Rep. Ruben Gallego: I’ll work with Trump ‘when his ideas aren’t stupid’

PHOENIX — Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego fired back after White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders accused him of not working with President Donald Trump on border issues.

“I’ll gladly work with the president when his ideas aren’t stupid and detrimental to the United States,” Gallego said on CNN on Thursday.

Trump signed a proclamation this week ordering officials to deploy National Guard troops to the border to help curb undocumented immigration.

The number of illegal Southwest border crossings has increased drastically since Trump’s first two months as president. In February 2017, about 23,500 people were apprehended, which was a steep decline from February of Obama’s second term, according to a stat sheet from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

This February, about 36,700 people were stopped, a little under the Obama average.

More than 50,000 apprehensions were made in March this year. In 2017, only 16,500 were apprehended, the lowest month total since at least the 2012 fiscal year, according to the document.

A White House memo said the border has “reached a point of crisis.” As a result, Trump announced he plans to send 2,000 to 4,000 National Guard troops to the southern border. It is not yet clear if the troops would be armed, according to the Washington Post.

Gallego thinks the plan isn’t structured, citing questions over the length of the troop activity and where money will come from.

“These National guardsmen aren’t even going to have arresting power, they’re not even going to be able to hold weapons,” Gallego said. “But we’re going to put them out in the desert and basically make them stand around just for political show.”

According to the Washington Post, Trump said he plans to keep “a large portion” of troops at the border until the wall is built. That time frame is unclear.

At a press conference, Huckabee Sanders said Gallego should “show up and actually support legislation that would fix these problems instead of blaming the president.”

In turn, Gallego accused Trump of not working with Congress.

“Ironically, by the way, if the president had actually worked with Congress … there would’ve been more assets at the border than he’s going to end up doing with these National Guards troops,” he said.

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