CBP Orders Border Wall Contractors to Stop Drilling Unpermitted Wells in Drought-Hit New Mexico

Customs and Border Protection has ordered its border wall contractors in southern New Mexico to stop drilling new water wells after ranchers warned that unpermitted pumping was threatening their livestock during an ongoing drought.

CBP confirmed the stop-work order Monday, according to the Associated Press. The agency did not say whether wells already drilled would keep pumping. CBP said it will coordinate with the State of New Mexico and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to build a broader groundwater strategy.

The wall project is one of President Trump's central domestic priorities, and Congress has funded it with over $46 billion, spanning construction across four states, according to both the Associated Press and the Guardian. Building the wall requires huge amounts of water for mixing concrete, road building, and dust suppression on remote desert sites, CBP has said.

That water has to come from somewhere. Contractors Caddell Construction Co. and Fisher Industries turned to drilling industrial wells directly on the federal land strip along the border, according to the Washington Examiner. During Trump's first term, crews instead bought water already pumped from local sources rather than drilling their own wells.

Ranchers say pumping put their herds at risk

Russell Johnson, a cattle rancher whose property runs along the border, raised the alarm at a public meeting in July. He told the Associated Press an industrial well on land he leases for grazing was pumping 300 gallons a minute. Johnson's own 12 wells across his ranch pump a combined three to seven gallons a minute.

"It would put us in an immediate catastrophe and having to do something with our livestock. I mean, it could potentially put some people out of business, us included," Johnson said.

Johnson is a former Border Patrol agent who supports the wall itself, pointing to the drop in illegal crossings since barriers went up, according to the Washington Examiner. His objection is specifically to how contractors are sourcing water, not to the wall's existence.

At the same meeting, another rancher told the Guardian that pumping from one well "affects everybody in this basin," adding that based on his conversations with Border Patrol, he believed "they really don't even understand what an aquifer is."

State says wells lacked permits

New Mexico's Office of the State Engineer, which approves and monitors wells statewide, said it counted eight wells drilled along the southern border without its permission, according to the New York Post, though the office cautioned the real number could be higher. Staff who visited two of the wells in July found them pumping 200 gallons per minute.

"All non-tribal wells in New Mexico, whether they are drilled on state or federal land, must have permits from the state engineer before they can be drilled or water can be pumped from them," the office said in a statement.

The Guardian's reporting, citing NPR, put the earlier count at six unpermitted wells before it rose to eight. State officials appear to have kept finding more wells as they investigated.

State-level Republicans claim credit

State Rep. Jenifer Jones, a Republican from Deming, said she organized a meeting between CBP, contractors, and community stakeholders after ranchers raised concerns, according to Grant County Beat. Jones credited House Republican Leader Gail Armstrong, Caucus Chair Rebecca Dow, Rep. Luis Terrazas, and Sen. Gabriel Ramos for helping elevate the issue with the administration.

"When Southern New Mexico ranchers raised the alarm, we acted," Jones said. "We brought everyone to the table, worked with the administration, and secured a solution that protects our water while allowing border security work to continue."

Local Republican officials pushed a Republican administration to fix a problem its own contractors created, and the administration backed down. It's a story of ranchers and state lawmakers from the president's own party forcing accountability on a signature Trump project.

What's unresolved

CBP has not said whether the wells already drilled will keep pumping, only that new drilling has stopped. The agency also hasn't detailed what its alternative water sourcing will look like, or how quickly a joint groundwater strategy with the state and USDA will materialize.

Neither Caddell Construction Co. nor Fisher Industries responded to requests for comment from the Associated Press. Messages left with Barnard Construction and Spencer Construction Co., the contractors working near Johnson's ranch, also went unreturned. The State Engineer's office has not said whether it will pursue enforcement action over the eight wells drilled without permits, or whether those wells will be required to obtain retroactive permits, be capped, or face some other resolution.