By: Karina Kling
6:27 PM



As Governor Rick Perry continues to tout the state's ability under his leadership to lure businesses to Texas, he welcomed a neighboring governor who's trying to do the same.

Perry introduced Republican Arizona Governor Jan Brewer at an Austin Economic Club luncheon Wednesday. Perry praised Brewer's leadership for bringing her state out of the largest deficit in the country when she took office.

"It's governors like Jan putting tax and regulatory and legal policies into place that make their state more competitive," he said.

But before Brewer could talk budget, she had some business to discuss with Governor Perry.

She showed Perry a letter she sent to President Obama on Monday which criticized the reported policy that immigration officials sent undocumented immigrants from Texas to Arizona, later dropping them off at Greyhound bus stations in Phoenix and Tucson.

Brewer says she was alarmed federal officials didn't alert local and state law enforcement about the transfers. Rio Grande Valley border agents were hurting for help when they saw a surge in families with children crossing into Texas over Memorial Day weekend.

More than 400 of those families were flown to Tucson where available border agents there processed the immigrants and transferred them to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

ICE then dropped them off at the bus stations.

Brewer acknowledges many people around the country only hear about her state in the context of its immigration policies. She says she makes no apologies for them.

"It's my practice, it's my job to protect our citizens and when the border patrol agents and family ranchers are being killed by people sneaking across the border because the federal government refuses to do its job,” she said. “I'm simply not going to sit and do nothing."

Brewer emphasized it wasn't just the fact they were dropped off in her home state. She also raised concerns that they were being left without any food or supplies in the extreme Arizona heat.

http://austin.twcnews.com/content/ne...budget--border