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California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed an order authorizing 400 state National Guard troops to be deployed as part of President Donald Trump’s order for troops to be sent to the U.S. border with Mexico.
Brown’s order came after days of discussions with the Trump administration about what role California troops would serve to help the U.S. Border Patrol. The Democratic governor last week said he would send 400 troops but balked at allowing California troops to do jobs that would support immigration enforcement.
“We want to be cooperative,” Brown said Tuesday during an appearance at the National Press Club in Washington. “There’s been a little bit of back and forth, as you always get with bureaucrats. There’s enough problems at the border and the interface between our countries that California will have plenty to do — and we’re willing to do it.”
Brown’s order calls for state troops to be used solely to combat transnational crime, including human, drug and weapons smuggling, and not in any efforts to enforce immigration law. The governor’s office said the troops would work along the border and the coasts as well as in the interior of the state.
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