For critics, the threat of President Trump to deploy the army to combat crime and disturbances in the cities of the United States is a nightmare scenario, a pretext for martial law and a possible assault on democracy.
But from next month, the National Guard troops dishes will be in the streets of a deeply democratic city, Albuquerque, in a deeply democratic state, New Mexico. And they are being deployed by the state governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat. She said they are necessary to help tense police force to face a crime of violent crime and use of fentanyl.
“The situation in Albuquerque has reached a point of unacceptable crisis,” he said. “We simply cannot wait for traditional solutions to enter into force.”
Few residents of Albuquerque would deny the scourge of violence in a neighborhood of Route 66 and the home of dense car blocks, businesses administered by immigrants and working class families. Officer, it is the International District. But many call it the war zone.
The governor’s movement to deploy guard troops more frequently in forest fires, hurricanes and tornadoes has divided the premises, reflecting the broader civil war within the Democratic Party on crime and disorder. He is already emerging as a problem among the Democrats who see successful in the governor’s office in Santa Fe.
Some praised the arrival of the guard, saying that additional resources could help restore order before the 100th anniversary of Route 66 takes thousands of tourists to Albuquerque next year. Critics called him an invasion of a careless neighborhood that desperately needs a better home and services.
“What is the difference between Trump and the governor if both are displaying the army?” Enrique Cardiel asked, a community organizer for a long time to help run a monthly food bag in the neighborhood.
According to the Governor’s plan, the guard troops will be deployed in Albuquerque, but will focus on the area around Route 66, a strip of American that fades and illuminates with neon that now houses Homesss camps, shutter motels, people who smoked fentanil
The area has dealt with gangs and drug -related violence that dates back to decades, residents said, but the crime and lack of housing have shot themselves since the Covid pandemic. Retailers have fled. People have built steel security fences around their town -style houses.
But it will discuss whether that requires military action. The governor and his allies rush to say that there is a lot of difference between the state’s plan and the deployments that Mr. Trump has entertained.
“It’s not about militarizing our streets,” said Lujan Grisham in an email, sent while traveling through Asia last week. She framed the deployment as “bold and decisive action.”
She said that the role of the guard to support the application of the law would be completely different from the domestic uses of the military that Trump has entertained, as patrol the border, to quell the protests or combat the crime.
“There is a clear line between supporting the application of the law with specialized capabilities versus Use troops to the performance of functions of application of the law,” he said. “Our operation is a specific strategic implementation requested by local officials who are on the front line of this crisis.”
Mrs. Lujan Grisham, who will complete her second and final mandate in 2026, has made confront the high violent crime rates of New Mexico is a central theme in recent years as governor, and it is likely that the problem will mold to the division to replace in Albuquerque, and must, the former progressive student and secretary of the interior.
This spring, Mrs. Lujan Grisham scolded other Democrats in the state legislature for not passing new laws to address an increase in youth crime. After three people were killed in a shooting in a park in the border city or Las Cruces last month, he suggested calling legislators for a special session focused on “our public security crisis at the entrance.”
He issued the Emergency Declaration in response to a request for help from the Albuquerque Police Chief, Harold Medina, made in March. City officials say that the 950 offices department has little staff, such as many of the countries, and that putting the troops on guard in support roles would release more officers to patrol the streets, respond to complaints and investigate violent crimes.
Around 60 to 70 members of the National Guard will be deployed in Albuquerque. They will not have the power to judge people or do any direct police work, authorities say, and they will not carry weapons, they will be in uniform or roll along Route 66 in Humvees. Instead, they will use poles and caquis, and carry radios and, perhaps, pepper, the authorities said. The effort is expected to tell the State around $ 750,000 per month.
It is likely that guard troops transported to jail, direct traffic around accidents or crime scenes, monitor security cameras or help with airport safety, authorities say. Some may end up giving help to fentanyl users, or delivering water to homeless people when summer temperatures pales reached 100 or more.
It is not the first time that guard soldiers have deployed beyond the limits of a natural disaster. Miles responded to chaotic protests after George Floyd’s murder in 2020, and Governor Kathy Hochul from New York, a Democrat, sent hundreds to help with an influx or migrants two years ago. In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, sent to the TEXAS National Guard troops that carries a rifle as part of a border security operation.
In New Mexico, guard troops deployed as substitute teachers last the pandemic, when Covid exhausted the ranks of the teachers, and responded to record forest fires. Some guard members said to deploy in Albuquerque was an opportunity to go to a different emergency child.
“It is definitely not an invasion,” said the sergeant. Richard Aragon. “The military are there to help the police officers and the community.”
But critics say that the deployment of the guard in the streets of Albuquerque puts citizen soldiers in a tense role. Should they require that they use bodily chambers, such as Albuquerque Police officers? What happens if they enter a physical confrontation while ensuring the perimeter of a volatile crime scene?
“There is a lot of responsibility,” said Sheriff John Allen or Bernalillo County, which includes Albuquerque, in a publication on social networks. He said he had refused to deput any member of the guard. “The lines can be biased. I don’t want people to feel that we are militarizing our community.”
The complexities of their mission were exhibited last week, when several boxes keep the troops sat in an auditorium observing a slide presentation on how to transport a prisoner. An instructor of the State Police of New Mexico passed through a mined field of challenges: how to fasten them safely; How to look for drugs or weapons; How to verify the oppression of your wives; how to prevention of an escape; The appropriation is maintained to use to escort a detainee.
“You may have to testify,” the instructor warned. “You are always under the focus.”
In the streets of the International District, some residents welcomed the next arrival of the Guard, while others ruled it as the last of a cleaning and repress series. Heather still, 49, a retired nurse, He recently called 911 when a woman took an overdose behind her apartment building and said she thanked any help from anywhere.
“It’s really Baths Gooths,” he said.
Albuquerque officials say they have leg progress. Real estate crimes such as car theft, theft and theft of stores have dropped into two digits this year compared to 2024, and homicides were approximately 40 percent below last year’s numbers, police said. Albuquerque has cleared camps and opened small towns. A public security campaign led by Mr. Bregman, the Bernalillo County District Prosecutor, the County Sheriff and others have resulted in more than 500 judgments and the seizure of 35,000 fentanyl pills and 40 weapons, officials said.
Tony Johnson, a deacon in Highland Baptist Church, doubted that he would change. People frequently camp and use drugs in the property of the church, he said, and when he asked three men to leave last year, one of them hit him with a metal pipe, crushing the bones in one hand. He is still marked and swollen, and some in his congregation now refuse to leave their homes at night.
“People have no hope,” he said, driving an apartment building where a 17 -year -old boy would be arrested in a fatal shooting two days later. “16 -year -old 16 -year -old, what are they doing with weapons? But is it the responsibility of the National Guard to solve that?”
