Keller still worried about federal operation
U.S. attorney: Don’t ‘demonize’ agents
After exchanging strongly worded letters with the U.S. attorney for New Mexico over the past several days, Mayor Tim Keller continued to express concern that the 25-plus federal agents sent to Albuquerque as part of Operation Legend might do more than fight violent crime.
In a letter sent Friday, a deputy city attorney asked U.S. Attorney John Anderson for assurance that Operation Legend will not result in federal agents making arrests and using force during protests, hiding their identities or using unmarked vehicles to detain protesters. Keller said the city received those assurances.
“Specifically, the US attorney has provided a written guarantee that Operation Legend will not be what we saw in Portland,” Keller wrote in a Wednesday statement. “However, we remain concerned about the President’s own words that contradict these assurances, and we will hold the appropriate people accountable if this is not true.”
In a news conference call with other mayors from around the country, Keller said he remains worried that the operation is going to be a “bait-and-switch.”
“I think the missions of these deployments change at the whims of the White House, so it doesn’t really matter what local folks say they are and say they are not,” Keller said. “That is why we are all going to be vigilant.”
He said that before all other initiatives — including Operation Legend’s precursor, Operation Relentless Pursuit — the city had received and signed memorandums of understanding from the Department of Justice. The MOUs lay out an operation’s mission, the roles and responsibilities of the agencies and any conditions imposed.
That didn’t happen with Operation Legend, Keller said. Instead, U.S. Attorney Anderson called him the day before the operation was announced.
Anderson referenced this phone call in his letter to Keller, which he sent Tuesday. He said he had told him Operation Legend will be focused on crime fighting, not “protecting federal monuments, policing assemblies, or enforcing immigration laws” and Albuquerque was chosen because its most recent statistics reported to the FBI show a violent crime rate 3.7 times the national average.
“I invite you to join me in calling upon community leaders not to demonize or mischaracterize the work of federal agents, many of whom have risked their lives on behalf of the people of Albuquerque in an effort to get our violent crime epidemic under control,” Anderson wrote. “As the City also acknowledges in its letter to me, the APD is currently partnered with several federal agencies to fight violent crime, and gun crimes in particular, in the City. I am sure that you will agree that uninformed and inflammatory rhetoric or demagoguery toward the brave men and women of law enforcement is unfairly denigrating and serves no constructive purpose.”
In the eight-page letter, Anderson cited statements by 2nd Judicial District Attorney Raúl Torrez about the difficulties of keeping defendants in jail pending trial in state court. He said that since mid-2017, his office has brought federal charges against more than 250 defendants at the request of the DA.
“Throughout my tenure as U.S. Attorney, we have consistently been taking tangible actions to reduce the number of violent criminals roaming the streets of Albuquerque,” Anderson wrote. “Indeed, my office, in partnership with dedicated federal agents and state and local law enforcement, has a long history of leading the fight against alleged cartel activity, drug trafficking, violent repeat offenders, and those alleged to be involved in violent activities including gang violence, rape, sex trafficking, and kidnapping.”
Anderson also took issue with statements made by Keller and Police Chief Michael Geier about nearly $10 million in grant money from the Department of Justice that the city has not received. He pointed out that to receive that grant, the city needs to submit paperwork officially accepting the funding. Anderson and city officials had previously told the Journal that the city’s “immigrant-friendly” resolution did not allow it to agree to some of the grant conditions.