Wednesday, April 11, 2018 | 2 a.m.
View more of the Sun's opinion section
View more of the Sun's opinion section
For opting not to heed President Donald Trump’s call to send National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval deserves a hand.
The Republican governor was absolutely right in saying that the border assignment wouldn’t be an appropriate use of the state National Guard, which has more important duties here at home and doesn’t need to be put in harm’s way hundreds of miles south.
Besides that, the fact is that troops aren’t needed from any state.
While it’s true that detainments of people trying to cross the border illegally have increased recently, the numbers are not out of line with usual seasonal trends. Border crossings tend to decline in the winter, then jump up in spring as the weather warms up before falling off in summer as the desert heat intensifies.
It’s also the case that apprehensions are running higher this spring than a year ago, when crossings cooled off in what appeared to be a chilling effect from Trump’s election and anti-immigrant rhetoric.
But the numbers are still lower than at their historical high points during the George H.W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations.
Then there’s the fact that Trump appeared to be reacting to news reports that a caravan of hundreds of immigrants was heading toward the border. For those not paying much attention, that may have sounded alarming — an army of drug dealers and other criminals being waved through Mexico on their way to invade our nation.
In reality, the caravan included families fleeing violence and poverty in their homeland, many from Central American nations. The caravan’s members ranged from infants to the elderly, and they were traveling in a large group to protect themselves from violence, extortion and other perils of their long journey.
And for anyone who thinks Mexico turns a blind eye in cases like this, consider that the Mexican government has detained and deported about 950,000 Central Americans since 2014, partly as a gesture of goodwill to the U.S.
That being the case, Sandoval was prudent to break ranks with his party and the Republican president.
Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., hit the nail on the head in urging Sandoval not to grant Trump’s request for troops.
“Nevada’s National Guard should not be used as political pawns in President Trump’s impulsive immigration policy,” she said.
Sandoval has broken with Republican leadership on several issues — not just immigration, but taxes, abortion and Medicaid expansion, to name some.
As he nears the end of his second and last term as governor, Sandoval has been a shining light in an era when parties have become encamped and tribalized.
Sandoval is about to term out of office and therefore faces less political pressure than some other Republican governors in following Trump’s lead, but it’s to his credit that he bucked the president on the call for border troops.
