Trump orders troops to border of U.S. and Mexico

WASHINGTON, D.C. (KGO) -- After days of venting on Twitter about immigration policy and what he calls, "weak" border laws, President Donald Trump signed a memo Wednesday to deploy the National Guard to the U.S. - Mexico border.

"We're going to be guarding our border with the military," said Trump.

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"We do hope that the deployment begins immediately," said Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen.

Neilsen said troops could be sent to the border as soon as Wednesday night but did not say how many troops, how long they would be there, how much it would cost or where they would actually be deployed.

"It will be strong. It will be as many as is needed to fill the gaps that we have today," Nielson added.

U.S. Representative Mark DeSaulnier from Contra Costa County says Congress needs more information from President Trump. "In and of itself, it's not a bad idea," he said. "We already have troops on the border helping the border patrol, but there's no plan to this."

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California did comply with White House requests to deploy the National Guard on the border in 2006 and 2010 under Governor Schwarzenegger. But the 2006 deployment came only after a dispute was settled about the number of troops and their cost.

"They have to work with the governors of each border state and in this case, it would be Governor Brown. We do not have the best relationship with the president of the United States on immigration," DeSaulnier added.

On behalf of Gov. Jerry Brown's administration, California's National Guard Spokesman, Lt. Col. Tom Keegan, issued a statement saying: "This request - as with others we've received from the Department of Homeland Security, including those for additional staffing in 2006 and 2010 - will be promptly reviewed to determine how best we can assist our federal partners. We look forward to more detail, including funding, duration and end state."

Keegan pointed out that right now, "the California National Guard Counterdrug program consists of 250 personnel who conduct counterdrug missions across the

state. Approximately 55 of those personnel provide support directly to the Southwest Border. These personnel perform a variety of missions, including surveillance

support at the San Diego Harbor, horizontal engineering in an effort to repair roads, fences and culverts, and criminal analysis with state and federal law enforcement personnel in support of counter-narcotics and counter-narcoterrorism operations."

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