Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham asked the Justice Department (DOJ) to back her petition for further FBI assistance to combat surging violent crime, she revealed Wednesday.
FBI Director Christopher Wray failed to give Grisham more resources when she reached out to him with similar pleas in June, according to a press release. She recently sent Attorney General Merrick Garland a letter that urged assigning more FBI agents to her state.
“Both New Mexico law enforcement agencies and the FBI are partners in addressing and preventing violent crime,” Grisham told Garland, according to the release. “It is therefore imperative to provide the tools and support to achieve our common goal of ending violent crime in New Mexico.”
New Mexico had the 13th-highest homicide mortality rate nationwide in 2020, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data said. Its largest city, Albuquerque, had an estimated violent crime rate of about 1,043.4 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants in 2019, based on statistics collected by the FBI. (RELATED: ‘The Mayor Just Laughs In Your Face’: Watters Calls Out Dem City Politicians’ Failure To Crackdown On Crime)
After the FBI sent more resources and agents to its Buffalo, New York office, homicides declined by 50%, she cited Wray as claiming.
“Once these resources are allocated to New Mexico, I am confident the FBI and state law enforcement officers will achieve similar success as the Buffalo office,” Grisham stated.
Grisham led her Republican November election opponent, former meteorologist Mark Ronchetti, by about 6.1% in FiveThirtyEight’s polling average Wednesday. In a televised debate Friday, Ronchetti said violent crime continued to rise after her administration came to power.
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“What was the answer from this governor?” he argued. “It was to target police, and then make doing their jobs more difficult by removing qualified immunity.”
The FBI, broader DOJ and a representative for Grisham did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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