INVASION USA
Texas governor hot
over border security
Perry: 'Not going to stand by and allow citizens to be placed in danger' by illegal aliens, violence

Posted: October 13, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas

Another Southwest governor is lashing out in frustration over the inability or unwillingness of Washington to handle border-security issues and a flood of illegal immigrants entering the country from Mexico.

Saying he is tired of waiting for the federal government to do its job, Texas Gov. Rick Perry unveiled what he called a comprehensive blueprint for border security, which includes the use of the Texas National Guard for training and for deployment in emergencies.


Perry, a Republican like President Bush, said Texas is "not going to stand by and allow our citizens to be placed in danger" by increased illegal immigration and by drug-fueled violence in northern Mexico, which is spilling over into the U.S.

The governor said the National Guard troops would be used only for emergencies and not for routine patrolling of the 1,200-mile long Texas-Mexico border.

"This isn't just Texas' problem," Perry said. "This is about a terrorist slipping across the U.S. border with Mexico who has ill will in his heart in Oklahoma, or Pennsylvania, or Washington, D.C."

Perry's plan calls for state money to hire additional police officers in border counties, and deployment of four 50-member teams of state troopers who can quickly move to an area where border violence or an upsurge in illegal immigration is reported.

He also called for the construction of "border jails," saying the U.S. Border Patrol apprehends tens of thousands of illegals and suspicious persons each year that it releases on their "promise to appear in court" simply because there is no place in the sparsely populated border region to hold them.

"In the first seven months of this year, there were 119,000 illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico who were apprehended and then released into Texas streets," Perry said.

He called current policy a "catch and release program," and said thousands of those released, and who never appeared in court, were from countries "where terrorists and al-Qaida are active," including Iraq, Iran and Bangladesh.

Perry said it's only a "stopgap" measure, and he called on Congress to move quickly to provide funding for increased border security, including 10,000 additional Border Patrol agents.

Congress earlier this year passed legislation authorizing the hiring of 10,000 new Border Patrol agents over five years, but the Bush administration said they were not necessary.

"It is important for the federal government to understand that we have a major problem along the border with Mexico, and it is not going to go away," added Perry.

Perry joins two other governors in the Southwest who have decried inaction by the federal government in response to the crisis on the border.

In August, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano – both Democrats – declared states of emergency because of increasing violence along the border.

Perry's comments come as several groups of Minutemen civilian volunteers are in the middle of a month-long effort to patrol the Texas-Mexico border. Tomorrow, the attorneys general of the U.S. and Mexico meet in San Antonio to discuss cross-border security issues.

"This border-security plan will increase the law enforcement presence in the border region, provide new investigative tools, improve communications among law enforcement officials, and make our border region more secure," Perry said. "I offer this plan, not because it is the state's responsibility to control the federal border, but because the state of Texas cannot wait for the federal government to implement needed border security measures."

Perry's border security plan includes six action areas:


Fully support local law enforcement;

Reduce violent crime along the border;

Accelerate radio interoperability;

Develop a bilateral all-hazards response plan;

Leverage the expertise and experience of the National Guard to provide training and participate in response exercises;

Pass legislative reforms, including the expansion of state wiretap authority.
"With more than 1,200 miles of border shared with Mexico, Texas is clearly at the center of the important debate about how best to secure our border," Perry said. "In this post-9-11 era, there is no such thing as homeland security without border security."

Perry noted that al-Qaida and other terrorists and criminal organizations view the porous Texas-Mexico border as an opportunity to import terror, illegal narcotics and weapons of mass destruction.

"Texas cannot stand idly by when the safety and security of our people is threatened by multi-national criminal syndicates that seek to spread fear and do harm," Perry said. "This border security plan will improve law enforcement coordination, increase our law enforcement presence, and better prepare us to respond to a catastrophe along the border. It will lead to a safer America because it focuses not only on what happens at our ports of entry, but also between them as well."