Dozens of National Guard soldiers in Albuquerque have been monitoring police communications, traffic cameras, and securing crime scene perimeters at the explicit request of local police. The city police requested 60 to 70 personnel in April, citing the fentanyl epidemic and rising youth violence as urgent problems. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham approved the request and signed a state of emergency for northern New Mexico to allow further mobilization if necessary. Separately, President Donald Trump ordered 800 National Guard troops to Washington, D.C. without a local request, citing an alleged security crisis and prompting protests and bipartisan criticism of unilateral deployments.
Since June, and without much fanfare, dozens of National Guard soldiers in Albuquerque, the capital and largest city of New Mexico, have been listening to police communications, monitoring traffic cameras, and helping secure crime scene perimeters. These are not the typical duties of a military force designed as a locally deployable contingent, usually used to support natural disasters or emergency situations, but they are responding to an explicit request from the local police.
At the same time, in Washington, D.C., the presence of National Guard troops ordered by President Donald Trump last week to address an alleged crime crisis has drawn strong criticism from the Democratic opposition as well as protests from the city's residents. The deployment of 60 to 70 personnel in Albuquerque was originally requested in April by the city police, who, in an emergency petition, cited the fentanyl epidemic and rising youth violence as critical problems requiring immediate intervention.
#national-guard-deployments #police-military-cooperation #presidential-executive-power #public-criticism-and-protests
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