Texas Gov. Rick Perry may be making headlines for sending National Guard troops to that state's border with Mexico, but California won't be following suit.
California National Guard spokesman Capt. Will Martin explained to The Associated Press:
“The border shared by Texas and Mexico presents a significantly different set of considerations than those presented by the border shared by California and Mexico.”
More than 50,000 immigrant children from impoverished Central American countries have illegally entered the United States in the past year, unaccompanied by adults.
Perry announced Monday he would send 1,000 members of the Texas National Guard to the Rio Grande Valley, according to the McAllen Monitor, to deal with the immigration crisis.
CBS News reports Perry as saying:
"I will not stand idly by while our citizens are under assault and little children from Central America are detained in squalor. We are too good of a country."
Yet it is unclear to critics of Perry exactly how the National Guard will help, considering Guardsmen aren't allowed to stop anyone illegally crossing the border. U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar told the Houston Chronicle:
"If anybody thinks National Guard is going to be at the border with rifles they're wrong.
"I can't speak for Gov. Perry, but the authority the National Guard has is — provide support service. They can provide intel support. They can be lookouts. But can they go out there and apprehend? Absolutely, under the law, they cannot do that."
California Gov. Jerry Brown is taking a different tactic, according to The A.P.:
Brown... signed legislation Monday reducing the maximum penalty for a misdemeanor by one day to 364 days, a change that is expected to significantly reduce the number of immigrants in the country legally who can be deported for lesser crimes.
Federal law allows legal immigrants to be deported if they are given a sentence of one year or more.
