Aug 09, 2010

Texas governor to Obama: Send more troops to border

03:46 PM

By Carolyn Kaster, AP

Texas Gov. Rick Perry had a little something for President Obama when he greeted him today at the Austin airport: A three-page letter requesting that more federal troops be sent to the Mexican border.

More force is needed to combat the "dire threat" from drug cartels, which Perry said have killed some 28,000 people since 2006.

"I respectfully but urgently request that the federal government quickly deploy 1,000 troops to the Texas-Mexico border, as well as additional law enforcement tools and technology," Perry wrote. "We must show the cartels that Washington will no longer tolerate their terrorizing and criminalizing the border region."

White House spokesman Bill Burton said Obama's border security efforts are unprecedented.

"The president has put more assets on the border to secure the border than has ever previously been there," Burton said. "That includes National Guard troops, technology, things he has done on enforcement. That's something that he is working very hard on."

Perry, who handed his letter to Obama aide Valerie Jarrett, writes about several incidents of drug violence along the border.

"The purpose of this letter is to reiterate the dire threat amassing on our southern border in the form of international drug cartels and transnational gangs, and to again request sufficient federal resources to combat the increasing violence," Perry wrote.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... e-border/1