New Hampshire GOP gov: I won’t send National Guard troops to ‘separate families’

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) joined the governors of several other states on Tuesday pledging that state National Guard resources would not be used for “separating families” along the U.S.-Mexico border.

In a statement to local news station WMUR, the Republican governor and frequent Trump critic said that while the Pentagon had not contacted his state for additional resources, he would refuse any future requests for assistance along the border while the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy would remain in effect.

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“The New Hampshire National Guard has not been contacted, and I will not send our New Hampshire troops to the southern border to separate families,” Sununu told the news station.

Sununu’s statement came after similar decisions from both Republican and Democratic governors in New York, Colorado, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Maryland, as well as condemnations from lawmakers on both sides of the congressional aisle over the policy.

Thousands of children have been separated from their parents and placed in Department of Homeland Security detention facilities due a Trump administration policy enacted earlier this year that mandates prosecution for all adults who cross the border illegally.

Several states, including Maryland and North Carolina, which already had National Guard resources deployed to the border recalled their troops amid national furor around the policy.

“Until this policy of separating children from their families has been rescinded, Maryland will not deploy any National Guard resources to the border,” Maryland’s Republican Gov. Larry Hogan wrote on Twitter earlier Tuesday.

“Earlier this morning, I ordered our 4 crewmembers & helicopter to immediately return from where they were stationed in New Mexico.”

In a tweet Monday, Trump appeared to double down on the strategy, which administration officials including Attorney General Jeff Sessions say is being used as a deterrent against illegal immigration.

“Children are being used by some of the worst criminals on earth as a means to enter our country,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Has anyone been looking at the Crime taking place south of the border. It is historic, with some countries the most dangerous places in the world. Not going to happen in the U.S.”