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California extends Trump’s border mission by 6 months

September 30, 2018
This Aug. 18, 2010, file photo shows California National Guard troops, who are part of Task Force Sierra, deployed at the border along with Border Patrol Agents near the California/Mexico border in San Diego. (John Gibbins/The San Diego Union-Tribune via AP, File)

SAN DIEGO — California Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday extended the state National Guard’s participation in President Donald Trump’s border deployment by six months, a low-key announcement that was made without any of the acrimony that characterized his early negotiations with the federal government.

The California National Guard said in a press release that the mission will now run until the end of March. It had been scheduled to expire on Sunday.

In this April 10, 2018, frame from video, a National Guard troop watches over the Rio Grande River on the border in Roma, Texas. The deployment of National Guard members to the U.S.-Mexico border at President Donald Trump's request was underway Tuesday with a gradual ramp-up of troops under orders to help curb illegal immigration. (John Mone/AP)
California OKs limited troop deployment for Trump’s border request

California Gov. Jerry Brown agreed Wednesday to deploy 400 National Guard troops at President Donald Trump’s request, but not all will head to the U.S.-Mexico border as Trump wants and none will enforce federal immigration enforcement.

In April, Brown and Trump clashed fiercely and publicly over whether the Guard would participate and under what terms. Brown insisted that troops have no involvement in immigration enforcement or construction of any border barriers — a condition that the California Guard said will continue during the six-month extension.

The Republican governors of the three other border states with Mexico — Arizona, New Mexico and Texas — quickly signed up for the Guard’s third major border deployment since 2006 and without the conditions that Brown insisted on. Brown, a Democrat, initially held out but his eventual commitment of 400 troops brought the total to about 2,400 for all four border states, above the low end of Trump’s target of sending 2,000 to 4,000.

The Democratic governor has cast his decision as a welcome infusion of federal support to fight transnational criminal gangs and drug and firearms smugglers.

The California Guard currently about 400 troops assigned, including some 250 in the San Diego and El Centro areas on the Mexico border.

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