The governors of multiple East Coast states have announced that they will not deploy National Guard resources near the US-Mexico border, a largely symbolic but politically significant rejection of the Trump administration's "zero-tolerance" immigration policy that has resulted in children being separated from their families.
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, announced Tuesday morning on his Twitter account that he has ordered four crewmembers and a helicopter to immediately return from where they were stationed in New Mexico.
"Until this policy of separating children from their families has been rescinded, Maryland will not deploy any National Guard resources to the border," Hogan tweeted.
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, who like Hogan is a Republican governor in a blue state, on Monday reversed a decision to send a National Guard helicopter to the border, citing the Trump administration's "cruel and inhuman" policy.
On the Democratic side, governors in Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, New York and Virginia have all indicated their refusal to send Guard resources to assist with immigration-related issues.
The resources in question from each state are relatively small, so the governors' actions aren't likely to have a huge practical impact. But they are a strong symbolic political gesture, said Mileah Kromer, the director of the Sarah T Hughes field Politics Center at Goucher College in Towson, Maryland.
"I think at a time when you have a large percentage of the country questioning the leadership of the Trump administration, it certainly is a moment for the governors across the country to show leadership, particularly at a time when this is so divisive," Kromer said.
The forced separation of migrant children from their parents has fuelled criticism across the political spectrum and sparked nationwide protests of President Donald Trump's immigration policies.
"Ever since our founding - and even before - our nation has been a beacon for families seeking freedom and yearning for a better life," Democratic New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said Tuesday as he signed an executive order prohibiting the use of state resources. "President Trump has turned this promise on its head by doubling down on his inhumane and cruel policy of separating families."
