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A member of the National Guard assists the Albuquerque Police Department while investigating a shooting by officers in the 12000 block of Menaul NE in August.

Chancey Bush/Journal

New Mexico’s National Guard Adjutant General announced Monday that Guardsmen will soon be deployed to Española, a town of roughly 10,000 people in northern New Mexico whose leaders recently asked for state help dealing with a crime, drug and housing crisis.

Española will be the second New Mexico city to receive National Guard troops this year. Albuquerque, the state’s biggest city, has seen a monthslong troop deployment in support of the Albuquerque Police Department.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham authorized the deployments to both cities in emergency orders that cite rising crime and short-staffed law enforcement agencies. The governor’s Aug. 13 emergency order for the Española area authorized National Guard deployments, along with funding for emergency housing or health care help. Her office stressed at the time that there were no imminent plans to deploy National Guard troops to Española.

According to the executive order, police calls in the Española area have doubled in the last two years, and police dispatches to businesses have quadrupled in that same period. She also cited Rio Arriba County’s high overdose death rate, “with residents struggling with addiction to fentanyl and other illicit substances.” Lujan Grisham’s order also authorized $750,000 in emergency spending. Last week, the state health department reported Rio Arriba County is one of three in northern New Mexico with surging overdose deaths and overdose emergency room visits.

While the decision has now been made to send them, the number of troops, as well as their assignment, is still being determined, National Guard Adjutant General Miguel Aguilar told Source New Mexico on Monday after presenting in Albuquerque to the interim Courts, Corrections and Criminal Justice committee of the Legislature.

“We don’t even know what the number is going to be,” Aguilar told Source. “It’s just a matter of what the scope is.”

Aguilar and Española Police Chief Mizel Garcia presented to the committee to answer questions about the role the Guard could play in Española and elsewhere, and to address swirling controversy about President Donald Trump’s use of the National Guard in American cities, including Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.

Aguilar said his troops’ presence in Albuquerque since April has freed up Albuquerque police to make more arrests. The National Guard has taken some administrative tasks off police officers’ hands, including compiling case files for prosecutors, directing traffic and monitoring surveillance cameras.