LePage agrees to send helicopter, two National Guard pilots to border

PORTLAND (AP) — Maine’s Republican governor has OK’d a federal request to send a National Guard helicopter with two pilots to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Gov. Paul LePage’s office said the team will support Customs and Border Patrol in Arizona from July through September.

LePage’s office said Maine will fly the helicopter but won’t be involved in law enforcement activities. Since 2006, Maine has sent 389 service members to the border.

Multiple East Coast governors criticizing the separation of children from families at the border announced they won’t deploy National Guard resources near the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump signed an executive order Wednesday to end the practice.

Democratic governors in Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island indicated their refusal to send troops. Republican governors in Maryland and Massachusetts reversed steps to station resources at the border.