Trump targets Albuquerque crime with security deployments

SANTA FE, N.M. — President Trump focused on an open wound in the law enforcement community — the unsolved shooting death of the mother of two New Mexico state police officers — in announcing that federal agents, including Homeland Security officers, will surge into Albuquerque, Chicago and other U.S. cities in attempt to contain violent crime. “We desperately need some help at going after crime rates.” The announcement prompted immediate concerns among Democratic elected officials in New Mexico of federal overreach and the potential for new civil rights abuses in a city that has wrestled with issues of police brutality and reforms under a consent decree with the Department of Justice. Bernalillo County Sheriff Manny Gonzales — who has been at odds on issues of policing, gun control and police body cameras with the state’s Democratic governor and Albuquerque’s Democratic mayor — defended the visit as an effort to secure federal assistance for a community contending with persistent crime, the pandemic and bursts of late-night rioting in downtown Albuquerque in June. New Mexico Republican Party Chairman Steve Pearce said the federal response is appropriate given local crime rates, evidence of human trafficking in a border state and the need for adequate security surrounding national defense installations in Albuquerque — at Kirtland Air Force Base and Sandia National Laboratories.