Free Republic

ROCKPORT, Texas—Texas Governor Rick Perry’s decision to activate the Texas National Guard and deploy them along a relatively small sector of the Texas-Mexico border has brought criticism from one border county’s sheriff’s office and praise from another. While some leaders along the border appear to be concerned about a “militarization” of the border region, others see it as an opportunity to stop the senseless deaths that have been occurring South Texas. At least one sheriff questioned the wisdom of Perry’s decision to send military people into the area who are not authorized to stop anyone, according to the Dallas Morning News...

HOUSTON, Texas — Members of the Texas National Guard currently in training at Camp Swift, near Austin, have been told to stand by for a personal briefing from Texas Governor Rick Perry. Perry is expected to arrive at Camp Swift this morning to brief the troops on his expectations of their deployment. It is still not clear as to exactly where this first batch of troops will be deployed, according to one of the soldiers currently at Camp Swift. The soldier has been at the camp receiving training this week and expects to be deployed somewhere along the border this...

On Tuesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said Texas Gov. Rick Perry's enthusiastic embrace of in-state tuition for illegal immigrants is a magnet that lures more illegal immigrants to America – just like President Barack Obama's temporary amnesty program for DREAMers. “President Obama won’t send them home, and Gov. Perry has done the same thing by giving them in-state tuition," Paul told the Wall Street Journal during a significant Iowa trip. "That’s a beacon without any kind of border security."

The number of illegal aliens being apprehended coming across the southwest border who hail from countries with “substantial terrorist ties” is at a record high, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Sunday in comments backed up by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers. Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union, Perry rejected the notion that his decision to deploy 1,000 National Guard troops to the Texas-Mexico border was related to a prospective 2016 presidential bid. “It hasn’t got anything to do with anything other than those numbers of individuals who are coming across the border,” he said. “And when you think...

For decades, America has stood with Israel and defended its right to protect itself against attacks from the radical Islamic terrorists of Hamas and similar organizations. This time around, however, the Obama administration and Secretary of State John Kerry have demanded that Israel agree to cease-fire proposals that Israel knew were not in its best interests–but, wanting to preserve the historically strong relationship between the two countries, Israel agreed. Three men died as a direct result, when Palestinian militants broke the cease-fire in less than two hours. Israel has said that they are no longer interested in interference in their...

House Republicans looked set to pass a bill on Thursday aimed at addressing the crisis on the southern border. After being revised repeatedly in order to appease conservative members who thought the bill did not go far enough, the leadership appeared to have settled on a final version which enjoyed broad support. The package even had the backing of moderate Democrats like Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX). “GOP leaders went to great lengths to secure passage by allowing a separate vote on a measure that would block Obama from any further executive action to stop the deportation of undocumented immigrants brought...

Remember when former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the consummate “moderate Republican,” shocked everyone by calling immigration an “act of love?” It looks like he’s changed his mind. On Thursday, he called for nearly all of the 50,000-plus immigrants in limbo on our Southwest border to be sent home. That is, “except for those deserving few who may demonstrate a true case for asylum.” Deserving few? Someone should ask Bush which of the children fleeing impoverished and violent countries (where they have a 1 in 15 chance of being murdered) like Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras “deserve” to be sent home....

There is no debate we’re a country in transition. The only debate is what we’re actually transitioning to, and whether we’ll be better or worse as a people for it. Such transitions challenge trusted traditions to prove they’re still relevant. Old alliances are tested. And folks tend to gravitate to new ideas quickly before they’re fully vetted, mainly because they’ve lost faith in the old ideas. In the political arena, nowhere will this attempted paradigm shift be more apparent than the foreign policy debate that could very well define the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Recently, Kentucky Senator...

The American people cheered – starved for any crumb of leadership and faithfulness to constitutional duties – at the news of Governor Rick Perry calling out the Texas National Guard to patrol the Texas-Mexican border. Then, within the hour, Texas officials conceded that the inadequate contingent of 1,000 guardsmen will not actually do anything but stand around. Texas officials now admit that the 1,000 guardsmen will simply be a “visual deterrent” – for appearances only. The Texas government argues that the Texas National Guard will not have authority to arrest anyone under the Posse Comitatus law. But that is absurd....

Over the past three weeks, one Republican has gained more national attention than any other: Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX). He has been everywhere - calling up the Texas National Guard, appearing on network interviews, headlining Sunday shows, touring the southern border with Fox News' Sean Hannity, appearing on The Blaze with Glenn Beck. Perry has penned national op-eds on border security in The Wall Street Journal and The USA Today. Gov. Perry greeted President Obama on the tarmac, met with him in Dallas, and spent the next day on the southern border--a marked contrast with President Obama who spent the...

