The top Democrats in the state House and Senate asked Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Wednesday to end the deployment of Arkansas National Guard soldiers assisting Border Patrol operations at the southern border of the U.S.
House Minority Leader Charles Blake and Senate Minority Leader Keith Ingram sent separate letters to Hutchinson. The letters also ask the Arkansas National Guard's top official to testify before a joint legislative committee regarding the deployment.
An early draft of Blake's letter obtained by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette asks the governor to end his commitment to deploy National Guard troops and to renounce President Donald Trump's "zero-tolerance" on immigration, which has been enforced through the separation of families caught crossing the border.
Trump later on Wednesday signed an executive order to keep families together.
[RELATED: In reversal, Trump signs order stopping family separation at border]
"What is happening at the border right now is a disgrace and it is not American," Blake said earlier in the day.
The governor's office did have an immediate comment on the letter, but Hutchinson on Twitter said that the "separation of families at the border is a concern to every compassionate American."
[RELATED: Governor says federal agency considering 2 sites in Arkansas to house migrants]
According to a spokesman for the Arkansas National Guard, eight guardsmen and two helicopters are currently deployed in areas of New Mexico to aid in patrolling the border.
Those soldiers are not participating in any law enforcement activities, according to guard spokesman Major Will Phillips, and are mainly conducting air observation.
Read Thursday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.