Posted on 09/16/2009 5:04:51 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
AUSTIN -- A coalition of municipal and county officials along Texas' 1,200-mile-long border is challenging Gov. Rick Perry's statements that property owners and local law enforcement are being overwhelmed by smugglers and gangs from Mexico.
"Your remarks, if accurately reported, create a public impression of lawless hordes overrunning the border region and do not reflect our collective experience," Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster, chairman of the Texas Border Coalition, said in a letter to Perry. "While each of our communities has their own unique issues, being overwhelmed by criminal elements from Mexico is not one of them."
Foster made the remarks in response to Perry's announcement last week that he planned to deploy the Texas Rangers to work with the Texas National Guard in a beefed-up border enforcement effort. Perry said the teams would be dispatched to "high traffic, high-crime areas along the border" to help stem increased crime spilling over from Mexico.
"As county and municipal officials on the Texas-Mexico border, we strongly suggest improved coordination with local officials in your efforts," said Foster. "If you are devoting additional law enforcement personnel to our region, we would appreciate you and your staff taking the time to make sure that our efforts to secure the border are complimentary and coordinated."
Foster said that crime on the border is "on the way down" after decreasing by 65 percent over the past several years.
Apprehensions of illegal border crossers, he said, have dropped by 40 percent. El Paso, which Foster described as the third-safest city in the United States, has seen a 60 percent drop in arrests of illegal border crossers, said the mayor.
The Texas Border Coalition describes itself as "collective voice of border mayors, county judges, economic development commissions focused on issues that affect more than 6 million people...
(Excerpt) Read more at star-telegram.com ...
Follow the money.
surely perry did not say that
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
Even if the local governments were overwhelmed, I doubt they would want to advertise.
Maybe it’s the citizens in these “overwhelmed areas” the news people should be talking to instead of politicians.
Oh, for pete’s sake, who are these people writing this krap. We KNOW that people are getting killed in Juarez every day in the drug wars, we KNOW that there is high traffic and corruption going on at the border in El Paso. We know right now it’s not safe to go shopping down there anywhere.
And we also know that Eagle Pass/Piedras Negres is NOT a high traffic area like Juarez, Brownsville/Matamoros.
Why would these guys want to stop Governor Perry from sending help? Or is this a little political snit from the lefty looney influence?
You need to put the speaker for this coalition on your Ping list — I find what you send me overwhelming proof that Perry is at least doing something.
– Members of the Texas Border Coalition (TBC) are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal by El Paso County, the city of El Paso and others challenging the constitutionality of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff’s waivers of 37 federal laws and all state, local and tribal laws. Chertoff exercised these waivers in connection with the U.S.-Mexico border wall.
These are the folks who didn't want a wall built.
i have no idea...i like perry
“economic development commissions focused on issues that affect more than 6 million people...”
That translates to ‘community organizers’ like LaRAZA! TAX PAYER FUNDED!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2341502/posts
Fallout From ACORN Scandal May Hover Over Other Community Groups (LaRaza!)
I do too now that we got the corridor thing behind us when we had to slap him up side the head, but at this time, we’ve got to have somebody strong in the Gov’s Mansion.
Frankly I can’t stand Kay Baily Hutchinson. She votes socialist too much. Plus I was standing at the window in my office building in Austin watching when Ronnie Earle came carrying all those boxes of evidence out of her offices. She should’ve had to do time, but she got to the judge.
ya kay is a dirt bag and would be a lousy gov for TX
Isn't he the DA who hounded Tom Delay out of Congress? That crook is your hero?
What did Perry say?
I didn’t say Ronnie Earle was my hero. I said I watched as he hauled the evidence out of her office. KBH deserved what she got and more.
I admit I didn’t follow Tom Delay’s case as closely and don’t understand all the facts.
Just call the group, “Friends of KBH for Gov.” Go away Kay...
Friends of KBH, that’s who.
Agreed. Now is not the time to have a Repub bloodbath in Texas. Not even.
Show me any convictions Ronnie Earl has ever gotten against public officials.
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