why not? They are a sovereign state. The feds bought that land, you say, from Mexico, with taxpayers money. So then let the state have it, or sell it off and distribute the money to the taxpayers. If it is public land, then shouldn’t the public benefit from it?
We can go back and forth about government motives. But the fact is that the Fed hasn't sold this land. If it was Citizen B owning the land, we'd say they could repurpose the land however they want. But because it's government, the fact that they allowed grazing means they must always allow grazing?
I'm watching the Reid/China story with interest. But I'm not really buying it either. This battle has been going on for a long time.