NOT ON HIS WATCH

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker Reverses Decision to Send National Guard to Border

The Republican governor called the Trump administration’s immigration policy “cruel and inhumane.”

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker reversed his decision to send state National Guard troops to the border, calling the Trump administration’s family separation policy “cruel and inhumane” on Monday. “We won’t be supporting that initiative unless they change their policy... They’re not going to the border,” the Republican governor added. Earlier this month, Baker agreed to send a two-person crew and chopper to Arizona after a request from the Pentagon. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said his state will also not be sending troops to the border in a press release. “I am increasingly disturbed by the reports of disgraceful tactics used by ICE both in our own state and along our nation's border,” Cuomo said in the release.

Trump’s “zero-tolerance” immigration policy, formally announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in May, has led to the separation of nearly 2,000 children from their parents upon arrival to the United States between mid-April and the end of May. Over the Father’s Day holiday, Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-MA), another Massachusetts politician, visited the “tent city” Tornillo, Texas, for undocumented immigrants.