As outcry escalates over the Trump administration’s policy of separating families caught illegally crossing the border, state Sen. Kevin de León is pressing Gov. Jerry Brown to end the California National Guard’s cooperation with the federal government.
Since April, the state National Guard has been working with federal immigration authorities after President Trump called on governors across the country to help enforce security along the southern border. Brown mobilized 400 service members for help fighting transnational crime, not enforcing immigration law, as Trump envisioned.
De León (D-Los Angeles), in a new letter, said that in light of Trump’s “zero tolerance policy,” which has resulted in thousands of children being separated from their parents, “we can no longer tolerate using our state resources to support government entities that are inflicting inhuman trauma on people seeking refuge in accordance with national and international laws.”
“Removing any and all material support for the President’s racist, inhumane and un-American immigration agenda is critical to upholding California’s values and America’s position of moral leadership in the world,” wrote De León, who is currently running for U.S. Senate against longtime Democratic incumbent Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
A growing number of governors, including the Republican chief executives of Massachusetts and Maryland, have said they are pulling their National Guard service members back from the border in light of Trump’s policy. California has a much larger commitment of service members than those states.
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