Native Votes 2026
On Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples (MMIP) Awareness Day, Deb Haaland reaffirmed her commitment to ending the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people, pointing to a record of advocacy and policy work rooted in years of engagement with Native communities.
Across New Mexico and throughout Indian Country, families continue to search for answers in cases that span generations—many of them unsolved. The MMIP crisis has remained a central issue for Haaland, dating back to before her election to public office.
“In Indian Country, we all know or know of someone who has gone missing. The trauma this crisis leaves in our communities impacts families for generations. The work I have done to address the MMIP crisis and protect human trafficking survivors, chips away at a crisis with consistent effort from multiple groups: Tribal leaders, state leaders, law enforcement, advocates, and families,” said Haaland. “As governor, I will continue to fight to get families the justice they deserve, demand accountability, and make sure no one is left behind.”
Haaland’s work on MMIP and human trafficking has spanned multiple roles and initiatives.
Before entering Congress, she attended U.S. Senate hearings on the killing of Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, a 22-year-old pregnant member of the Spirit Lake Tribe who was murdered in 2017. Those hearings helped lead to the introduction of Savanna’s Act, which Haaland later co-introduced and helped pass.
As a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, she led the first congressional hearing focused specifically on MMIP while serving on the House Natural Resources Committee. She also introduced and secured passage of the Not Invisible Act, establishing a federal framework to address violence against Indigenous communities. As Secretary of the Interior, she oversaw its implementation.
Haaland further introduced the SURVIVE Act to expand resources for domestic violence survivors on Tribal lands, and worked to strengthen the Violence Against Women Act by expanding Tribal jurisdiction over non-Native offenders, improving victim services for urban Native populations, and enhancing data sharing among law enforcement agencies.
Her legislative efforts also included the Protecting Domestic Violence and Stalking Victims Act, as well as support for national sexual assault awareness initiatives and increased funding for the National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative.
During her tenure in the Biden administration, Haaland coordinated with federal agencies—including the Departments of Justice, Interior, and Health and Human Services—on an executive order aimed at strengthening public safety and support services in Tribal communities. She also helped establish a Missing & Murdered Unit within the Department of the Interior, expanding it to 17 regional offices and integrating efforts across the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Justice prosecutors, and Tribal investigators.
Additional efforts included developing a cloud-based system to catalog MMIP and human trafficking cases, advancing a federal response strategy in coordination with the Department of Justice, and partnering with Tribal Nations to improve criminal investigations in Indian Country.
Haaland also worked through the Not Invisible Act Commission to develop recommendations aimed at addressing systemic gaps, while engaging internationally with leaders in Canada and Mexico to confront cross-border trafficking and violence affecting Indigenous women and girls.
As she campaigns for governor of New Mexico, Haaland has proposed a public safety plan that builds on the state’s Department of Justice MMIP program. The plan calls for a task force to coordinate across Tribal, state, and federal jurisdictions; stable funding for investigations; regular updates to families on cold cases; and expanded support services for those impacted by unsolved disappearances and killings.
Her campaign says the approach is designed to bring greater accountability and coordination to a crisis that has long been marked by jurisdictional gaps and under-resourcing—while centering the voices of victims’ families who continue to seek justice.
