LAS CRUCES, Nm., October 22, 2025: In an update to a story we first brought you back in September, the $165 billion data center slated for Santa Teresa now faces a lawsuit. The controversial project was approved by the Doña Ana County Board of Commissioners after hours of debate with opponents arguing against the project because of concerns with electrical and water usage.
Last Friday, a lawsuit was filed at the 3rd Judicial District Court for Doña Ana County against the Doña Ana Board of County Commissioners by Empowerment Congress of Doña Ana County and two residents, José Saldaña Jr. and Vivian Fuller. Saldaña lives in Las Cruces and Fuller lives in Santa Teresa.
The lawsuit alleges that the Doña Ana Board of County Commissioners “illegally” approved the use of industrial revenues bonds (IRBs) to help the project. The use of the revenue bonds are not direct taxpayer payments to the developers, but rather it is a pass-through scheme where the developers benefit from allowing the county to temporarily own the project. This allows them to raise tax free money to fund the development. New Mexico extensively uses IRBs for economic development.
Empowerment Congress of Doña Ana County is a non-profit that has been working on flood mitigation in Anapra and addressing other health-related issues in the county. According to Empowerment, once the proposed data center is completed, it “will draw significant amounts of water from the public water supply,” plus “emit significant concentrations of several air pollutants.”
According to the lawsuit, the Doña Ana County commissioners did not follow the law when it voted to issue the IRBs. The lawsuit adds that the commissioners did not have the full information about the project before voting on it. The lawsuit argues that the datacenter developers issued conflicting information before the vote. They pointed to the initial statement that Project Jupiter would use small modular nuclear reactors for its electrical needs only to later change the statement, now saying they would build a small natural gas power plant for their electrical needs.
The lawsuit is asking the court to review (Writ of Certiorari) the records and the process for the approval of the project to determine if the law was followed in its approval. If the court is unwilling to review the records, the plaintiffs ask that the court issue an order preventing Doña Ana County from implementing the ordinances establishing the IRBs for the project. The IRBs are scheduled to go into effect on November 14.
Another issue has also arisen – the job count. The developers state that they will bring around 3,000 to the region. However, the real number is less than 700 jobs after the first two years. And with the use of automation, the job number is likely to drop further before the 30-year commitment ends.
Image credit: BorderPlex Digital Assets
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