In New Mexico’s most populous metropolis, National Guard troops are listening to the police dispatch calls, monitoring visitors cameras and serving to to safe crime scene perimeters, duties not often a part of the job.
The New Mexico National Guard is in Albuquerque to assist counter what officers have called a surge in crime, however in contrast to the current deployment of troops in army fatigues by the federal authorities in the nation’s capital and earlier in Los Angeles amid protests over immigration enforcement, the state’s polo-shirted Guard troops had been ordered in by the Democratic governor.
And final week, New Mexico’s governor declared a state of emergency in different components of the state, which provides her the discretion to mobilize extra troops.
Here’s how a National Guard deployment is taking part in out in New Mexico and why it issues.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s state of emergency order issued for Rio Arriba County, town of Española and space pueblos, was made on the request of the native governments, she mentioned.
The Albuquerque deployment of 60 to 70 troops got here after an emergency request from town’s police division citing the “fentanyl epidemic and rising violent juvenile crime as critical issues requiring immediate intervention.”
The new declaration is geared toward serving to native police reply to a “significant surge” in violent crime, drug trafficking and public security threats which have “overwhelmed local resources.” Rio Arriba County has the very best overdose dying price in the state, the governor’s information launch mentioned.
The troops are serving to police with non-law enforcement duties and aren’t armed, won’t make arrests, detain anybody, use pressure or have interaction in any immigration-related actions, town mentioned.
“We understand there are concerns based on what is taking place in other parts of the country, and we want to assure the public that here in Albuquerque, the Guard’s role is clearly defined, and focused on support without enforcement,” Police Chief Harold Medina mentioned in a June information launch.
NCS has contacted the Albuquerque Police Department and the New Mexico National Guard about whether or not the deployment has been efficient however didn’t obtain a response.
“There is no question why the NM National Guard is helping out,” New Mexico National Guard spokesman Hank Minitrez mentioned in a June Facebook post.
The submit described troops working behind the scenes in police workplaces, and conducting visitors administration and manning perimeters round crime scenes when crucial.
Albuquerque officers mentioned final month they noticed “success with targeted resources” in town’s downtown. Shootings are down 20% this 12 months in contrast with 2024, town mentioned in a news release, a determine that tracks with knowledge supplied to NCS by the governor’s workplace.
Grisham, a Democrat, criticized President Donald Trump’s deployment of 800 troops in Washington, DC, as “executive overreach” and mentioned the distinction “couldn’t be clearer” between her state’s utilization of the National Guard and that of Trump’s.
The DC National Guard studies solely to the president, whereas a governor acts because the “commander in chief” of their state’s troops and police businesses.
Trump has prompt he might do the identical in different main Democratic-led cities regardless of their leaders not asking for assist.
Meanwhile on the West Coast, questions are nonetheless lingering in a court docket case over the president’s deployment of troops to Los Angeles in June as dramatic protests unfolded over immigration enforcement in components of town.
The visible distinction between the troops in New Mexico and people despatched to LA and the capital reveals a distinction in strategy and intent.
Grisham’s workplace mentioned the “key difference” between her deployment of troops and Trump’s is her order was in response to direct requests from native communities. “While President Trump uses the National Guard to trample local leadership, New Mexico brings together local and state governments to make our communities genuinely safer,” she mentioned.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the federal intervention in his state “purposely inflammatory.” Washington, DC, Attorney General Brian Schwalb called the president’s actions pointless and identified violent crime in the district reached 30-year lows final 12 months.
Trump mentioned he was going to “look at” taking motion in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles due to their crime charges when he introduced his plans to take control of DC’s police division this week. It is just not clear what particularly Trump desires to do in different cities.
New York, Los Angeles and Chicago have all seen a sustained decline in crime up to now this 12 months, in accordance to a mid-year report from the unbiased nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice.
It’s a “dangerous precedent” for the federal authorities to begin deploying troops to cope with native and state policing issues, as they’re traditionally used for crowd management, defending federal property and federal employees, or responding to a pure catastrophe, in accordance to Jeffrey Swartz, a former National Guard member and professor emeritus at Cooley Law School.
The courts in California have but to address a declare on the middle of the case introduced by Newsom to block Trump’s deployment of troops in town: whether or not the troops violated the Posse Comitatus Act, a nineteenth century regulation prohibiting the usage of the US army for home regulation enforcement.
The three-day trial concluded final week, however the choose didn’t say when he’ll rule.
“When the president nationalizes a unit or a state National Guard, they now fall under the Posse Comitatus Act saying they are not allowed to be used for civil policing,” mentioned Swartz. “He cannot authorize federal troops to make arrests. That is solely within the power of the governor.”
The National Guard can, nevertheless, take somebody into custody beneath circumstances the place there’s a hazard to federal property or federal officers, he added.
The act reserves regulation enforcement features to the states, however its language is brief, which “lends itself to vagueness and argumentation,” mentioned David Shapiro, lecturer on the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Swartz mentioned National Guardsmen “don’t like the idea of being on the streets and being put in a position where they might have to use force against fellow citizens.”
“These people are citizen soldiers, not full-time. They have jobs. They have families,” he mentioned. “They signed up to protect the country against external threats, not internal ones.”