Gov. Ralph Northam has ordered a Virginia National Guard helicopter and crew assisting with immigration enforcement at the southern border to return home until President Donald Trump ends his administration’s family separation policy.
Several other governors, Republicans and Democrats, have refused to commit state military resources in protest of Trump’s immigration policies. Unlike other state leaders who said they would refuse to send troops if asked, Northam is pulling back resources already carrying out an assigned mission, an extraordinary response to the rapidly developing controversy at the border.
“When Virginia deployed these resources to the border, we expected that they would play a role in preventing criminals, drug runners and other threats to our security from crossing into the United States — not supporting a policy of arresting families and separating children from their parents,” Northam said in a statement.
“Let me be clear — we are ready to return and contribute to the real work of keeping our nation safe. But as long as the Trump administration continues to enforce this inhumane policy, Virginia will not devote any resource to border enforcement actions that could actively or tacitly support it.”
On June 4, a Virginia National Guard UH-72 Lakota helicopter and four-person crew based in Chesterfield County left for a 90-day mission to provide aerial reconnaissance support for border patrols. The order to assist the Arizona National Guard came from the federal National Guard Bureau. A second crew was scheduled to rotate in halfway through the mission.
The Virginia National Guard deployed resources for border operations multiple times under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Before the family separation policy began dominating headlines, Northam, a Democrat, said he would provide Virginia National Guard resources for immigration enforcement if Trump gave the order.
A few hours before Northam’s announcement, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, made a similar move, saying he had ordered a Maryland National Guard helicopter crew to return from New Mexico.
Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, a Democrat, also weighed in on the matter Tuesday by teaming up with 20 other attorneys general in a letter calling for the policy’s end.
“This policy is a stain on the soul of our country,” Herring said in a news release.
In April, Trump-appointed Attorney General Jeff Sessions enacted a “zero tolerance” policy for prosecuting adults caught crossing the border illegally, resulting in more than 2,000 children being separated from their parents. Trump has said he wants Congress to change the nation’s immigration laws, but he hasn’t backed away from the enforcement policy despite a firestorm of criticism.
Both parties have indicated a willingness to work toward a bipartisan solution, but it remains to be seen whether Congress can produce legislation Trump is willing to sign.
Virginia Democrats — including U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine — have denounced the administration’s approach. In a letter sent to administration officials Tuesday, Warner and Kaine demanded more information about how the policy is being enacted, including information about whether there are any plans for holding centers in Virginia.
At a Senate committee hearing Tuesday, Kaine called the policy “absolutely heartless.”
“Nowhere else in our system in this country do we take children away from parents who are charged with a misdemeanor,” Kaine said.
The reaction among Republicans has been more varied.
Corey Stewart, the hard-right Republican Senate nominee running against Kaine, has defended Trump’s approach. In a series of Twitter posts Tuesday, Stewart said similar policies have been in place under previous administrations and suggested people jailed for other criminal offenses are also separated from their families. The recent concern about immigrant children at the border, he said, is “unadulterated emotional drivel.”
“If a ‘parent’ smuggles children through the desert helped by coyotes (human traffickers), have they not committed child abuse? Parents are coached on how to seek ‘asylum,’ ” Stewart said. “Shouldn’t the kids be seeking asylum from criminal parents?”
Republicans in Congress facing tough re-election fights have said they want to keep families intact as part of a broader push to reform immigration laws.
“Like any reasonable person, I am against families senselessly being torn apart,” said U.S. Rep. Dave Brat, R-7th. “And I believe there are policy options worth looking into that would fix this process.”
Though some Republicans have accused Democrats of hyping the issue for political gain, Brat’s Democratic challenger, former CIA officer Abigail Spanberger, said it is Republicans like Brat who are “using children as political pawns to push their objectives.”
“The administration’s decision to separate families is a policy choice, not the law, and could be ended as quickly as it was implemented,” Spanberger said.
