Department of Justice extends New Mexico US attorney's term amid judicial, Senate criticism
'Interim' U.S. Attorney for New Mexico Ryan Ellison is now 'acting' US attorney, following a Justice Department move that extends the state's chief federal prosecutor's term until next year without Senate or federal court approval.
Ellison's office announced the extension Friday, coinciding with the legal end of his 120-day interim status that began when U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed him in April. The extension means he can continue as before leading an office of about 200 employees, including lawyers and contractors.
'I look forward to working with public servants of all political stripes to combat crime in New Mexico,' Ellison said in a news release Friday. 'In the interim, I will continue to lead the United States Attorney's Office in the same way that I have over the last four months—without fear, without favor, and with public safety as my top priority.'
Gang prosecutor appointed as new U.S. attorney for the District of New Mexico
The announced extension of 210 days comes the day after a panel of New Mexico federal judges, in a brief statement posted to the court's website, declined to approve his appointment. But the panel also declined to name an alternative to the post, which it is empowered to do while an official confirmation plays out in the Senate.
Typically, panels like this one approve the interim appointment, if a Senate confirmation is pending. The Senate makes those appointments permanent through confirmation.
New Mexico federal court spokesperson Heather Small declined to comment on why the federal judge panel declined to approve him but also didn't name someone to take his place.
Ellison, in the statement, said 'I applaud New Mexico's federal district judges for declining to appoint someone other than the Trump Administration's choice.'
The court's neutral decision on Ellison's approval comes a month after a federal judge chastised him for his implementation and prosecution of immigrants arrested within a newly militarized zone along New Mexico's shared border with Mexico.
By the #s: NM's new military-controlled border zone is not a '60-foot buffer.' It's 400 square miles
Ellison is just the latest chief prosecutor across the country whose term has been extended by the attorney general through what's known as the Federal Vacancy Act. Before Ellison, four others received special appointments from the executive branch, according to Bloomberg, instead of the typical judicial approval of interim US attorneys whom the Senate hasn't yet confirmed.
U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, both New Mexico Democrats, denounced the extension and said it amounts to 'a deliberate attempt to circumvent' oversight from the Senate or District Court.
'While we are committed to reviewing [Ellison's] application and credentials, we are extremely concerned by this administration's continuing willingness to trample the role of the Judiciary and Congress,' the pair wrote in a Friday news release.
According to Heinrich's office, Ellison only last week submitted the final version of an application form to Heinrich's office that is required for his Senate confirmation process 'after substantial prodding by the Senator's staff,' said spokesperson Luis Soriano in an email to Source New Mexico.
'Now that the application has been received, the Senators and their staff will review Ellison's answers and the materials that he has provided, while also conducting an independent vetting process, consistent with how the Senators have approached all prior vacancies,' Soriano said.
Tessa Duberry, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office, declined to comment on his application to be considered for Senate approval.
President Donald Trump has not officially nominated him for the post, which is also required before he can be confirmed in the Senate.
The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment from Source New Mexico on Friday.
While Heinrich's office declined to comment on whether he will ultimately vote for Ellison, his office has previously been critical of Ellison's efforts to crack down on border crossings in New Mexico.
In April, shortly after being appointed, Ellison stood alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to tout a newly created military border zone along New Mexico's shared border with Mexico. Ellison announced the new zone enabled him to bring new misdemeanor charges against people who, with the Army's help, were arrested within the border zone.
Confusion reigns in New Mexico's militarized border zone
But the creation of the border zone created confusion among recreators and residents who live near the border, and a federal magistrate judge dismissed more than 100 early cases because Ellison's office failed to demonstrate the people arrested knowingly trespassed. Prosecutors then self-dismissed three cases due to confusion about the border zone's boundaries.
In mid-July, a federal judge in Las Cruces dismissed one case 'with prejudice,' meaning prosecutors can't bring it again, issuing a scathing ruling that said Ellison's office failed to ensure defendants constitutional rights in hundreds of the cases.
'The Government's inattention to statutory and constitutional rights has been a consistent throughline through these hundreds of cases,' District Court Judge Margaret Strickland wrote. 'Time and time again the Government has initiated a prosecution… only to turn around within days and deport the defendant while the charges are pending and thereby necessarily imperil the defendant's Fifth Amendment, Sixth Amendment, and Speedy Trial Act rights.'
At least two of the prosecutions resulted in convictions, and Ellison's statement Friday touted his office's crackdown on illegal immigration and crime. According to his statement, illegal border crossings are down 92% and immigration-related prosecutions are up 180%.
'Our partnership with the U.S. military and the U.S. Border Patrol has made our southern border more secure than at any point in our nation's history,' he said.
