Ultimate honor for Houston scientist
at the border in early November for an initial 45-day deployment, in response to the caravan, which at one point numbered about 7,000 people, including many families with children.
On Monday, Col. Rob Manning said there are currently 2,200 active-duty troops in Texas, 1,350 in Arizona and 1,650 in California.
He declined to say how low the number of troops will go in coming weeks or provide details on any changes. He added, “the numbers of troops that we have will be commensurate with the support” that Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection request.
Among those Oksuz allegedly misled about the trip were Houston Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee and Ruben Hinojosa, a border district Democrat who has since retired from Congress.
Two Houston-area Republicans also made the governmentfunded trip: U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, who is retiring next month, and former Congressman Steve Stockman, who was sentenced last month to a 10-year prison term in an unrelated fraud case.
All but Stockman, who could not be reached for comment, told the Chronicle in 2015 that they had no advance knowledge that the state oil company had funded the conference. Poe’s office maintained that he contacted the House Ethics Committee to selfreport the allegations initially raised in a Chronicle investigation.