State Senator-Elect Anthony "Ant" Thornton reacted to Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham's appearance on the Morning Joe program. He made his statement in a November 25 post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"We are going to go after her hard this year," said Thornton. "The people of New Mexico deserve border security!"

According to Thornton, he shared a post from the New Mexico House Republicans on X. The House Republicans had shared a clip from the governor’s appearance on Morning Joe and wrote: "Fact Check: In 4 years, not a single Republican request for border security has been responded to by the Governor’s controlling party." The group included a clip where Governor Lujan Grisham said: "I need more border patrol agents. We want more interdictions on the drug trafficking and the human trafficking and bringing guns across. We want all of that. I need technology and fentanyl screening and I want cameras. We want all the smart devices and efforts."

Screenshot of State Senator-Elect Ant Thornton's Nov. 25 post on X. | X

Two days earlier, when Governor Lujan Grisham shared a link to her appearance on Morning Joe, she said that the state would not cooperate with "any unlawful or unconstitutional deportation plan." Thornton responded to this post by asking: "So does that mean you WILL cooperate with every lawful and constitutional deportation effort? I just want some clarity on your position. Are you going to help defend and protect the citizens of New Mexico or illegal immigrants?"

These comments were made in reference to plans for mass deportations by Border Czar Tom Homan during the second Trump Administration. On MSNBC on November 21, Lujan Grisham discussed these plans with Jen Psaki, stating: "A couple of things. First of all, it’s unlawful. You can’t use the military. You can’t do mass deportations. So any federal administration, you should expect states, and I think you should expect some bipartisan support, not just by the Democratic governors. We ought to be working on making sure that violent criminals and criminal activity is stopped everywhere."

Thornton was elected to the New Mexico State Senate in the 2024 general election. He is an Army veteran, former aerospace engineer, and former corporate director of strategy with academic credentials including a Ph.D. from Purdue University and a graduate degree from Stanford University.