Scott won’t recall National Guard troops on the border to protest child separation policy

Gov. Rick Scott will not recall Florida National Guard troops from the southern U.S. border in opposition to the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” crackdown on immigration that is splitting up families.

“There are three members of the National Guard that have been ordered by the U.S. Department of Defense to the United States’ southern border,” said McKinley Lewis, a Scott spokesman. “Governor Scott will not play politics with the National Guard.”

Governors from at least 10 states, including two Republicans vying for re-election, say they will withhold or recall National Guard troops in protest of children being separated from their parents at the border.

Scott, a Republican seeking to unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, has sought to distance himself from the Trump administration’s policy.

In a letter sent Tuesday to the federal government, he wrote, “This practice needs to stop now.”

But he declined to take the step taken by other governors of withholding state resources.

For instance, Virginia Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam recalled four Virginia National Guard Soldiers and one helicopter from the U.S. Southwest border

“Virginia will not devote any resource to border enforcement actions that support the inhumane policy of separating children from their parents,” he wrote on Twitter.

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