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Oregon gov.: If Trump asks me to send National Guard troops to border, ‘I’ll say no’

Posted at 4:53 PM, Apr 05, 2018
and last updated 2018-04-05 16:53:43-04

Oregon’s governor says that if President Donald Trump asks to dispatch members of her state’s National Guard to the US southern border, she’ll “say no.”

In a set of tweets Wednesday, Democratic Gov. Kate Brown said she was “deeply troubled” by Trump’s plan to send members of the US military to the border and implied that the President is doing so as a political distraction.

“If @realDonaldTrump asks me to deploy Oregon Guard troops to the Mexico border, I’ll say no. As Commander of Oregon’s Guard, I’m deeply troubled by Trump’s plan to militarize our border,” the tweet said.

Brown also said that although she has not been contacted by the Trump administration or others regarding Oregon’s National Guard troops, she has “no intention of allowing Oregon’s guard troops to be used to distract from his troubles in Washington.”

Trump signed a memorandum on Wednesday to deploy the National Guard to the Southwest border, a move in line with his hardline immigration stance.

The Trump administration has said it has been in touch with the governors of the Southwest border states about deploying troops within their states, not a national effort. Oregon is neither a southern nor a northern border state, making it unlikely that Oregon would be asked to send its troops.

But details of the deployment are yet to be finalized, including the number of troops, how long they will be deployed and how much it will cost.

“The situation at the border has now reached a point of crisis,” Trump’s memo said. “The lawlessness that continues at our southern border is fundamentally incompatible with the safety, security, and sovereignty of the American people. My administration has no choice but to act.”