New Mexico is done letting Trump use troops for border 'charade'

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM) announced Tuesday that she rejects Trump’s “charade of border fear-mongering” and will pull most National Guard troops away from the border of her state.

Lujan Grisham’s move, which covers 118 National Guard troops, came as Trump used his State of the Union address to repeat his racist rhetoric declaring a fake crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump is trying — and failing, polls show — to convince Congress and the American public that a border wall is needed.

“I reject the federal contention that there exists an overwhelming national security crisis at the southern border,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “New Mexico will not take part in the president’s charade of border fear-mongering by misusing our diligent National Guard troops.”

Lujan Grisham said New Mexico would deploy a limited number of National Guard troops and state police officers to assist with humanitarian efforts along the border, and that New Mexico would focus its efforts on offering help to asylum seekers and other vulnerable people who enter the state.

Lujan Grisham noted that her efforts are in response to requests for help from local county officials.

Through numerous speeches, Trump has regularly used racist rhetoric to paint all immigrants arriving from Mexico as nefarious criminals.

Those are lies.

As NPR points out, mayors of cities and towns along the U.S.-Mexico border say their communities are among the safest in the country. Numerous studies also show that immigrants — whether documented or undocumented — actually commit fewer crimes than people born in the United States.

Despite the evidence, and the fact that the number of illegal border crossings are the lowest they have been in decades, Trump insists on making up stories about an immigration crisis at the border.

Trump even tried to prop up those stories by sending thousands of military personnel to the border in a shameful political stunt before the 2018 midterm election. Since there wasn’t much for the troops to do, many of them ended up spending their time shoveling horse manure.

Trump has been lying to about the border to try to build support for a wall that is not needed and that polls show most Americans don’t want. Even after Trump threw tantrums during a 35-day government shutdown over funding for a wall, public sentiment is still opposed to building it.

Gov. Lujan Grisham refuses to buy into Trump’s racist fear-mongering, and refuses to allow him to misuse troops as political props. Those are the real values America stands for, not Trump’s hate and xenophobia.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.