With the deadline to prevent another partial government shutdown over border security talks just days away, California Governor Gavin Newsom has announced plans to pull hundreds of National Guard troops from the state's southern border with Mexico in a clear rejection of the Trump administration's claims of security crisis.
According to The Los Angeles Times, Newsom is set to order the removal of roughly 360 National Guard troops deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border on Monday.
In released excerpts of his planned speech, the California governor says that his state refuses to participate in the White House's "political theater" and will instead "refocus on the real threats facing our state," according to the Times.
Instead of dedicating their time to border security, the governor plans to sign a general order to have troops redeployed to provide support on two initiatives: wildfire prevention efforts and operations to counter drugs and cartels in California, including surveillance at international points of entry.
"The border 'emergency' is a manufactured crisis," Newsom is reportedly set to say on Tuesday. "This is our answer to the White House: No more division, xenophobia or nativism."
Newsom's message to the White House comes just days after New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham made her own statement, ordering the removal of most of her state's National Guard troops from the border just hours before President Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union speech last Tuesday.
In her own statement, Lujan Grisham said New Mexico would "not take part in the president's charade of border fear-mongering by misusing our diligent National Guard troops.
The New Mexico governor said that she rejected the "federal contention that there exists an overwhelming national security crisis at the southern border, along which are some of the safest communities in the country."
She said that some troops would remain stationed in Hidalgo County and surrounding southwestern New Mexico counties in order to help with the ongoing humanitarian needs of communities there, which, her office, had seen large groups of families, women and children, crossing the border in recent months.
Lujan Grisham said that while she did not subscribe to the Trump administration's belief of a "national security crisis" at the U.S.-Mexico border, she said she did "recognize and appreciate the legitimate concerns of residents and officials in southwestern New Mexico, particularly Hidalgo County, who have asked for our assistance, as migrants and asylum-seekers continue to appear at their doorstep."
The decision to scale back on security at the southern border comes as Congressmembers on both sides of the aisle race to reach a resolution on border security that will receive Trump's approval before this Friday, when a funding measure to keep the government running while border talks continue runs out.
Trump's Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney warned on Sunday that another government shutdown could be on the horizon, saying that the possibility "absolutely cannot" be ruled out.
Delivering the warning during an appearance on NBC News program Meet the Press, Mulvaney told show host Chuck Todd that the Trump administration is "still participating" in negotiations to prevent another shutdown just weeks after the record-breaking 35-day shutdown that ended last month.
"We're still listening, we're still talking, but we're not leading the negotiations," he said.
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Chantal Da Silva is Chief Correspondent at Newsweek, with a focus on immigration and human rights. She is a Canadian-British journalist whose work ... Read more
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