Perry to put guardsmen on border
AUSTIN, Texas — Gov. Rick Perry on Monday ordered 1,000 National Guard troops to the border with Mexico, seizing on a get-tough immigration message that foreshadows the approach to the current crisis by his party in Congress and could position him in another bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
Perry announced the move at the Texas Capitol, but many of the intended recipients were far away: members of Congress in Washington, including those who are fighting with President Obama; potential migrants in Central America who are contemplating a dangerous journey to the United States; and presidential caucus voters in Iowa, where Perry visited again last weekend.
Tens of thousands of Central Americans fleeing violence in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras have attempted to cross Texas’ 1,200-mile border with Mexico in recent months. The influx of undocumented immigrants, many of them children and teenagers unaccompanied by any parent or guardian, has left federal officials scrambling to find emergency shelters to house them.
Perry said criminal organizations were benefiting from the diversion of resources to deal with the wave of Central American immigration, and so more security was needed. The cost of deploying the National Guard was estimated at $12 million a month, a bill he and other Texas Republicans vowed to send to the federal government.
“Drug cartels, human traffickers and individual criminals are exploiting this tragedy for their own criminal opportunities,” Perry said.
His action reflected a debate on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are considering the president’s request for $3.7 billion to add resources along the border to respond to the arrival of the Central American migrants. Re- publicans have argued that the crisis was of Obama’s own making. They have also floated an increased National Guard presence at the border.
After 13 years as governor, Perry is contemplating another run for the presidency in 2016. By seeking more military resources at the border, Perry may also be trying to repair his standing among some conservatives who had expressed doubts about his willingness to be tough on immigration. During a Republican presidential debate in 2012, the Texas governor defended letting undocumented immigrants pay in-state tuition.
In Texas, Democrats called Perry’s plan an attempt to score political points and to create an oppressive military atmosphere along the border. “If we were to use crime as a basis to deploy the National Guard, then we should be sending the National Guard to other metropolitan areas in our state,” said state Sen. Juan Hinojosa, who represents the Rio Grande Valley.