President Donald Trump warned Californians Tuesday that the “crime rate will only get higher” along the state’s border with Mexico until or unless Gov. Jerry Brown stands in line with the White House.
Last week, Brown pledged to commit at least 400 National Guard troops to protect and patrol the U.S.-Mexico border. The deployment would mark the California Guard’s third excursion to the frontier since 2006.
However, Brown’s offer came with a crucial condition: that Guardsman are not to be used for immigration enforcement. While the governor didn’t specify which responsibilities they may assume, his office did tell the Trump administration that the current plan won’t fly.
According to Politico.com, California declined to lend its troops to a rollout originally planned for all four border states.
Looks like Jerry Brown and California are not looking for safety and security along their very porous Border. He cannot come to terms for the National Guard to patrol and protect the Border. The high crime rate will only get higher. Much wanted Wall in San Diego already started!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 17, 2018
The tasks detailed in the plan, writes POLITICO, include ‘fixing and maintaining vehicles, using remote-controlled surveillance cameras to report suspicious activity to U.S. border patrol agents, operating radios and providing “mission support,” which can include clerical work, buying gas and handling payroll.”
Information was purportedly supplied by officials privy to the conversations between the federal government and California.
Talks between Gov. Brown and Washington began last week. California’s National Guard contingent was slated to fulfill a mission geared toward combating transnational criminal gangs and narcotics smuggling.
As Politico.com notes, there’s no easy distinction between immigration offenses and cross-border crime – oftentimes, the two are overlapped and intertwined.
To that end, Trump’s taken to criticizing Brown’s sudden about-face. In the president’s eyes, the governor of the nation’s most populous state is prioritizing the rights of illegal immigrants over his own constituency.
“Looks like Jerry Brown and California are not looking for safety and security along their very porous Border,” wrote Trump on Twitter. “He cannot come to terms for the National Guard to patrol and protect the border!
“The high crime rate will only get higher. Much wanted Wall in San Diego already started!”
But Brown says his offer to deploy guardsmen still stands, provided their mission doesn’t conflict with California’s liberal approach to immigration and enforcement.
“I think we’ve already come to terms,” said Brown on Tuesday. “It could be two or four hundred [troops]. That’s being worked out. There’s very good communication between California’s National Guard and the National Guard headquarters.”
Any ceasefire between Brown and Trump seems tenuous at best. While the governor’s pledge to deploy troops along the border earned rare praise from the president, Brown’s criticism of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and the Oval Office’s approach to Latin American migration isn’t liable to keep the peace.
“America is getting ripped apart, and our are communities are being ripped apart,” said Brown today, speaking after Trump blasted California’s crime rate and refusal to acquiesce to the deployment plan.
“This is not human,” Brown said, damning recent ICE raids on businesses and constituents. “It’s not decent, and it’s completely unproductive.
“I think it’s time to just chill. Recognize the fact that they’re here.”
Sources
California rejects border duties for troops
Trump accuses California’s governor of not protecting border
Trump slams Jerry Brown for restricting National Guard troops’ mission at border
Join the conversation!