A dozen states – including New Mexico – sued the Trump administration in the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York on Wednesday to stop its tariff policy, saying it is unlawful and has brought chaos to the American economy.

The lawsuit said the policy put in place by President Donald Trump has been subject to his "whims rather than the sound exercise of lawful authority."

It challenged Trump's claim that he could arbitrarily impose tariffs based on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The suit asks the court to declare the tariffs to be illegal, and to block government agencies and its officers from enforcing them.

A message sent to the Justice Department for comment was not immediately returned.

The states listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit were Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and Vermont.

In a release, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes called Trump's tariff scheme "insane."

She said it was "not only economically reckless — it is illegal."

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said "Trump's lawless and chaotic tariffs are a massive tax on Connecticut families and a disaster for Connecticut businesses and jobs."

The lawsuit maintained that only Congress has the power to impose tariffs and that the president can only invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act when an emergency presents an "unusual and extraordinary threat" from abroad.

"By claiming the authority to impose immense and ever-changing tariffs on whatever goods entering the United States he chooses, for whatever reason he finds convenient to declare an emergency, the President has upended the constitutional order and brought chaos to the American economy," the lawsuit said.

Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, sued the Trump administration in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California over the tariff policy, saying his state could lose billions of dollars in revenue as the largest importer in the country.

White House spokesperson Kush Desai responded to Newsom's lawsuit, saying the Trump administration "remains committed to addressing this national emergency that's decimating America's industries and leaving our workers behind with every tool at our disposal, from tariffs to negotiations."

Associated Press Writer Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.

Rio Arriba County Sheriff Billy Merrifield was involved in a crash early Sunday morning, hours before he was found unresponsive inside the same vehicle at his home.

New Mexico State Police on Wednesday released details about the final hours of 50-year-old Merrifield, who had served as sheriff of the northern New Mexico county since 2021.

State Police spokesperson Wilson Silver said in a news release that the agency is investigating "the possibility of the sheriff being under the influence of an intoxicating liquor or drug."

A friend of Merrifield's told State Police that a woman called him around 3 a.m. Sunday and said she was with Merrifield while he was off duty, and they got into a "minor crash" in his patrol vehicle, Silver said.

The friend told police that he found Merrifield's vehicle about a half-mile from his Abiquiú home, Silver said. The friend said Merrifield told him he was OK.

"The patrol vehicle and Sheriff Merrifield were taken back to his residence," Silver said, and "Sheriff Merrifield’s friend and the woman left the residence, leaving Sheriff Merrifield in his patrol vehicle."

Around 10 a.m., the friend tried calling Merrifield several times before going to his home to check on him, Silver said.

"He found Sheriff Merrifield unresponsive in his patrol unit," the spokesman said. The friend and first responders attempted lifesaving efforts, but Merrifield was pronounced dead at the scene.

Silver said investigators are working to corroborate the account. Meanwhile, an autopsy was performed on Monday and results are pending.

Ken Miyagishima, the former mayor of Las Cruces, over the weekend filed official paperwork with the Secretary of State’s office for the Democratic primary campaign for New Mexico governor, but would not officially announce his candidacy.

“I’m technically exploring, but ever so close,” he told Source NM Wednesday. “We’re working on various things, the narrative of the entire campaign,” he said.

Miyagishima, an insurance agent and the mayor of Las Cruces between 2007 to 2023, also held two terms on both the Las Cruces City Council and the Doña Ana County Commission.

On his website , Miyagishima said some of his policy positions would include: having the state build and sell homes at cost to “police, fire and correctional officers as well as teachers and eligible Native Americans.”

Miyagishima said he would also want to establish a new police force using retired officers to “assist larger cities with local policing.” Another crime policy, he said, would be having state government pay the federal government to house any person convicted of a crime resulting in the death of a police officer, firefighter or correctional officer.

“I believe the perpetrator should serve a mandatory life sentence at the SUPERMAX facility in Colorado,” his website says.

So far, the June 2, 2026 Democratic primary for governor has two official candidates: Former Interior Secretary and Congresswoman Deb Haaland and Bernalillo County district attorney Sam Bregman . Current Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham cannot run for reelection due to term limits.

There is only one Republican candidate announced so far, Rio Rancho mayor Greggory Hull .

Miyagishima reported no expenditures or his donations in the campaign account, telling Source NM that he planned to make contributions soon.

“This will all be new money, I’ll probably be lending myself a good chunk,” he said. According to the most recent campaign finance reports , Hull raised nearly $210,000; Bregman reported just over $632,000 and Haaland has raised more than $2.8 million.

The University of New Mexico Hospital has cut 53 positions as the state’s largest public health system faces deepening financial pressures and federal funding cuts.

A spokesperson for UNMH confirmed the numbers in a statement on Monday. The spokesperson said that some, but not all, of the positions were vacant and emphasized that the eliminated positions were executive positions, not roles like floor nurses and others who provide patient care.

“By taking these steps now, UNM Hospital is positioning itself to balance its current and future budgets. UNM Hospital remains committed to what is most important — providing health care for New Mexicans, in New Mexico,” Chris Ramirez, communication director for the hospital system, told the Journal.

The move comes amid a continued shortage of health care providers and workers in New Mexico, as well as a proposed reduction in federal funding for health care under the Trump administration.

“In order to be sure we are operating as efficiently as possible, and are as prepared as possible for federal funding changes which may lie ahead, we have implemented a number of financial improvement initiatives,” Ramirez said.

UNMH is also reviewing “contract expenses, including contract labor,” and “workflows to maximize efficiency and reduce operational expenses,” according to Ramirez.

