SandyMaloneSacramento, CA – The governor of California has responded to President Donald Trump’s request and agreed to send his state’s National Guard to help patrol the U.S. border, but he’s not going to let them do anything when they get there.
“But let’s be crystal clear on the scope of this mission. This will not be a mission to build a new wall. It will not be a mission to round up women and children or detain people escaping violence and seeking a better life. And the California National Guard will not be enforcing federal laws,” California Governor Jerry Brown wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Wednesday.
President Trump recently issued a proclamation citing “the lawlessness that continues at our southern border,” and said he wanted to send an additional 2,000 to 4,000 National Guard troops to help secure the border, according to KCRA.
He asked states that border Mexico to increase their National Guard deployments along the U.S. border with Mexico until the wall has been built.
The governors of Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico have already responded positively to President Trump’s request for support to help stop a large group of potential illegal immigrants who have been caravanning toward the United States.
But those governors didn’t put any special stipulations on their response the way Brown did.
In his letter, Brown said he would accept federal funding and send 400 National Guard troops to the help bolster security at the United States border with Mexico, the Washington Examiner reported.
But then he clarified that he would not order California National Guard soldiers to enforce federal laws.
“Your funding for new staffing will allow the Guard to do what it does best: support operations targeting transnational criminal gangs, human traffickers, and illegal firearm and drug smugglers along the border, the coast and throughout the state,” Brown said in the letter that he also posted on Twitter.
Some additional National Guard members from other states have already begun arriving at the border, KCRA reported.
KABC reported that Brown won’t begin to mobilize the additional California National Guard members until the federal government has accepted his terms.