Vasquez floats wild conspiracies, bashes oil and gas to open-borders group

U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-NM), a self-proclaimed “champion” of border communities, was in Hobbs last week peddling his latest assault on New Mexico’s oil and gas industry — a sector that funds nearly half the state budget — while repeating far-left conspiracy theories with no basis in proven science.

Speaking to a tiny crowd of roughly two dozen people, most organized by the open-borders group Somos Un Pueblo Unido, Vasquez reintroduced a bill that would punish large oil and gas companies with yet another tax — this time to bankroll a special fund for worker health care costs supposedly caused by “methane exposure” and “low air quality.” These claims, popular with radical environmentalists, remain unproven by legitimate science and have been widely challenged by experts.

The legislation would target companies making more than $50 million a year, forcing them to hand over an amount equal to the combined salaries of their top ten executives into a federal trust fund. That fund would pay medical expenses for oil and gas workers and their families for conditions Vasquez claims are linked to the industry, including asthma, heat-related illness, and cardiovascular disease. No credible scientific consensus exists linking methane emissions from regulated U.S. oil and gas operations to such health conditions — a fact Vasquez conveniently ignores.

In a move straight out of the radical environmental left’s playbook, Vasquez also called for a sweeping federal study of “long-term health outcomes” in oil-producing states — a study sure to be driven by activist researchers who have long sought to undermine domestic energy production via “climate change” propaganda.

Vasquez’s rhetoric painted the industry as inherently dangerous, leaning heavily on anecdotal stories and an activist-funded report from Somos Un Pueblo Unido — a group that advocates for harboring illegal immigrants and opposes immigration enforcement at every turn. The report, co-authored with researchers at the University of New Mexico, predictably pushed a narrative of unsafe conditions and blamed the industry for everything from long work hours to driving hazards.

The Democrat also pivoted to his other pet cause — undermining U.S. immigration enforcement. Taking aim at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Vasquez blasted deportation policies and claimed that removing illegal immigrants from the oil and gas workforce would harm the economy. “We cannot accept that these folks don’t deserve the same level of health care that other workers deserve,” Vasquez insisted, effectively arguing for taxpayer-subsidized benefits for those in the country illegally.

It’s no surprise. Vasquez has a track record of aligning with socialist policies, attacking ICE, and pushing an open-borders agenda that rewards lawbreaking while vilifying industries that keep New Mexico’s economy afloat. His latest stunt is yet another example of a radical Democrat attempting to weaponize government against one of the state’s largest employers — all while ignoring the billions in revenue the oil and gas industry delivers for New Mexico schools, infrastructure, and public services.

The fact remains: oil and gas companies operating in the U.S. and New Mexico, especially, are among the most regulated in the world, with strict environmental and workplace safety standards. Vasquez’s smear campaign isn’t about protecting workers — it’s about dismantling an industry he and his environmental extremist allies despise, no matter the economic cost to New Mexico families.