WASHINGTON: Five US states are refusing to deploy National Guard troops to the US-Mexico border amid a growing outcry over a controversial immigration policy of President Donald Trump’s administration that has led to migrant children being separated from their parents.

The Democratic governors of Colorado, New York and Virginia and the Republican governors of Maryland and Massachusetts all said they would not send members of their state’s National Guard units for border duty. “We will not be complicit in this ongoing human tragedy,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, said Tuesday. “In the face of the federal government’s inhumane treatment of immigrant families, New York will not deploy National Guard to the border,” Cuomo said on Twitter.

Larry Hogan, the Republican governor of Maryland, said he will not send any National Guard resources to the border “until this policy of separating children from their families has been rescinded.” Hogan said he had ordered a four-member helicopter crew which had been stationed in the border state of New Mexico to “immediately return” home.

“Immigration enforcement efforts should focus on criminals, not separating innocent children from their families,” Hogan said. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam said he had ordered the recall of a helicopter and four soldiers from the state National Guard from the border state of Arizona.