RI Gov. Raimondo Won't Send Guard To Texas Border: Statehouse

PROVIDENCE, RI — A day after Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker announced he would not follow through on his commitment to send the National Guard to Texas to help with immigration at the border, Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo has issued her own statement. Baker had been asked by the Trump administration for assistance and initially agreed. But on Monday, he reversed course for moral reasons, due to news about the plight of children who are being separated from their families.

Unlike Baker, Raimondo was not asked to send National Guard units from Rhode Island. Nonetheless, on Tuesday, her office issued " a declarative statement" to say she would not support the U.S. policy of family separation.

Here is her statement.

"The Trump Administration's family separation policy is immoral, unjust and un-American. I have not yet been asked, but if I am, I will not deploy units from the Rhode Island National Guard to the southern border to support the Administration's policy that is ripping families apart.

"Children should be with their families, not trapped in cages, sobbing and calling out for their parents. The Administration's immigration policy goes against everything we value as Rhode Islanders, as Americans and as decent people.

"The President alone can end family separation. I'm standing with all good-hearted people in our nation and cealling on President Trump to end this inhumane policy."

Her office noted she is commander-in-chief of the Rhode Island National Guard.

Photo: Border Patrol agents ask a group of Central American asylum seekers to remove hair bands and wedding rings before taking them into custody on June 12, 2018, near McAllen, Texas. The immigrant families were then sent to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing center for possible separation. U.S. border authorities are executing the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy towards undocumented immigrants. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions also said that domestic and gang violence in immigrants' country of origin would no longer qualify them for political asylum status. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)