Gov. Rick Perry of Texas plans to order 1,000 National Guard troops to his state's border with Mexico in an effort to stem the tide of immigrants illegally entering from Central America, dispersing around the country once they've made it into Texas. Critics will call it a stunt and accuse Perry of showboating, but at least he is taking action, while President Obama, who took an oath to defend the country from all enemies foreign and domestic, drinks beer, plays pool and attends fundraisers as our borders are overrun. Enemies are more than adversary nations with weapons. An enemy can...

Why would you spend millions of dollars sending troops to the border who can't actually detain anyone? That's what some Texas sheriffs of border towns are asking in the wake of Gov. Rick Perry's plan to send 1,000 National Guards members to the Texas/Mexico border in the next month, according to the Dallas Morning News. For them, it would be more useful to spend the money on hiring more deputies and police, aka people who are allowed to detain migrants. “I don’t know what good they can do,” Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio told the Dallas Morning News. “You just...

http://new.livestream.com/accounts/4773527/events/3206474 Live coverage of Texas Governor's Press Conference.

Perhaps no state claims the sense of pride that is evident in Texas. Author Mark Davis talks about this shared sentiment in his new book "Lone Star America." This week, he spoke with Townhall about how Texas is excelling and taking the lead on just about every issue from jobs to energy to the Second Amendment. He shared some insight into policies that allow Texas to thrive economically, as well as his thoughts as to which Texans could be in the White House in 2016. Why write this book now? In 30 plus years of doing radio talk shows, conservatives...

Gov. Rick Perry to deploy 1,000 National Guard troops to RGV Texas Gov. Rick Perry plans to announce he will activate the Texas National Guard at a news conference Monday in Austin, said state Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen. Hinojosa did not have details of the effort, but an internal memo from another state official’s office said the governor planned to call about 1,000 Texas National Guard troops to the Rio Grande Valley — at a cost of about $12 million per month. The memo was provided to The Monitor on the condition of anonymity because the information is...

Gov. Rick Perry is expected to announce Monday that he will activate up to 1,000 Texas National Guard troops to the Rio Grande Valley, state Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, confirmed Sunday night. Perry wants these troops to bolster the work already being done with a surge of Texas Department of Public Safety troopers, said Hinojosa's spokesperson, Jennifer Saenz, who added that the governor gave the Rio Grande Valley delegation notice prior to the planned 2 p.m. announcement on border security......... In Iowa on Sunday, Perry told a small group at a VFW hall that if President Barack Obama fails...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is visiting Iowa for the fourth time in eight months, hoping for a second chance to win over Republican voters who delivered him a stinging caucus loss when he ran for president two years ago. Perry, 64, hasn't said if he plans to run again in 2016. But he's clearly considering it and is meeting Saturday and Sunday with veterans and conservative activists in the northern Iowa communities of Algona and Clear Lake. Perry has been raising funds for GOP candidates and seeking advice from political insiders since November. He is signaling he's committed to the...

Iran! Oil prices! Rick Perry! Even if you think you know who’ll control Congress next year, the road to the November midterms will be full of big surprises.From a deal with Iran to an uptick in the employment rolls, a lot can happen to shift the political conversation between now and November. Immigration reform, for example, was supposed to help Democrats in the midterm elections. Clashes on the border between angry Texans and buses carrying immigrant children fleeing gang violence and sex trafficking highlighted the GOP’s opposition, and Democrats thought maybe this was the game changer they needed. But the...

This Rand Paul versus Rick Perry GOP thunderstorm popped up pretty fast, didn’t it? It was a dark cloud on the horizon on Friday, when Governor Perry of Texas published an op-ed in The Washington Post that attacked Senator Paul as a foreign policy isolationist. Paul is reluctant to devote more US troops and weapons to Iraq, and Perry used that position to portray the Kentucky lawmaker as the reverse of Ronald Reagan, as someone who wants to hunker down at home rather than lead the world. ((snip)) Plus, Perry’s behind. It’s early yet, but as our colleague Brad Knickerbocker...

FULL TITLE Rand Paul Fires Back at Rick Perry: ‘Apparently His New Glasses Haven’t Altered His Perception Of The World’ Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul on Monday fired back at fellow Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who accused Paul over the weekend of standing for “isolationist policies” that “would only endanger our national security.” “There are many things I like about Texas Gov. Rick Perry, including his stance on the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution,” Paul said. “But apparently his new glasses haven’t altered his perception of the world, or allowed him to see it any more clearly.” The new foreign...