What should Albuquerque's approach be on sanctuary city policies?

That was the question the New Mexico Business Coalition (NMBC) hosted a Business and Social Hour (BASH) asked Albuquerque mayoral candidates, Tim Keller and Manny Gonzales, on July 15.

Keller is the incumbent mayor, while Gonzales is in his second term as Bernalillo County Sheriff. The two candidates were asked questions during a hypothetical "job interview" for the mayor's office.

When asked, as mayor, if he would support "sanctuary status" for Albuquerque, Keller said he has always supported the city having an "immigrant-friendly status." Keller added that the city needs immigrants to work with police officers to keep the community safer.

"I support immigrant-friendly status and I have for 12 years, you've all heard that before," Keller said. "I believe that makes our community safer because we need our immigrants to be able to work with our police officers and I also believe that we are all immigrants and we were not disenfranchised by cities when our families came in, and we need to honor that for the next generation."

Gonzales was opposed to the city of Albuquerque becoming a "sanctuary city.." He also emphasized a desire to hold to the Constitution. In closing, he reiterated that he wants to have "policies that are people-centric and not party-centric."

"I oppose it. Anything that's going to pit a United States citizen against somebody that's coming into the country is not a good policy," Gonzales said. "To me another thing that is not a good policy is anything that would be considered unconstitutional, especially as a sworn sealed or elected official is not a good policy. I would look and review with a legal team to figure out what is deemed unconstitutional, what's not and make sure we get back to the constitution, because what we're really talking about is this government belongs to the people, and it's not being treated that way." 

Violent crime is on the rise in the city of Albuquerque, which has already reached its annual record for homicides. In August, the Albuquerque Journal reported that there had been 81 suspected homicides in the city this year, outpacing previous years by a longshot. 

Albuquerque Journal also reported that with the spike in crime, case clearance rates are down by a little under 20% from previous years.

“If you just looked at national data, you would still see that murders in total were higher in the early ’90s than they are now,” Paul Guerin, the director of the University of New Mexico Center for Applied Research and Analysis, told Albuquerque Journal. “… What we’re seeing in Albuquerque is we’re actually seeing a higher number now than we saw in the ’90s.”

In 2020, Albuquerque’s sanctuary status put access to federal funds for fighting violent crime in jeopardy. KRQE reported that the City of Albuquerque’s policies on immigration left more than $10 million in federal grants that could have been used to help fight the city’s rising crime rates hanging in the balance.