Oregon governor says she'll tell Trump no if he asks to send National Guard to border
President Trump can't count on Oregon in his effort to send National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, said in a series of tweets Thursday that she will say no if the president asks for her help.
Mr. Trump earlier this week announced that he will be sending the military — the White House later clarified he meant the National Guard — to protect the southern border. The Trump administration has been meeting with governors of the states bordering Mexico on the matter, and all of them have said they support the idea. Oregon does not border Mexico.
But Brown said she will say "no" if Mr. Trump asks her to send members of the National Guard from her own state. Brown clarified that there has been "no outreach" to her by the administration.
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.
— Governor Kate Brown (@OregonGovBrown) April 4, 2018
There’s been no outreach by the President or federal officials, and I have no intention of allowing Oregon’s guard troops to be used to distract from his troubles in Washington.
— Governor Kate Brown (@OregonGovBrown) April 4, 2018
Mr. Trump, in his public appearances this week, has railed against illegal immigration, crime, and U.S. immigration laws, particularly in a speech he gave in West Virginia Thursday that was billed as a roundtable on tax reform.
Mr. Trump literally tossed aside the speech that had been written for him, calling it "boring." Instead, he spoke at length about the "caravan" of migrants traveling through Mexico towards the U.S. border. Mr. Trump claimed that women are "raped at levels that nobody's ever seen before," without citing any sources of evidence for that claim.
"Yesterday it came out that this journey coming up, women are raped at levels that nobody's ever seen before," he said. "They don't want to mention that. So we have to change our laws, and what the Democrats are doing, its insanity."
"We're going to have our wall, and we're going to get it very strongly, the military is going to be building some of it," he added.