California governor pulls National Guard troops from US-Mexico border over Trump's 'f

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California governor pulls National Guard troops from US-Mexico border over Trump's 'fear mongering'
By: Sophia Bollag And Adam Ashton, The Sacramento Bee / 2/11/19 at 11:40 AM
RE: https://taskandpurpose.com/californi...l-guard-border

Gov. Gavin Newsom is withdrawing hundreds of California National Guard troops from the border in a rebuke to President Donald Trump.

The Democratic governor plans to sign an executive order Monday ending a special border deployment that Trump requested and Newsom's predecessor, Gov. Jerry Brown, approved in April.

Newsom's office announced the plan to sign the order in advance of the new governor's State of the State speech, which is scheduled for Tuesday.

According to excerpts from his prepared remarks, Newsom intends to criticize the president's "fear mongering" about immigration despite border crossings being at their lowest point in decades.

"The border 'emergency' is a manufactured crisis," Newsom plans to say. "California will not be part of this political theater."

In his State of the Union speech earlier this month, Trump blamed illegal immigration for straining the country's economy and resources. Trump also said it has increased crime, despite evidence that immigrants commit crime at lower rates than native-born Americans.

The Pentagon last week announced that it would send 3,750 troops to the border in coming months, where they are expected to install 150 miles of concertina wire and aid Customs and Border Protection, according to the Pentagon.

"The lawless state of our southern border is a threat to the safety, security, and financial well being of all Americans," Trump said. "We have a moral duty to create an immigration system that protects the lives and jobs of our citizens."

Brown, who is also a Democrat, insisted when he approved the deployment that California National Guard soldiers and airmen would not assist immigration enforcement.

Brown renewed the deployment order in September over objections from Democratic lawmakers who protested the Trump's administration's policy that resulted in the separation of migrant children from their parents.

Newsom plans redirect 110 National Guard personnel to help prevent and suppress wildfires in preparation for the next fire season, according to his office.

The rest of the 360 currently deployed at the border will be assigned to anti-drug operations. Some will stay at the border at points of entry to screen for illegal drugs.

The troops on the special border assignment were gathering intelligence to intercept street drugs and man cameras at and near ports of entry, Maj. Gen. Matthew Beevers told state lawmakers at an Assembly hearing last week.

"They are doing solely counter-narcotics operations," he said.

Assemblyman Todd Gloria, D-San Diego, pressed him on whether the mission differed significantly from border assignments ordered by previous presidents. Beevers said it did not.

"It hasn't changed at all," he said.

The general said National Guard soldiers and airmen had not used force in any way since the call-up. He said they helped seize $292.4 million worth of street drugs, such as methamphetamine and fentanyl, at border points of entry.

He also said their presence freed up 350 border patrol officers for other tasks.

Despite the limited scope of the assignment, court filings reported by the Voice of San Diego describe at least two instances in which National Guard troops assisted immigration arrests by alerting federal border patrol agents about people crossing illegally.

The order ending the assignment is Newsom's latest show of opposition to the Republican president, whom he frequently criticizes. In a Friday tweet noting Trump's proposed border wall is unpopular in California, Newsom said the wall would be "nothing more than a monument of stupidity."

Posted on Task & Purpose & The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, Calif.).

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Another state refuses to let Trump use troops for ‘political theater’
By: Dan Desai Martin - February 11, 2019
RE: https://shareblue.com/national-guard...-gavin-newsom/

Gavin Newsom is the second governor to pull National Guard troops from the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump’s border emergency is a “manufactured crisis” according to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who will pull hundreds of National Guard troops away from the U.S.-Mexico border.

Newsom is the second governor in a week to rebuke Trump and refuse to allow National Guard troops to be used as political props.

Newsom plans to pull an estimated 360 troops from the border in order to focus on issues important to the state. Around 110 troops will be sent to support the state’s wildfire fighting agency, Cal Fire, and another 100 will help with intelligence operations related to international drug gangs.

The announcement will come a day before Newsom delivers his State of the State address. In prepared remarks released to the media, Newsom will use the address to slam Trump for his divisive language around immigrants. “This is our answer to the White House: No more division, xenophobia or nativism,” Newsom will say.

Trump’s border “crisis” nonsense began as a political stunt in the months leading up to the 2018 election. As the Republican economic message fell flat with voters, Trump sought to use anti-immigrant racist rhetoric to drive Republican voters to the polls. As part of this effort, Trump started talking about a “crisis” at the border, where he sent thousands of military troops.

However, since there was no crisis, the troops spent their time shoveling horse manure and performing other menial tasks. Trump refuses to abandon his political games, and a recent analysis showed a continued troop presence at the southern border will cost $1 billion this year.

Newsom joins New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who last week said she was pulling National Guard troops from the border. She lambasted the White House over the “charade of border fear-mongering.” In a statement, Lujan Grisham wholeheartedly rejected the assertion by Trump that there is any kind of crisis at the border. Rather than assist Trump’s misguided efforts, Lujan Grisham will use her state’s resources to deal with humanitarian issues and focus on asylum seekers coming in to the state.

“California will not be part of this political theater,” Newsom will say Tuesday night. He joins a growing list of Democratic governors who reject Trump’s efforts to divide, rather than unite, the country.

Published with permission of The American Independent.