Posted on 07/21/2014 3:42:09 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Texas Rep. Joaquín Castro on Monday said Gov. Rick Perry is “militarizing our border” with his reported decision to deploy state National Guard troops there.
“We should be sending the Red Cross to the border not the National Guard to deal with this humanitarian crisis,” the Democratic congressman said in an email. “The children fleeing violence in Central America are seeking out border patrol agents. They are not trying to evade them. Why send soldiers to confront these kids?”
Militarizing our border is the wrong response to the arrival of children,” Castro continued. “I remain hopeful that our state can provide a more helpful response than to send armed soldiers to greet children seeking refuge from violence.”
Castro was responding to a report from The Monitor that Perry is planning to deploy up to 1,000 Texas National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border.
“At 2pm CDT today, Gov. Rick Perry will hold a press conference to discuss activating up to 1,000 National Guard troops to secure the Texas-Mexico border,” he wrote in a Facebook post on Monday.
Castro initially weighed in on the move on Sunday evening, posting the Monitor story on Twitter and tweeting: “We should be sending the Red Cross to the border not the National Guard.”
Democratic state Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa told the Texas newspaper that Perry would be making the announcement Monday afternoon.
According to an internal memo obtained the newspaper, Perry will call for a gradual escalation of Guard troops with the potential of reaching 1,000 troops after one month.
In June, Texas sent officials from the Texas Department of Public Safety to the border to focus on drug trafficking and human smuggling.
Perhaps anticipating blowback to the decision, the memo states that the move does not amount to “a militarization of the border.”
“This is not a militarization of the border,” the memo says. “The DPS and the National Guard are working to keep any drug and human trafficking south of 83 and with the goal of keeping any smuggling from entering major highways to transport East/West/and North.”
The memo estimates that the deployment of troops, in addition to the DPS forces now along the border, will cost Texas $5 million a week. The memo reports that while the state hasn’t yet determined how exactly to pay for the increase in forces, the money will come out of “non critical” areas in the budget.
Hinojosa also criticized the governor’s decision, saying it was a political decision and not about fixing the issue. “All these politicians coming down to border, they don’t care about solving the problem, they just want to make a political point,” the state senator said.
Perry has harshly criticized President Barack Obama for his handling of the influx of more than 50,000 undocumented and unaccompanied children across the U.S.-Mexico border since October. The potential 2016 presidential candidate has accused the president of not caring about the border crisis, failing to visit the border and not taking strong enough action to combat the problem.
At a House Homeland Security Committee field hearing earlier this month, Perry called on the Obama administration to deploy the National Guard to control the situation.
The governor seemingly previewed his announcement over the weekend. “If the federal government does not do its constitutional duty to secure the southern border of the United States, the state of Texas will do it,” Perry said Sunday at an event in Iowa.
What good are National Guardsmen if they cannot arrest or fire on anyone, though?
They sure make it easy to despise them
I wish.
Shoot the invaders and leave the corpses as a warning to others.
Castro: Rick Perry ‘militarizing’ border
And your point Comrade?
Another Communist Castro heard from. This is the caliber of politician Latinos elect to public office in San Antonio. Coming to your town as soon as a few hundred million more are allowed to squat here.
Do Leftists EVER get tired of lying? Violence is DOWN in most Central American countries.
All of these commies are corrupt and on the take, when the right gets hold of DOJ they need to neutralize these degenerate socialist crooks by indicting, convicting , and imprisoning them.
If all it does is send a message and some pictures back to unproven “violence ridden” Central America - that might help a little bit to stem the invasion. It’s certainly more than the “Bear” is doing - sitting around eating hamburgers and playing with himself
I was in Belize, Honduras and Costa Rica last month - didn’t look any different to me than it did 20 years ago except people are better off
I just heard on the news that it will take 30 days for the troops to make it to the border.
Apparently, they are having trouble deciding where to put the, ‘Transgender’, latrine...
If the border were militarized just what would be wrong with that?
What the heck does Castro do with Cuba’s border? Or just about anyone else in the world?
Sen. Cornyn voted to approve Castro so Castro would have national standing and could oppose Cruz.
Corn-row is a disgrace.
Millitarizing the border?
Good!
This is Joaquin Castro, the brother of the, now, former mayor of San Antonio.
“Militarizing the border’?
Last week Mark Levin was wondering out loud why some people have a hissy fit over the concept of self-deportation for illegals. Militarizing the border is a similar concept. I want someone to lead me step by step into why it is such an evil thing. Those three thousand Americans killed by illegal aliens over the past few years would still be alive.
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