Thread: Texas to Boost Border Communication, Security

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/12042020.htm
Posted on Sat, Jul. 02, 2005

Texas to boost border communication, security

By Abe Levy
The Associated Press
LAREDO - Texas is ramping up its role in combating drug-war violence along the Texas-Mexico border, Gov. Rick Perry said Friday after meeting with Mexico's attorney general about attacks in Nuevo Laredo.

Mexican Attorney General Daniel Cabeza de Vaca and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott met with Perry at the Capitol in Austin. Afterward, they said they are committed to cross-border cooperation to fight the violence.

"Today Texas stands ready to help in any way that we can to put an end to the recent rash of kidnappings and stop the drug-related violence that has claimed hundreds of lives and brought fear to families on both sides of the border," Perry said.

More than 70 people have been killed in Nuevo Laredo this year, compared with 65 for all of 2004, in a wave of violence blamed on Mexican crime organizations fighting over the drug trade. In June, the Nuevo Laredo police chief was gunned down hours after taking office.

Cabeza de Vaca updated the Texas officials on his country's Operation Secure Mexico and said some causes of the violence are found on both sides of the border. He said involvement of local and state governments along with the two nations' federal governments is needed.

The Texas homeland security office is sending $5 million to emergency response agencies along the border by year's end to upgrade radio communications.

The agencies use different radio frequency technologies and equipment, causing communication difficulties.

Laredo will receive a large portion of the total because of the drug-war violence just across the border there.

Perry also said he has sent more state troopers to aid local law enforcement in Laredo.

The state homeland security office is now requiring all emergency agencies to improve their radio systems so that they can speak with one another despite differences in equipment and technology.

Since 2002, Texas has received more than $1.4 billion in federal funding for homeland security. The money is used by police, fire and emergency service providers to help them prepare for a terrorist attack.

Texas received $137 million in homeland security grants for fiscal 2005.

The state homeland security office hadn't spent all the money by the end of the 2004 funding cycle and put border governments at the top of the receiving list, said state Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw.

"We were concerned about individuals coming through South Texas and the risk related to it being used as a corridor for known and suspected terrorists," he said.

Associated Press Writer Kelley Shannon in Austin Contributed to This Report.

Well....it's not the National Guard, but it's something.