Updated 8:02 a.m. Wednesday
Gov. Jerry Brown says he is "close to an agreement" with the Trump administration on deploying California's National Guard to the Mexico border, but tweets from President Donald Trump seem to indicate otherwise.
On Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted that “Jerry Brown is trying to back out of the National Guard at the Border” and that “the people of the state are not happy.”
The Governor’s Office, meanwhile, has maintained that nothing has changed since California submitted a proposed agreement to the administration last week.
Editor's note, Feb. 11, 2019: The tweet below was sent by Gov. Jerry Brown's Press Office, though the tweets now show the name of the current governor.
Brown addressed the matter while speaking Tuesday to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., after Trump tweeted early that morning, “Looks like Jerry Brown and California are not looking for safety and security along their very porous Border.”
Brown said he will deploy troops to combat transnational crime, but not to do immigration enforcement.
"Wait a minute ... is drug smuggling, trafficking and guns going to Mexico to the cartels? That sounds to me like fighting crime," Brown said. "Trying to catch some desperate mothers and children or unaccompanied minors coming from Central America? That sounds to me like something else."
Brown says he is complying with Trump's request, but in a different way than the Republican governors of Arizona, Texas and New Mexico who swiftly agreed to deploy troops.
Trump first made the request to border states about two weeks ago.
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