The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, announced today that he will order to reduce the number of National Guard soldiers assigned to the protection of the Mexican border, because he does not want them to be part of a “political theater.”
Newsom spoke in a Twitter message about the possibility of President Donald Trump declaring a “manufactured” humanitarian crisis on the border.
The governor assigned new functions to most of the California national guards displaced on the border.
According to Nathan Click, Newsom spokesman, of the 360 ​​members currently destined to protect the California-Mexico border, 110 will go on to prevent fire and 100 to control drug trafficking in ports of entry and in the interior of the state.
The president in charge of the Senate, San Diego Democrat Toni Atkins, supported the governor’s decision and criticized a possible declaration of crisis on the border.
“California National Guard troops are needed in other parts of the state, and I support Gov. Newsom’s decision to redistribute them from the border to places where they will be of much greater value to our residents,” Atkins said today in a statement sent to Efe.
“The only emergency on the border is that created by the federal government’s refusal to fulfill its responsibility to help vulnerable families seeking asylum, and California is working with officials and organizations in San Diego to address that situation,” said the legislator.
Newsom follows the example of New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who ordered last week to remove most of the National Guard troops on her state’s border with Mexico.
At the end of November 2018, Juan Manuel Gastelum, mayor of Tijuana (Mexico), declared a humanitarian crisis before the arrival of approximately 5,000 immigrants seeking to enter the United States.
Earlier this month, immigration authorities in the United States began returning migrants seeking asylum to the Mexican city who filled out their application, following new immigration protocols.
Given the refusal of the Democratic leaders to approve 5,700 million dollars to continue the construction of a fence on the US-Mexico border, President Trump has considered the option of declaring a “humanitarian crisis” on the border and allocating funds from emergency to build “the wall”. (EFEUSA) .-