On Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) will order roughly 360 National Guard members pulled from the Mexico border, joining New Mexico in withdrawing service members deployed at President Trump's request last year. Newsom will redeploy the troops to help Cal Fire prepare for the coming wildfire season, fight drug cartels, and focus on other "real threats facing our state," according an excerpt of Tuesday's State of the State address sent to the Los Angeles Times. A small National Guard contingent redeployed to intelligence operations against drug cartels will be stationed at California's international points of entry.
"The border 'emergency' is a manufactured crisis," Newsom will say Tuesday, according to prepared remarks. "This is our answer to the White House: No more division, xenophobia or nativism." Former Gov. Jerry Brown (D) deployed about 400 California National Guard members to the border 10 months ago at Trump's request, but stipulated that they could neither enforce immigration laws or build border barrier. The deployment was still criticized by Democrats as freeing up federal border agents to enact Trump's hardline immigration policies. Trump plans to deploy another 3,750 U.S. military troops to the border, which Newsom pointed to as another reason to pull the National Guard for other uses.
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