BORDER CHAOS: California BANS TROOPS from Helping Border Patrol Agents
- by Edna Christensen
- in World Media
- — Apr 17, 2018
California has rejected President Trump's effort to send National Guard troops to the Mexican border because the work is considered too closely tied to immigration enforcement.
The troops in California are under the command of Gov.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense Integration Robert G. Salesses says there is no estimate for the operation's cost, which is funded by the US government.
President Donald Trump's administration's initial plan for the Guard deployment involves too much immigration-related work, California said, according to The Associated Press, which cited two USA officials with knowledge of the discussions.
So far about 960 have arrived, officials said.
Trump has frequently clashed with Brown over the state's "sanctuary" policies limiting the participation of state and local police in federal immigration enforcement. "And the California National Guard will not be enforcing federal immigration laws".
"Thank you Jerry, good move for the safety of our Country!" the president wrote. Almost 250 were in Arizona, more than 60 in New Mexico and about 650 in Texas.
The state's position infuriated some federal officials because the restrictions California officials wanted to impose on what the state's troops would not do were considered onerous, the officials said.
"The location of Guard personnel - and number specifically working in support of operations along the border, the coast and elsewhere in the state - will be dictated by the needs on the ground", a spokesperson for Brown's office told TheDCNF in a Wednesday email.
Ronald Vitiello, the Border Patrol's acting deputy commissioner, said talks with California were ongoing and it was possible the state would lend troops for other support roles, including maritime and aerial surveillance, which include counternarcotics work.
California is at the forefront of what opponents call the "Resistance" to Trump's administration, with the heavily Democratic state suing the federal government over numerous issues, including the rollback of environmental regulations. But he said USA agents would not get the military's help at the border - at least for now. That's because California guardsmen are to be sent not only to the border but to the Pacific coast and interior locations "throughout the state", Brown said in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. "It will be an iterative process".
Jerry Brown elicited rare and effusive praise from President Donald Trump last week after he pledged 400 troops to the Guard's third large-scale border mission since 2006.
Pentagon officials said Monday they are still calculating what the troop deployment will cost.
