National Guard to be deployed to Española, second NM city to see military presence

​Scope, number of troops still being determined, guard leader says

By:Patrick Lohmann
Source New Mexico

New Mexico National Guard’s Adjutant General Miguel Aguilar told a legislative committee Monday that the National Guard will come to Española to assist local law enforcement in the near future. (Patrick Lohmann / Source NM)

New Mexico’s National Guard Adjutant General announced Monday that guardsmen will soon be deployed to Española, a town of roughly 10,000 people in Northern New Mexico whose leaders recently asked for state help dealing with a crime, drug and housing crisis. 

Española will be the second New Mexico city to receive National Guard troops. Albuquerque, the state’s biggest city, has seen a monthslong troop deployment in support of the Albuquerque Police Department. 

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham authorized the deployments to both cities in emergency orders that cite rising crime and short-staffed law enforcement agencies. The governor’s Aug. 13 emergency order for the Española area authorized National Guard deployments, along with funding for emergency housing or healthcare help. Her office stressed at the time that there were no imminent plans to deploy National Guard troops to Española.
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According to the executive order, police calls in the Española area have doubled in the last two years, and police dispatches to businesses have quadrupled in that same period. She also cited Rio Arriba County’s high overdose death rate, “with residents struggling with addiction to fentanyl and other illicit substances.” Lujan Grisham’s order also authorized $750,000 in emergency spending. Last week, the state health department reported Rio Arriba County is one of three in Northern New Mexico with surging overdose deaths and overdose emergency room visits.

While the decision has now been made to send them, the number of troops, as well as their assignment, is still being determined, Miguel Aguilar told Source New Mexico on Monday after presenting in Albuquerque to the interim Courts, Corrections and Criminal Justice committee of the Legislature. 

“We don’t even know what the number is going to be,” Aguilar told Source. “It’s just a matter of what the scope is.”

Aguilar and Española Police Chief Mizel Garcia presented to the committee to answer questions about the role the guard could play in Española and elsewhere, and to address swirling controversy about President Donald Trump’s use of the National Guard in American cities, including Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. 

Aguilar said his troops’ presence in Albuquerque since April has freed up Albuquerque police to make more arrests. The National Guard has taken some administrative tasks off police officers’ hands, including compiling case files for prosecutors, directing traffic and monitoring surveillance cameras. 

Garcia said the guard will be useful in his town, assisting an under-staffed police department in some form. But he acknowledged that their deployment could face public opposition.
“My biggest concern right now is fear,” he said. “Because of the cultural background that we have in Espanola, there’s always been a fear of the National Guard coming in.”

He said he and his staff had multiple community meetings in recent weeks, in which they sought to reassure the community that police and the guard are working together “as a team.” 
Garcia said the troops’ arrival could occur as soon as early October.

Several lawmakers said they were concerned about the prospect of an expanded military presence in New Mexico communities, especially given Trump’s use of the guard.

Rep. Andrea Romero (D-Santa Fe) said defining a mission for the guard’s deployment in Española is vital, as is more clarity about who is in charge and who is accountable.
 
“I’m currently not understanding the strategy, even looking to Albuquerque as a way in which I can try to understand what’s going to happen in Española,” she said. 

The committee invited Naureen Shah, an expert and attorney for the national American Civil Liberties Union, to lay out her concerns about civil rights for civilians who are increasingly interacting with domestic military forces. 

She said that, while she does not pretend to understand all the local forces that might be used to justify the guard’s presence in New Mexico, deploying the guard here gives Trump cover.
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“This administration wants to be able to deploy the military at the president’s whim as a tool against his political opponents,” she said. “And the more that happens at a state level, the more it normalizes it for the Trump administration.”