In New Mexico’s most populous city, National Guard troops are listening to the police dispatch calls, monitoring traffic cameras and helping to secure crime scene perimeters, tasks not usually part of the job.
The New Mexico National Guard is in Albuquerque to help counter what officials have called a surge in crime, but unlike the recent deployment of troops in military fatigues by the federal government in the nation’s capital and earlier in Los Angeles amid protests over immigration enforcement, the state’s polo-shirted Guard troops were ordered in by the Democratic governor.
And last week, New Mexico’s governor declared a state of emergency in other parts of the state, which gives her the discretion to mobilize more troops.
Here’s how a National Guard deployment is playing out in New Mexico and why it matters.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. REUTERS/Alyssa Pointer – Alyssa Pointer/Reuters
How the troop deployment in New Mexico is playing out
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s state of emergency order issued for Rio Arriba County, the city of Española and area pueblos, was made at the request of the local governments, she said.
The Albuquerque deployment of 60 to 70 troops came after an emergency request from the city’s police department citing the “fentanyl epidemic and rising violent juvenile crime as critical issues requiring immediate intervention.”
The new declaration is aimed at helping local police respond to a “significant surge” in violent crime, drug trafficking and public safety threats that have “overwhelmed local resources.” Rio Arriba County has the highest overdose death rate in the state, the governor’s news release said.
Brig. Gen. Romero, right and Command Sgt. Maj. Poccia, left, talk with members of the Albuquerque Police Department and the National Guard. – New Mexico National Guard
The troops are helping police with non-law enforcement duties and are not armed, will not make arrests, detain anyone, use force or engage in any immigration-related activities, the city said.
“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 said in a June news release.
CNN has contacted the Albuquerque Police Department and the New Mexico National Guard about whether the deployment has been effective but did not receive a response.
“There is no question why the NM National Guard is helping out,” New Mexico National Guard spokesman Hank Minitrez said in a June Facebook post.
The post described troops working behind the scenes in police offices, and conducting traffic management and manning perimeters around crime scenes when necessary.
Albuquerque officials said last month they saw “success with targeted resources” in the city’s downtown. Shootings are down 20% this year compared with 2024, the city said in a news release, a figure that tracks with data provided to CNN by the governor’s office.
Different approach focuses on support, not enforcement
Grisham, a Democrat, criticized President Donald Trump’s deployment of 800 troops in Washington, DC, as “executive overreach” and said the contrast “couldn’t be clearer” between her state’s usage of the National Guard and that of Trump’s.
The DC National Guard reports only to the president, while a governor acts as the “commander in chief” of their state’s troops and police agencies.
Trump has suggested he could do the same in other major Democratic-led cities despite their leaders not asking for help.
Members of the National Guard walk on the National Mall on August 14, 2025 in Washington, D.C. – Mehmet Eser/AFP/Getty Images
Meanwhile on the West Coast, questions are still lingering in a court case over the president’s deployment of troops to Los Angeles in June as dramatic protests unfolded over immigration enforcement in parts of the city.
The visual contrast between the troops in New Mexico and those sent to LA and the capital shows a difference in approach and intent.
Grisham’s office said the “key difference” between her deployment of troops and Trump’s is her order was in response to direct requests from local 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 said.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the federal intervention in his state “purposely inflammatory.” Washington, DC, Attorney General Brian Schwalb called the president’s actions unnecessary and pointed out violent crime in the district reached 30-year lows last year.
Trump said he was going to “look at” taking action in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles because of their crime rates when he announced his plans to take control of DC’s police department this week. It is not clear what specifically Trump wants to do in other cities.
New York, Los Angeles and Chicago have all seen a sustained decline in crime so far this year, according to a mid-year report from the independent nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice.
A vague, short law governs troop deployment by the federal government
It’s a “dangerous precedent” for the federal government to start deploying troops to deal with local and state policing matters, as they are historically used for crowd control, protecting federal property and federal workers, or responding to a natural disaster, according to Jeffrey Swartz, a former National Guard member and professor emeritus at Cooley Law School.
The courts in California have yet to address a claim at the center of the case brought by Newsom to block Trump’s deployment of troops in the city: whether the troops violated the Posse Comitatus Act, a 19th century law prohibiting the use of the US military for domestic law enforcement.
The three-day trial concluded last week, but the judge did not say when he will 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,” said Swartz. “He cannot authorize federal troops to make arrests. That is solely within the power of the governor.”
The National Guard can, however, take someone into custody under circumstances where there’s a danger to federal property or federal officers, he added.
The act reserves law enforcement functions to the states, but its language is short, which “lends itself to vagueness and argumentation,” said David Shapiro, lecturer at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
National Guard troops stand outside the Edward Roybal Federal Building in Downtown Los Angeles, California on June 9, 2025. – Jim Vondruska/Getty Images/File
Swartz said 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 said. “They signed up to protect the country against external threats, not internal ones.”
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