Governors from at least eight states have announced that they would withhold or recall National Guard troops from efforts to secure the United States’ border with Mexico, as the debate over the Trump administration’s practice of separating children from their parents at the southern border seeped into state political battles in an election year.
Many of the governors opposed to sending troops were Democrats, from states including New York, North Carolina and Virginia. But two Republican governors who face re-elections this fall in Maryland and Massachusetts also reversed their plans.
“Until this policy of separating children from their families has been rescinded, Maryland will not deploy any National Guard resources to the border,” Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland said on Twitter on Tuesday. “Earlier this morning, I ordered our four crew members & helicopter to immediately return from where they were stationed in New Mexico.”
Some other Republican governors, under growing pressure to weigh in on the much-debated policy, voiced dissatisfaction over the separation issue, though some stopped short of addressing their state’s National Guard assistance.
