New Mexico Governor Sends National Guard to Albuquerque to Help Tackle Crime

‘The safety of New Mexicans is my top priority,’ Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in a file photograph. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

New Mexico’s governor has authorized the National Guard to deploy to Albuquerque because of a “significant increase in crime” there, her office said on April 8.

A surge in crime in recent years in the state’s most populous city has burdened the Albuquerque Police Department (APD), requiring its officers to focus on suppressing crime, “limiting their ability to perform other essential public safety functions,” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in an executive order declaring a crime emergency in the city.

She authorized up to $750,000 for Guard personnel to go to Albuquerque to provide military support for the APD.

“The safety of New Mexicans is my top priority,” Grisham said in a statement. “By deploying our National Guard to support APD with essential duties, we’re ensuring that trained police officers can focus on what they do best–keeping our communities safe. This partnership represents our commitment to addressing the fentanyl crisis and juvenile crime with every resource at our disposal.”

Albuquerque, with a population of about 560,000, is located in central New Mexico, near the state capital of Santa Fe.

The governor’s office said that 60 to 70 Guard personnel will be deployed to Albuquerque, starting in the middle of May. They will focus on such efforts as transporting prisoners and providing security for courtrooms, which will free officers to focus on law enforcement activities, the office said.

APD Chief Harold Medina had requested Guard support in a March 31 letter to Grisham.

Medina said APD had made progress in the battle against crime but that “sustaining this momentum requires immediate enforcement.”

Albuquerque officials said during a press conference on April 9 that although crime has been largely rising in recent years, it is down across almost every category in the city so far in 2025.

“The National Guard is here to help clear up officers so APD officers can go out and be proactive and take more people to jail, keep the community safer, and continue this trend of lower crime rates,” Medina told the briefing.

Officials said the Guard personnel will be in civilian clothing, not in uniforms. The personnel will not be armed.

The personnel will take jobs including traffic control, monitoring buses, and protecting crime scenes, Medina and Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said.

That will free up 20 to 30 officers to focus on law enforcement, according to Medina.

The department has about 890 sworn officers, with about 50 others in training.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico said that the Guard deployment was concerning.

“All of us deserve to be safe at home, at work, and in our community. We, like so many in Albuquerque, know that that’s not always the case in our city,” Daniel Williams, a policy advocate with the state’s ACLU, said in a statement. “However, Governor Lujan Grisham’s deployment of the National Guard to support Albuquerque police is a show of force, not a show of solutions.”

When asked for her response to the criticism, Keller said that it was important to be clear that the Guard personnel will not have weapons or be using military vehicles.

“This is going to be similar to what you see like after a forest fire, when they’re doing humanitarian response,” he said. “The difference is they’re supporting a department, and so I don’t think any of the concerns that they just raised are actually a reality.”