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and will not deploy other resources until a federal policy of separating immigrant children from their families is rescinded, the governor announced Tuesday.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« Until this policy of separating children from their families has been rescinded, Maryland will not deploy any National Guard resources to the border, » the Republican governor tweeted Tuesday morning.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? »
