Maryland’s governor recalled a National Guard helicopter and 4 crew members patrolling the border at New Mexico.
As a reason, the Republican governor gave his disagreement with Trump’s administration policy that has resulted in the separations of undocumented families at the southern border.
“Until this policy of separating children from their families has been rescinded, Maryland will not deploy any National Guard resources to the border,” Governor Larry Hogan wrote on Twitter. “Earlier this morning, I ordered our 4 crew members & helicopter to immediately return from where they were stationed in New Mexico.”
Hogan’s decision comes as the Trump administration is faced with harsh criticism over its “zero-tolerance” immigration policy.
Since the policy was announced the Associated Press reported that 2,300 children have been separated from their parents and are being held in warehouses, tents, cages and big box stores.
Hogan on Monday also called on the Trump administration and lawmakers to work together on immigration reform.
“Washington has failed again & again to deliver needed immigration reform – Congress and the administration must step up and work together to fix our broken system,” the governor wrote on Twitter. “Immigration enforcement efforts should focus on criminals, not separating innocent children from their families.”
Hogan is up for re-election in November in a state former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton won by more than 26 points in 2016.
Meanwhile, NBC News on Tuesday reported that the Trump administration considered its controversial “zero tolerance” border policy of separating minors from their parents just weeks after President Trump’s inauguration.
Notes obtained by MSNBC from a town-hall meeting for Department of Homeland Security staffers on Feb. 2, 2017, revealed that the agency’s asylum chief, John Lafferty, told Citizenship and Immigration Services asylum officers that they may have to “hold mothers longer” and “hold children in HHR/ORR.”
HHR is an acronym for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ORR is an acronym for Office of Refugee Resettlement.
Lafferty also went over a series of policies at the meeting intended to curb illegal immigration, including the separation of parents and children, according to MSNBC.
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