Ramirez did not provide a breakdown of how many people were terminated and how many vacant positions were eliminated, but said the cuts were spread across the hospital system’s many units, including the hospital, Health Sciences Center and the Sandoval Regional Medical Center.

UNM folded in SRMC to its UNMH system in 2024. The move brought the Rio Rancho hospital into the system following approval from the UNM Board of Regents in 2023. At the time, UNMH officials said there would be no cuts to roles or salaries. But an internal email provided to the Journal showed that SRMC was hit particularly hard by the cuts.

The email shows that SMRC will lose its president, Jamie Silva-Steele, as well as its chief financial officer, chief human resources officer, executive director of support services, director of food and nutrition services and director of talent acquisition.

Those positions were under contract until June and will not be renewed.

The same email showed that four vacant director positions — including emergency services, case management, pharmacy, and quality — as well as the manager of surgical services were eliminated.

Yolanda Ulmer, the chief executive officer of the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, confirmed to the Journal that no union employees were laid off. She also lauded UNMH for cutting management, not workers.

However, Ulmer said that bonuses for picking up extra shifts were paused to avoid cuts to the membership. She emphasized that the bonus suspension was temporary.

“We didn’t get rid of it. We put it on hold temporarily, but they’re still offering overtime work if needed to fill in the gaps,” Ulmer said.

Ulmer noted that contract negotiations are set for mid-May. The management contraction casts a cloud over the future.

“We all have to work collaboratively together and make sure that we organize around this situation that UNMH is facing,” Ulmer said. “We’ve got to make sure that our bargaining unit is well taken care of, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

In the statement, Ramirez stressed that UNMH, which also receives funding from state and local governments, has been burdened by the same financial troubles that all hospitals have faced following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A 2023 National Institutes of Health analysis found that hospitals nationwide lost $200 billion after a 45% decrease in revenue between March 1 and June 30, 2020. The analysis blamed the decline on the high cost of caring for COVID patients and a simultaneous explosion in labor costs.

According to testimony given to legislators by the New Mexico Hospital Association in 2024, two-thirds of New Mexico’s hospitals had higher expenses than revenue during that same year.

“We are grateful for the county, state and federal financial support we have received, and we are committed to being good stewards of those resources,” Ramirez said, adding, “Our mission of service to New Mexico means that we must deliver high-quality patient care in a financially sustainable model.”

A small team of state employees focused on solving New Mexico’s housing crisis will move from the governor’s office to the state’s workforce agency, a temporary move while the informal office seeks a permanent home.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has sought statutory authority for a state Office of Housing from the New Mexico Legislature for the last two years, but legislation doing so failed in both sessions. Legislation would have empowered the four-person team to create a statewide strategy to solve the housing shortage and attached it administratively to the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration, which received more than $100 million this legislative session to spend on housing and homelessness.

In a news release Monday, the governor’s office said the move to the Department of Workforce Solutions will create a strong connection between job creation and housing, plus allow for more accountability after the state’s significant investment in solving the housing crisis here.

“This move will ensure that the Office of Housing has the resources it needs to put these dollars to use solving our state’s housing shortage as we continue pursuing legislation to make the state’s housing and homelessness initiatives permanent,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement.

The move comes a few weeks after the governor fired Daniel Werwath, her senior housing policy adviser tasked with, among other things, convincing lawmakers to approve a state Housing Office. Werwath told Source New Mexico after his departure that he tried to achieve “some systemic change around housing, which apparently there’s less appetite for than I had hoped.”

The state lacks more than 30,000 housing units , according to recent estimates. Employers in Albuquerque, where lawmakers hope the majority of new housing spending will occur, added 31,000 jobs in the last three years, but city developers added only 9,000 new housing units in that period, according to a January report from Pew Charitable Trusts.

In the coming months, Workforce Solutions Secretary Sarita Nair will come up with a recommendation for the office’s permanent home, governor’s spokesperson Michael Coleman told Source New Mexico.

“It could remain at DWS, move to another agency, or stand alone. There is no firm deadline for the recommendation. The governor is confident that DWS is the right place for the Office of Housing at this time,” Coleman said in an email Tuesday.

Nair, in the news release, said one of the state workforce’s biggest challenges is finding affordable housing. Merging the housing office and the workforce agency will enable “strong collaboration and accountability,” she said.

The Albuquerque City Council allocated $9 million to two affordable housing projects that aim to increase the supply of homes in the city.

During a meeting on Monday, councilors unanimously approved giving money to Sol Housing to help finance the Farolito Senior Community and Somos, both on East Central.

“This is the last bit of financing we need,” Felipe Rael, executive director of Sol Housing, said during the meeting.

According to a 2021 analysis, Albuquerque is short of meeting the demand for housing by about 13,000 to 28,000 units. When the supply is short, the cost of housing increases, sending more people into homelessness, as shown in peer-reviewed research.

The cost of building homes has increased dramatically in the last half-decade, according to the mayor's office. The National Association of Home Builders — a national trade association representing the interests of home builders, developers and contractors — estimates that inputs like building materials and labor costs increased by 30% from 2021 to 2024.

Vulnerable groups with less money, such as seniors on fixed incomes, are most affected by a lack of affordable housing.

The two projects the council supported are meant to help alleviate the issue.

The Farolito Senior Community will be in the East Gateway Neighborhood, near Central and Eubank. Documents presented to the council show that the community will create 82 affordable units for seniors.

Located near Central and Louisiana in the city-owned lot that used to house Bruce Spruce Cocktail Lounge & Package Liquors, the Somos project will create 70 mixed-use and mixed-income housing units, according to documents presented to the council. The records show that 59 of the 70 will be affordable units with space for commercial enterprises.

Both projects are expected to be completed in mid-to-late 2026.