Posted on 10/12/2005 2:41:43 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
LAREDO — Border-area sheriffs got a boost from Gov. Rick Perry Wednesday to the tune of $9.7 million in state money deployed as part of a border security plan.
The funding will be made available to the 16-member Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition immediately, and the group will have wide discretion over how to spend it, Perry said.
The coalition was formed in May in response to border concerns about spillover violence from feuding Mexican drug cartels and the belief among some local officials that the federal government is not doing enough to keep potential terrorists from infiltrating the southern border.
The money is to come from the state's criminal justice grant funds, Perry said, with $6 million going to the coalition's "Operation Linebacker," to hire additional local officers and to pay overtime wages for increased patrols.
“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,” he said.
The sheriffs will also see part of another $3.7 million, also from criminal justice grant funds, to support interagency law enforcement cooperation along the border.
The money was part of a six-point border security plan that Perry announced in a rhetorical equivalent of the emergency declarations made recently by the governors of New Mexico and Arizona worried about loss of control of their border areas. Perry did not need to declare a state of emergency to release the funds, however.
Perry's security goals include achieving radio interoperability among border agencies, carrying out bio-hazard training together with Mexican forces, and tapping the National Guard to provide law enforcement support.
"I think clearly that the governor today, by his action, has recognized the state of emergency on our border," said U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, who was accompanying Perry.
mcastillo@express-news.net
>The funding will be made available to the 16-member Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition immediately, and the group will have wide discretion over how to spend it, Perry said.<
Being a lifelong Texan, and having spent a good deal of time working in South Texas as a vendor and consultant to county government, I can honestly say that the wide discretion on spending will wind up being new $50K pickups for the sheriff, and perhaps a private deer lease for the sheriffs to use as a 'conference facility' to discuss border issues.
Nice job Rick 'Hair' Perry, thanks for blowing more of my tax money.
Culberson said Monday the border law enforcement bill he is currently working on is an evolution of a bill he filed “in frustration” in July. That bill, House Resolution 3622, would enable governors of states along international borders to call up, equip and train a “volunteer militia” to augment existing border law enforcement.
“I filed (H.R. 3622) because I was fed up and frustrated,” Culberson said. He later added, “I do not plan to pursue (H.R. 3622).”
His new bill, Culberson added, would echo “Operation Linebacker,” a move by the Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition to seek federal funding to augment border security efforts and to provide a second line of defense, likened to the position of a linebacker on a football team.
http://www.delrionewsherald.com/story.lasso?ewcd=97d2576a0fb64566
Frustration Ping!
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off this South Texas/Mexico ping list.
Nice thought, but what can the Sheriffs do with my tax money? Will they be arresting and deporting illegals?
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