The governors of Maryland and Virginia have announced they will recall members of their state’s National Guard from the U. S.-Mexico border and Delaware’s governor is turning down a request. They join Massachusetts in disagreeing with a federal policy of separating immigrant children from their families.
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland will recall the four National Guard members Gov. Larry Hogan sent to the U. S.-Mexico border and will not deploy other resources until a federal policy of separating immigrant children from their families is rescinded, the governor announced Tuesday.
Tuesday afternoon, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam made a similar announcement, saying he would not devote resources that could support an “inhumane policy.” He said he had ordered four crewmembers and a helicopter to return to Virginia from Arizona. The crew was assisting the Arizona National Guard in surveillance operations on the border as part of a 90-day mission.
Gov. John Carney, a Democrat, said the state received a request Tuesday to send troops to the border. In a statement, he said Delaware will help at the border if President Donald Trump revokes the current policy of separating immigrant children from their families.
Massachusetts Republican Gov. Charlie Baker on Monday reversed a decision to send a National Guard helicopter.
Hogan wrote on his Twitter account that he has ordered four crewmembers and a helicopter to immediately return from where they were stationed in New Mexico.
“Until this policy of separating children from their families has been rescinded, Maryland will not deploy any National Guard resources to the border,” the Republican governor tweeted Tuesday morning.
On Monday, Hogan tweeted that Congress and Trump’s administration have failed repeatedly to deliver needed immigration reform.
“Congress and the administration must step up and work together to fix our broken system,” the governor wrote. “Immigration enforcement efforts focus on criminals, not separating innocent children from their families.”
The Maryland National Guard has participated in southwest border operations several times since 2000 and regularly between 2012 and 2015, the governor’s office said.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, on Monday reversed a decision to send a National Guard helicopter from his state to the Mexican border to assist in deployment, citing the administration’s “cruel and inhumane” policy.
Maryland state Sen. Richard Madaleno, a Democrat who is running in a crowded primary to challenge Hogan in November, held a news conference at the Howard County Detention Center in Jessup, Maryland, to criticize the Trump administration’s policy and called on Hogan to take action.
“Separating these families and housing children in detention centers has created a huge outcry of anger and disbelief,” Madaleno said in a news release. “How could this happen in the United States?”
