California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is pulling hundreds of National Guard troops from the state’s southern border, in a rebuke to President Trump’s characterization of immigration.
“The border ’emergency’ is a manufactured crisis,” Newsom is expected to say say during his State of the State address Tuesday. “And California will not be part of this political theater.”
Last year, former California Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown agreed to deploy National Guard troops to California’s border with Mexico, but insisted that they would be instructed to enforce immigration laws.
Brown’s successor made the decision to pull the 360 troops currently stationed at the border and instead focus their duties elsewhere.
Spokesman for the governor, Nathan Click, told the Los Angeles Times that 110 troops will help the state prepare for the next wildfire season, 100 to focus on combating transnational crime, and the governor’s office will request funding for the remaining 150 to be added to the California National Guard’s Counterdrug Task Force.
Newsom’s plan comes on the heels of New Mexico Democratic Gov. Michelle Grisham’s decision to withdraw most of the state’s National Guard troops from the southern border. She claimed they were only deployed because of Trump’s “border fear-mongering.”
A second government shutdown is looming, as Congress has until Feb. 15 to find a spending agreement on border security that Trump can sign. Trump has said he wants money in that bill to fund a border wall, and may not sign a bill that lacks those funds.
