National Guard could arrive in Española before month’s end

ESPAÑOLA — New Mexico National Guard personnel could deploy to this northern New Mexico city of 10,000 residents before month's end — part of an emergency order Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued this summer to combat a drug, public safety and housing crisis that has strained resources in Rio Arriba County, according to Española Police Chief Mizel Garcia.

The local law enforcement leader met Thursday with National Guard command staff to hammer out the details of the upcoming deployment.

Garcia said guardsmen will help his department bolster community engagement, administrative efficiency and officer safety while freeing up his own personnel to focus on law enforcement to continue a decadeslong battle against drug-driven crime.

While National Guard Public Affairs Director Hank Minitrez emphasized that the details of the partnership were still being finalized, Garcia said Thursday's meeting pointed toward the possibility of guardsmen arriving in Española in the final week of October, with troops on duty from noon to 2 a.m. daily.

With 26 officers employed in his department currently, and more of his staff eyeing higher-wage law enforcement careers in areas like Santa Fe and Los Alamos, Garcia said the support can't come soon enough. He said roughly 80% of his officers don't reside in Española due to a lack of affordable housing, another challenge to attracting and retaining staff.

"I see this as a means to mitigate my staffing shortage," Garcia told the Journal. "I do have a staffing shortage, like every other department across the state of New Mexico, but because of the size of my department, any shortage of manpower is very significant for us. The ability to support my transport units and my investigative section as they submit cases to the DA's office is really going to help us."

The governor exceeded an original $750,000 in emergency funding earmarked in the Aug. 12 executive order, allocating a total of $882,617 to law enforcement agencies across Rio Arriba County. The funds include $230,000 in overtime and $20,000 per diem for New Mexico State Police.

The majority of monies were designated for overtime pay, allowing officers to fortify shifts with the highest 911 call volumes and support special operations, such as warrant roundups that help reduce caseloads in the 1st Judicial District. Funds will also help agencies purchase cameras and other special equipment, such as a $40,000 handheld narcotics analyzer for Española Police.

"We received $50,000 and those funds are strictly going to be used for overtime," said Rio Arriba County Sheriff Lorenzo Aguilar, who has a budget for 36 deputies but is currently down two. "Deputies are going to be focusing on high-crime areas, places where there's large amounts of burglaries, larcenies, overdoses, armed robberies and violent crimes."

A Journal investigation following the governor's emergency order found that while 911 calls have risen steadily in Rio Arriba since 2022, felony case filings in the 1st Judicial District hadn't shown a dramatic rise. Since neither metric provides an accurate measure of actual crime, claims of a crime "crisis" by some public officials who called on the governor's support this summer are difficult to quantify.

Drug overdose deaths, on the other hand, have been on the rise in northern New Mexico, according to data provided by the New Mexico Department of Health, which reported a 48% rise in fatal overdoses in Rio Arriba County compared to the first quarter of last year. Deaths due to drugs in Taos and Santa Fe were even more marked, with increases of 340% and 104%, respectively.

"I think it's going to be some time before we see a significant impact because we're dealing with generational uses of opioids," Aguilar said. "So the amount of overdoses that we've seen throughout the years, I think it's going to take a significant amount of time, but I think we're making an impact currently."

Emergency funds were also granted to Rio Arriba Central Dispatch and police agencies in Pojoaque, Santa Clara Pueblo, Tesuque Pueblo and the Jicarilla Apache Nation, which together comprise a jurisdictional patchwork underscoring the challenge of policing in Rio Arriba.

"We're in a very unique situation," said Dispatch Center Director Josh Archuleta, whose center received $40,000 in overtime funds. "The funding is a big help to us for when we need to bring in extra staff to help run special operations involving more than one agency."

Española is the second New Mexico city to receive National Guard troops this year after the governor ordered guardsmen to support the Albuquerque Police Department in May, citing a rise in fentanyl use and juvenile violent crime.

The governor's deployment of guardsmen come at the same time President Donald Trump has come under criticism for deploying the National Guard to major U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Memphis, Tennessee, and Chicago. An upcoming deployment has been planned for Portland, Oregon.

While she said she's had no direct discussion with Lujan Grisham, newly hired Española City Manager Lauren Reichelt speculated that the governor's decision to deploy the Guard could be one way to pre-empt what she views as excessive interventions orchestrated by the White House in other parts of the country.

"I am horrified by what I see ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) doing," she said, "especially in the town I was born in, Chicago. I don't consider that law enforcement. Breaking the law is not law enforcement, and treating people with brutality is not law enforcement. I'm a huge fan of community policing."

Prior to taking the job in Española, Garcia spent more than 26 years with Albuquerque police. He said this will be his first time partnering with the National Guard at the local level.

"It's going to be an ongoing coordinated effort," he said. "Our agencies meet, for the most part, every Friday. Now the National Guard is going to be a part of that. We've talked a lot about the challenges that we face and a lot of the successes, so I think one of the biggest things to come out this will be the ability to better communicate."

John Miller is the Albuquerque Journal's northern New Mexico correspondent. He can be reached at jmiller@abqjournal.com.