President Donald Trump has threatened to upend a tentative agreement between California and federal officials to mobilize National Guard personnel and send them to the Mexican border, declaring in a tweet Thursday that his administration will not pay for the deployment.
Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, announced Wednesday evening that his state had reached a deal with the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security to join the president's plan for a military reinforcement of the U.S. Border Patrol on the condition that California troops would abstain from immigration-enforcement duties. Brown said he would send up to 400 personnel to focus on fighting drug trafficking and gangs.
The governor said he had secured federal funding for terms similar to those outlined in last week's proposed contract: The Guard cannot, among other things, handle custody duties for anyone accused of immigration violations or build border barriers. But federal officials refused to sign that proposal because they said it was outside established protocol for the Guard.
Brown's office said Wednesday that the previous contract was unnecessary after he secured federal funding for his goals. Brown spokesman Evan Westrup said the exact cost has not been determined.
The announcement appeared to settle several days of back-and-forth posturing between Trump and the man he mocks as "Governor Moonbeam," but the president's latest tweet indicated that he was unwilling to let go of the dispute. Brown elicited rare and effusive praise from Trump last week when he pledged 400 troops, which helped put the president above the lower end of his threshold of marshaling 2,000 to 4,000 troops for his border mission.
"Governor Jerry Brown announced he will deploy 'up to 400 National Guard Troops' to do nothing," the president tweeted Thursday. "The crime rate in California is high enough, and the Federal Government will not be paying for Governor Brown's charade. We need border security and action, not words!"
There was no immediate comment from Brown's office in Sacramento.
The tweet also appeared to undercut a statement by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who thanked Brown late Wednesday after his office announced the agreement with federal officials.
"Just spoke w JerryBrownGov about deploying the USNationalGuard in California," Nielsen's tweet read. "Final details are being worked out but we are looking forward to the support. Thank you Gov Brown!"
The order issued by Brown on Wednesday prohibits California Guard troops from aiding the federal government with immigration enforcement, a restriction the Republican governors of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona did not insist upon, although it is in line with what Defense Secretary Jim Mattis announced April 12 when he said guardsmen would have "no contact" with migrants.
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California lawmakers have declared their state a "sanctuary" from the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, and the state's police and public officials are instructed to eschew contact with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
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Brown's mobilization envisioned a similar role for the National Guard, and in statements
to reporters Tuesday, the chief of the U.S. Border Patrol and two Pentagon officials made no indication that they would reject a limited role for troops in California.
They said they were working with the state to identify other duties the soldiers could perform in support of counternarcotics work.
Trump slammed the sanctuary policies again Thursday during a visit to a U.S. military installation in Key West, Fla., where he appeared alongside Nielsen and congratulated her for doing a "fantastic job" stopping seafaring migrants and smugglers from reaching U.S. shores.
After a few words of praise for the U.S. Coast Guard, Trump returned to the dispute with Brown.
"Looking at what's happening in California with sanctuary cities where the people are really going the opposite way. They don't want sanctuary cities," Trump said, adding that "there's a little bit of a revolution going on in California," apparently referring to new legal challenges to the policies by some California counties and cities.
Calling once more for a wall at the U.S. border with Mexico, the president said the problem of "human trafficking" had reached unprecedented levels, but he did not provide evidence for his claim.
"Human trafficking is worse than it's ever been in the history of this world," Trump said. "And who would think in this modern-day age? And they're using very sophisticated equipment, and they use the Internet better than practically anybody uses the Internet. So it really is a big problem."
At the U.S.-Mexico border, arrests of illegal crossers fell last year to their lowest level since 1971.
Information for this article was contributed by Nick Miroff of The Washington Post and by staff members of The Associated Press.
A Section on 04/20/2018