjust or address health care issues, which could use some efficiencies and could use some quality investments. There’s no doubt that there’s some waste and fraud. Do that. Indiscriminately just tearing apart Medicaid means that you are going after hard working Americans in favor of billionaires and corporations who don’t need- or are asking for this $1.5 trillion tax cut.
ED O’KEEFE: That is- this is an issue that each and every governor is going to have to deal with in one way or another as Congress sorts out what to do. I want to ask you about a more unique one to New Mexico and just a handful of other states. You, of course, share a border with Mexico, and the Trump administration has now set up a unique national defense area along that roughly 170 mile span, giving the army control of that region for about three years. You’re looking at a map there. That area in yellow is essentially this new national defense area. It means troops can detain trespassers who enter that area. I’m curious, does this ease your concerns about border crossings as a border state governor? Is this the way to do it?
GOV. LUJAN GRISHAM: I don’t think it is. That is not my- my most major concern in the lack of due process and what I believe are clear violations to the Constitution and what we’re doing about immigration. Here’s what I believe we ought to be doing- and I believe the majority of the members of my state, pass border policy in Congress, hire more Border Patrol agents, make sure we’re using the military in places where we need them make sure that states have access to their guard for natural disasters and related issues. This makes no sense. We’ve had the lowest, for several administrations now, border crossings.* We should be doing more. We should be doing more to prevent folks from not having access to be able to get visas and claim refugee and asylum status. We shouldn’t just be doing that to South Africans. This makes no sense. But that’s not my biggest issue. My bigger issue is indiscriminate ICE raids and sweeps sowing fear in communities and with businesses all across the country, and that includes many communities right here in New Mexico. I’ve done a border fly over. I’m paying attention. You know, it’s- it’s disconcerting to see tanks rolling right along your border, acting and demonstrating these sort of military powers in that way–
ED O’KEEFE: Yeah.
GOV. LUJAN GRISHAM: But I would prefer that Congress- the quicker they pass a border bill- a bipartisan border bill, then maybe we would have some common sense in this debate. Go after the cartel. Go after bad members. Bring me public safety. Do that statewide. That makes the difference. They aren’t doing that. They’re rolling around in tanks, allegedly detaining 100 people or more in- I don’t even know what time frame–
ED O’KEEFE: We’ll continue–
GOV. LUJAN GRISHAM: That information is hard to get.
ED O’KEEFE: Right. We’ll continue to track it and ask those questions to get a sense of how many are being detained–
GOV. LUJAN GRISHAM: Okay.
ED O’KEEFE: Governor, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it, and we’ll be right back.
*Editor’s Note: The number of attempted migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border reached a reach monthly high under the Biden administration in December 2023 before declining the following year.