GOP Governor Won't Send National Guard Troops to The Border Citing Trump's 'Inhumane Treatment of Children'
Massachusetts’ Republican Governor Charlie Baker on Monday announced his state will no longer send National Guard troops to the border, citing the “inhuman treatment of children” at the hands of the Trump administration’s immigration policy, WGBH News reports.
“Governor Baker directed the National Guard not to send any assets or personnel to the Southwest border today because the federal government’s current actions are resulting in the inhumane treatment of children,” Baker communications director Lizzy Guyton said in a statement.
As WGBH reports, Massachusetts sent “one helicopter, aircrew, and military analysts” to the border in June to “provide aviation reconnaissance to offer an additional tool for observation and tracking of unlawful activity in the region.”
Baker had previously said he has “a huge problem” with Trump’s policy of separating children from their parents at the border, a practice that’s received intense, bipartisan scrutiny in recent weeks.
Trump in Monday assailed Democrats for his own administration’s “zero tolerance policy,” which stems from an April 6 memorandum signed by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. That policy directed U.S. attorneys to “adopt a policy to prosecute all Department of Homeland Security referrals of section 1325(a) violations, to the extent practicable.”
In April, Trump signed an executive order directing National Guard troops to the border. As Politico reported Friday, those troops “fix flats” and perform maintenance on Border Patrol vehicles.
