National Guard:

State Sen. Kevin de León urges Gov. Jerry Brown to pull the California National Guard troops assigned to the Mexican border area to target smuggling and gangs.

SACRAMENTO — A state lawmaker is asking Gov. Jerry Brown to recall California National Guard troops from the southern border over what he called the “cruel, immoral and potentially illegal” policy of the Trump administration that separates immigrant children from their parents.

State Sen. Kevin de León, who is trying to unseat fellow Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein in the November election, said California should follow the steps of Republican governors in Maryland and Massachusetts and Democratic governors in Virginia and North Carolina who have already pulled their troops because of the policy. Together, those states had sent or committed a dozen service members and three helicopters to the border with Mexico.

Nearly 2,000 children have been taken from their parents at the border over the past six weeks, according to figures from the Department of Homeland Security that were obtained by the Associated

Press.

“This is a shameful chapter in American history and California should have no part in it — directly or indirectly — imposing irreparable trauma on thousands of vulnerable young children,” de León, D-Los Angeles, wrote to Brown in a letter made public Tuesday. “We should not be complicit in this administration’s use of children as political leverage designed to advance an immigration agenda driven by racial animus.”

De León is the author of the SB54 sanctuary law minimizing local law enforcement’s cooperation with federal immigration agents. That law is the target of a Trump administration lawsuit.

Brown agreed in April to send 400 Guard troops to the border at President Trump’s request, but stipulated that the service members could not enforce immigration laws and instead would beef up state efforts at the border targeting gangs, smuggling and trafficking.

Because of the limited scope of the mission, Brown’s office said there were no plans as of Tuesday to recall the

troops.

“We’ll continue to assess and review this just as we have since personnel were originally mobilized back in April,” Brown spokesman Evan Westrup said.

In January, Brown said he does not support breaking up migrant families, calling it “callous” and “very insensitive.” Westrup said that is still the governor’s position.

Trump asked states to send their National Guard troops to the border to stop migrants fleeing Central America from crossing into the country.