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Transcript: Rep. Jason Crow on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," Aug. 17, 2025
The following is the transcript of an interview with Democratic Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Aug. 17, 2025. MARGARET BRENNAN: And we're joined now by Colorado Democratic Congressman Jason Crow. Good to see you in person. Before we start talking about Ukraine, I want to pick up on something, since you sit on the Intelligence Committee. The Secretary of State just said that lawmakers had come to the Trump administration with information that they've been granting visas to individuals with ties to Hamas, or with organizations with ties to Hamas. That's a pretty stunning accusation. Israel controls who enters and exits Gaza. The United States screens all visas. So, is there really a blind spot that you are aware of? REP. JASON CROW: I'm not aware of that. But if that's true, actually, that is concerning. That would be a problem. I mean, Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization. They should not be traveling anywhere. So, if that's happening, it should be stopped immediately. And, you know, the Intelligence Committee has a role to play in that. MARGARET BRENNAN: But the Intelligence Committee wasn't behind the information presented to the Secretary of State. SPEAKER: I have not been briefed on that. I have no information about it. MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, on Ukraine: You know that the U.S. intelligence assessment is that the battlefield is turning in Russia's favor, despite the fact that Putin has to rely on Iran and North Korea to keep this thing going. If neither President Biden nor President Trump were ever willing to commit troops, doesn't the secretary have a point that it has to be hammered out at the negotiating table? REP. CROW: You know, this absolutely will end at a negotiating table, like most conflicts will. But what happened on Friday was a historic embarrassment for the United States. There's no other way to put it. Right? You listen to what Marco Rubio and the president have said. They keep on saying they're dedicating time. They're making it a priority. They're focusing their attention on it. In any negotiation, when you're trying to end an armed conflict, there's nothing more important than understanding what motivates your adversary. What is making Vladimir Putin tick, in this instance. Vladimir Putin does not care about the amount of time that we're nego- we're allocating to this, does not care about a B-2 bomber flyover, does not care about a lineup of F-22 fighters rolled out. He doesn't care about any of that. What Vladimir Putin cares about is basically three things. He cares about economic pressure in the form of sanctions. He cares about political, diplomatic isolation, being a pariah state. And he cares about military defeat. Those are the three things that will end this conflict if he feels pressure on all of those three fronts. And this administration continues to be unwilling to do anything to assert pressure in any of those three areas. MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, they have put in place some secondary sanctions, at least on India here, and they haven't pulled back. They need Congress to help them repeal a lot of these sanctions. But bigger picture, in hindsight, do you think the United States to date has been too hesitant to actually help Ukraine win this war? President Obama did not send offensive weapons to Ukraine. President Biden was criticized for being perhaps too slow in delivery of certain weapons. REP. CROW: There's no doubt. As you know, I was one of the members of Congress that, on a bipartisan basis, pushed really hard in the first two years of this war, under the Biden administration, to do more, to do more quicker. And I was concerned that we were doing just enough to prevent Ukraine from losing and not doing enough to help them win. 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This is a historic embarrassment and defeat for U.S. foreign policy. MARGARET BRENNAN: You have served this country in uniform. I wonder, since you sit on the Armed Services Committee, how comfortable you would be with the United States giving this, whatever the Article Five-like security guarantee would look like. Is that something you should see boots on the ground to do? REP. CROW: I don't think boots on the ground would be the way to go. But, certainly, the United States has assets and capability that I think are essential to any type of security guarantee. I think Europe has to come forward with the forward presence of military. But we can provide intelligence. We can provide economic support, diplomatic support. One of the most important things that we can do right now is actually seize Russian assets. This would be huge. This would be a game-changing thing that put pressure on Vladimir Putin. And actually create security guarantees and reconstruction for Ukraine. There's over $150 billion of seized Russian assets, and the United States could lead a coalition to seize that money. Allocate it towards reconstruction, allocate it towards security, allocate it towards the building of a Ukrainian military that could actually resist Russia going forward. But this administration is unwilling to do it. MARGARET BRENNAN: Last administration was too, they-- REP. CROW: --That's right. MARGARET BRENNAN: They did agree to the legislation. But on the immigration front, you and your fellow Democratic lawmakers are now trying to challenge the Trump administration's policy that requires notice to be given before you visit an immigration facility. You just did visit some. What did you see, and how does that compare to the last visit? REP. CROW: Well, there's an ICE detention center in my district, in Aurora, Colorado. I have visited that center 10 times now over the last five years, six years. And oversight of federal facilities is one of the most important things that any member of Congress does. Air Force bases, military bases, VA hospitals and ICE detention centers. This administration just tripled the budget of ICE. Made it the largest federal law enforcement agency in the history of the United States. Bigger than the FBI, ATF, DEA, all others combined. And they are putting in roadblocks to prevent oversight, to prevent transparency because they were trying to hide what they are doing. That is unacceptable. So we filed a lawsuit to force them to abide by federal law that guarantees us access. MARGARET BRENNAN: And we'll see where that heads next. Jason Crow, thank you. We'll be right back.
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