Migrant caravan no emergency for Gavin Newsom: He’d pull CA Guard from border

TOPSHOT - Honduran migrants heading in a caravan to the US, climb on a truck in Tapachula, Chiapas state, Mexico, on October 22, 2018. - President Donald Trump on Monday called the migrant caravan heading toward the US-Mexico border a national emergency, saying he has alerted the US border patrol and military. (Photo by Johan ORDONEZ / AFP)JOHAN ORDONEZ/AFP/Getty Images less TOPSHOT - Honduran migrants heading in a caravan to the US, climb on a truck in Tapachula, Chiapas state, Mexico, on October 22, 2018. - President Donald Trump on Monday called the migrant caravan heading ... more Photo: Johan Ordonez / AFP / Getty Images 2018 Photo: Johan Ordonez / AFP / Getty Images 2018 Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close Migrant caravan no emergency for Gavin Newsom: He’d pull CA Guard from border 1 / 9 Back to Gallery

SACRAMENTO — With thousands of Central Americans headed for the U.S.-Mexico border and the Trump administration reportedly planning to send hundreds of troops to meet them, California gubernatorial candidates dug in Thursday on whether they would pull the state’s National Guard troops back to their barracks if elected.

Democrat Gavin Newsom is sticking to the position he spelled out before the caravan of 7,000-plus Central Americans hit the road this month, aides said: He disagreed with Gov. Jerry Brown’s decision to deploy 400 California Guard troops at President Trump’s request in April, and if elected, he’d try to bring them back.

“I’d like to see what contractual provisions exist there before we can determine whether or not we can pull away from it,” Newsom said this month. “I just think it’s a stunt on the president’s part.”

Trump has called the caravan “a national emergency,” and several outlets reported Thursday that the U.S. plans to send at least 800 troops to the border to help stop the migrants from entering the country and seeking asylum. Newsom spokesman Nathan Click said none of that changed the candidate’s views.

Newsom said Trump should fill vacant Border Patrol jobs instead of using California’s Guard troops as a supporting force.

It’s among the many positions that set Newsom apart from his Republican rival, San Diego-area businessman John Cox.

“I believe Gov. Jerry Brown is right and Gavin Newsom is wrong on this issue,” Cox said Thursday. “As usual, Gavin promises to continue to do what he's done for the last eight years, which is nothing. Gov. Brown's response and action has been appropriate, and I'd continue that.”

Those contrasting opinions are in line with how both candidates have run their campaigns, said Louis DeSipio, professor of political science and Chicano studies at UC Irvine.

“For Newsom supporters, this is the state of resistance, so you don’t want to use a state resource to advance policies the state is opposing in other venues, like the courts and the Legislature,” DeSipio said.

“John Cox has been careful in recognizing that he is running in California,” DeSipio said. “He can’t go full Trump mode. Affiliating with Brown demonstrates his moderation in contemporary California politics.”

But, DeSipio said, all the fuss is probably unwarranted when it comes to a need to strengthen border security.

“By the time the caravan gets to the U.S.-Mexico border, most will have dispersed,” he said.

That has happened with previous caravans, including one in spring that ended up in San Diego. However, the current caravan is substantially larger than the one earlier this year. The group, which has shrunk to 4,000-5,000, remains weeks or months away from reaching the U.S. border.

“To those in the Caravan, turnaround, we are not letting people into the United States illegally,” Trump tweeted Thursday. “Go back to your Country and if you want, apply for citizenship like millions of others are doing!”

Brown first answered Trump’s call in April to increase border security, agreeing to deploy 400 Guard troops until September, with specific limits on what they could do. He then extended their stay until March.

Brown limited the troops to missions involving transnational criminal gangs, human trafficking, and smuggling of firearms and drugs along the border and across the state. He specifically barred the Guard from detaining immigrants entering the country illegally or helping enforce federal immigration law.

Cox said Thursday that he agrees with the limits Brown put on the Guard, calling them “appropriate.”

At the time of their deployment in April, Trump had asked states to send a total of 2,000 to 4,000 National Guard troops to the border to stop the springtime migrant caravan from entering the U.S.

Melody Gutierrez is The San Francisco Chronicle’s Sacramento bureau chief. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez