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State Representative Blasts Trump’s Plan to Deploy National Guard to Border

Commentary: Last week, the Trump administration planned to deploy thousands of members of the National Guard to the Southern Border. According to recent reports by the Los Angeles Times, Secretary of Defense James Mattis has signed an order to send up to 4,000 National Guard troops to the U.S-Mexico border. Since the announcement, Governor Susanna Martinez has openly supported the effort. The orders have been met with resistance from activists and government officials alike, and Rep. Rudy Martinez (D-39) says that President Trump’s actions are not necessary and that Governor Martinez should not support such a policy.

“As a veteran and a child of immigrants, I cannot understand why President Trump feels the need to deploy troops along our southern border. Moreover, I am disappointed that our Governor feeds into the fear mongering and anti-immigration sentiment from Washington.” Martinez said. Martinez went on to expand those statements, saying that this is neither the time nor the place for military action on our border: “As a Representative of an extremely diverse district in Southern New Mexico, I can tell you that I haven’t felt better about our border security in a long time. The problems in Ciudad Juarez are not where they were in the past when Presidents Bush and Obama deployed troops to help keep the peace, and there has been a decline in illegal immigration. I see this move by the President as nothing but an attempt to divide Americans, especially those of us on or near the border. We should be celebrating our diversity, not militarizing it.”

Rep. Martinez is the child of an immigrant from San Francisco de Borja, Chihuahua, Mexico. Martinez was born in Santa Rita, New Mexico near North Hurley. Martinez spent 4 years in the U.S Air Force as a Staff Sergeant, including a 1 year stint in Vietnam. He also served as treasurer for Chapter 358 Vietnam Veterans of America for 18 years.