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N.M. Stat. § 29-1-9

This is the official text of N.M. Stat. § 29-1-9, part of New Mexico’s Stat — part of the compiled statutory law of New Mexico, published by the state as "Stat." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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§ 29-1-9. Appointment of peace officers; citizenship certificate of appointment; exceptions

Official statutory text

No sheriff of a county, mayor of a city or other person authorized by law to appoint special deputy sheriffs, marshals, policemen or other peace officers in the state of New Mexico to preserve the public peace and to prevent and quell public disturbances shall appoint as such special deputy sheriff, marshal, policeman or other peace officer any person who shall not be a citizen of the United States of America. No person shall assume or exercise the functions, powers, duties and privileges incident and belonging to the office of special deputy sheriff, marshal, policeman or other peace officer without first having received an appointment in writing from a person authorized by law to appoint special deputy sheriffs, marshals, policemen or other peace officers; provided that nothing in this section shall apply to lawfully appointed United States marshals or to deputies of those marshals or to railroad peace officers appointed pursuant to Section 63-2-18 NMSA 1978 in the performance of their duties as peace officers.

This section shall not apply in times of riot or unusual disturbance and when so declared by the public proclamation of the governor of the state.

Status: in_force

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.