Gov. Jerry Brown Plays Politics with Agreement to Send National Guard Troops to the Southern Border
The #Resistence may be thrilled, but Brown’s caveat purely self-aggrandizing
Unlike his Oregon counterpart, California Governor Jerry Brown has positively responded to President Donald Trump’s request to add more troops for border security.
After days of speculation, California decided Wednesday that it will comply with federal requests to deploy National Guard personnel to the border California shares with Mexico.
The California National Guard will accept federal money to beef up border security, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown said in a statement published Wednesday morning.
…The deployment’s purpose is to supplement California’s existing efforts to “combat transnational crime,” Brown said. Already at the state’s 140.4-mile border with Mexico are 55 servicemembers on that mission.
However, there is an important restriction on how the California troops can be deployed. None of the personnel will be allowed to assist federal immigration enforcement, or do much in terms of actual border security.
…In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Defense Secretary James Mattis, the Democratic governor insisted the deployment would not be to further the Trump administration’s immigration policies. “But let’s by crystal clear on the scope of this mission. This will not be a mission to build a new wall. It will not be a mission to round up women and children or detain people escaping violence and seeking a better life. And the California National Guard will not be enforcing federal immigration laws,” said Brown in the letter.
Instead, Brown said the troops would join an existing program to combat transnational drug crime, firearms smuggling and human trafficking. They would join 250 existing California National Guard troops, including 55 who are at the border.
Brown’s caveat is little more than political posturing. When Bush and Obama requested National Guard Troops to assist Customs and Border Patrol Agents, the National Guard served as support, leaving all enforcement matters to CBP. In doing so, they freed up cumbersome administrative duties, allowing Border Patrol Officers to focus on enforcement.
President Trump’s goal is to send 4,000 National Guard members to the border. Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas have already made pledges that add up to almost half of the up the target.
Pentagon just released new details about the types of activities National Guard troops would perform at the U.S.-Mexico border.
National Guard troops will provide air support through drones and light-, medium- and heavy-lift helicopters, Lt. Col. Jamie Davis, a Defense Department spokesman, said in a statement to The Washington Post. They will also help maintain roads and other infrastructure, clear vegetation and assist with facility maintenance, in addition to operating surveillance systems, including cameras and blimps, Davis said.
They will not be arresting migrants or carrying out armed patrols along the border.
Describing the mission as a support role for the Department of Homeland Security, Davis confirmed that the troops won’t necessarily carry weapons. “National Guard personnel will only be armed for their own self-protection to the extent required by the circumstances of the mission they are performing,” Davis said.
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Comments
Sounds like a lot of not much.
The only part likely to do anything is the conduit for yet more federal money to the CA rathole.
It does put people under Moonbeam’s orders in various positions to screw things up, so I suppose from CA’s viewpoint, that’s useful.
In Vietnam if a team member did not want to work as a team he was given the duty of mixing fuel oil with the waste from the outhouses and burning it.
So be it.
Let Jerry Brown know he is the governor of feces burners.
That should earn him all kinds of respect.
Troops are fungible.
This is much ado about nothing. When the National Guard is called up, by the federal government, the control of those troops passes from the governor of the state from which they come, to the Department of Defense. In essence, the state has no more control of these units or their mission. This authority then belongs to the DOD. And, the state can not call these unit back, once they have been activated.
As to what these troops can legally be called upon to do, that is dependent upon federal law. As noted, they will probably be relegated to indirect support of the federal law enforcement mission.
On the contrary, if Trump were going to call them up under federal law he wouldn’t need Brown’s agreement. The National Guard is a federal force and Trump can call on it whenever he likes. But the whole point of using the National Guard on the border is that they’re not being called up under federal law but under state law, and so they’re not bound by Posse Comitatus and can enforce domestic laws. Federal forces, including NG acting under federal orders, can’t do that. On the other hand federal forces can stop people crossing the border, since that’s not domestic law enforcement. So as the article says, these CA guardsmen won’t be doing border enforcement anyway; the feds will be doing that while the guardsmen do the things the feds can’t.
You missed something here. Local and state authorities have no jurisdiction with regard to the enforcement of federal law. If the Guard unit is providing service under Title 32 section 9, then the State will be reimbursed for the costs of activating the unit. However, unless the members of the unit are sworn in as federal LEOs, in this case CBP agents, they still work for the state and have no authority to enforce federal law. As US v Arizona made it essentially illegal for state agents to stop anyone to inquire as to their immigration status, even if the Guard were to stop a person crossing the border, they can not search that person, inquire as to their immigration status or detain them longer than a few minutes. It is essentially a Terry stop in the desert. Again, it means that the role of the NG is extremely limited and is more for show than anything else.
If the governor activates his national guard at his own will, they are in State Active Duty status and will do or won’t do whatever the governor through the adjutant general directs. When called up by the President they can remain or Title 32 status or be put in Title 10 status. If T32 they perform a federal mission under state jurisdiction and posse comitatus does not apply. They can enforce laws. If put in T10 status, they become regular active and do whatever SecOff Mattis says; which wouldn’t include law enforcement. T32 is still fairly confusing to me, but I believe that is how it works.
I think they should tell CA thanks, but no thanks. Get troops from other states which are not supporters of illegal immigration.
when you’re in the Army, AD, ARNG or USAR you go where you’re sent, and do what you’re told.
if you don’t, that’s what the UCMJ is for. Moonbeam has no say in how they are used, once they are called to duty.
ask me how i know… 😎
Nope. Since they’re being called up under state law, not federal, they’re under Brown’s command and must do what he says, not what Trump says. Which is just fine with Trump, since he never intended anything else.
Not true. If called up under Title 32 section 9, the NG unit is under the control of the federal government and of the Secretary of Defense, not the Governor of the state. This section is rather vague as to whether the NG unit would retain its state law enforcement powers or not, while under federal control. If it does, it has no authority to enforce immigration laws and would be bound by court decisions covering investigative stops for suspected violations of state law. It is possible that every member of each NG unit could be sworn in as CBP agents. This would allow them to enforce federal laws. If they are a federal military unit, then posse comitatus applies.
You do go where you’re sent and do what you’re told. But the sending and the telling are either up to the governor or the president. The individual soldier or airman doesn’t see the difference, he does what his NCOs and officers tell him. It’s the colonels and the generals who get the orders from the state or the feds.
“It will not be a mission to round up women and children or detain people escaping violence and seeking a better life.”
______________
Yes, they’re all decent, hard-working, law-abiding folks, just escaping violence and looking for a better life. Like DACA “dreamer” Juan Cornelio (age 38) who was recently arrested for raping a 10-year old and putting her in the hospital in Alabama, or DACA “dreamer” Anastacio Lopez-Fabian, who was recently arrested in Oregon for the multiple rapes, assault and harrassment of a girl under age 14, or DACA “dreamer” Gerardo Zamarippa-Castaneda, who recently plowed into and killed a Denver man while driving drunk, then fled the scene.
Yes, we must allow these wonderful illegal aliens to swarm across our borders, because they’re only seeking a better life here, and if they rape or kill a few (or a few thousand) Americans in the process, not to mention costing American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars every year, what’s the harm, right Moonbeam?
Brown needs to tread carefully. A lot of Californians outside the liberal bubble are starting to question Brown’s sanctuary policies up to and including participating in federal cases against the Governor and his Attorney General.
He had to send something.