Posted on 08/17/2011 10:42:50 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Rick Perry called the idea of a wall across the entire U.S.-Mexico border “ridiculous” today in a stop in New Hampshire.
“You got strategic fencing in some of the metropolitan areas – it’s very helpful,” the Texas governor said. “But the idea that you’re going to build a wall from Brownsville to El Paso is just -- it’s ridiculous on its face.”
That was in the context of Perry saying how he'd asked Washington for 1,000 National Guard troops and how current efforts at border security are ineffective.
Perry swatted at the Obama administration’s assertion that the “border is safer than it’s ever been.”
“Six week ago, the president went to El Paso and sai the border is safer than it’s ever been,” Perry began. “I have no idea, maybe he was talking about the Canadian border. I will assure you one thing, if I’m president of the United States, the border will be secure.”
(Excerpt) Read more at firstread.msnbc.msn.com ...
What about minefield?
Perry’s right.. we should however set up about a two mile wide DMZ, razor wire ans shoot anything coming across.
I am NOT in favor of open borders, but I am against either a wall or a fence for technical reasons and because of the expense.
yep, like that’s going to happen.
Send us Texans a few bucks to secure the 1250 mile section of the INTERNATIONAL border Texas shares with Mexico.
We've been dealt a hand here in Texas (and if you've read my threads you know much of this) where we have a federal government that has not answered the call to protect the 1250 border miles Texas shares with Mexico. Gov. Perry does not believe a fence is the answer to illegals crossing the U.S.-Mexican border. He believes conservative ascendancy will. So we do the best with what we have ($100M/yr of our own state money put up to help secure an international border). We have a lot of crime to combat and pay for because of the illegal activity (drugs, human smuggling and trafficking) generated by an unsecured international border.
We can't refuse to educate or give health care, as everyone in every state is faced with the same situation, but since Perry is a border gov, he's held responsible for illegal aliens, where everyone vents their frustration about the problem using him as a whipping boy (and to make political points and take pot shots). Perry's asked for drones (went to Israel and asked how they protect Gaza Strip), has asked for 3000 people here on the TX border (crickets). Perry has set up an elite Texas Ranger unit to work on the border. Then we find out the Feds have been "running guns" across the border and we've had people killed because of that.
The Texas Dream Act was set up because we have a lot of kids here from the way the feds have allowed this to snowball. Students who have been in Texas for 3 years and graduated from a Texas high school get instate tuition (no benefits -- they pay their way) The entire Texas Senate voted for this in 2001. (The Texas Dream Act does NOT have all the hidden goodies the U.S. Congress "Dream Act" was trying to get into law.)
Perry has said: “If you show up illegally, without your card or you’re here as a criminal element, I’m for throwing the book at those folks, but the issue of people who want to legally, thoughtfully and appropriately come to America to work and help us build our economy — we should quickly come up with a program and an identification card to do that.”
The Texas legislature meets every 2 years for 140 days and the governor is allowed to call Special Sessions. He called a Special Session because he had put "sanctuary cities" on the agenda and the legislature dropped the ball -- but the Senate and then the House left again -- giving Gov. Perry nothing to sign (Texas legislators also have elections they'll be facing and no doubt didn't want a vote on this shadowing their re-election bids).
In this just ended session, after about 3 tries to slip it into a bill, a law that required people to show their birth certificate to get a drivers license got through [The amendment, added by Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, to the education funding bill legislators needed to balance the state budget had originally been included in Senate Bill 9, the so-called "sanctuary cities" bill that failed in the special session. It also had appeared in an omnibus homeland security bill by Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, that died in the regular session......By putting it into law the state potentially undermines an ongoing lawsuit that argues DPS doesn't have authority to check legal status.]. However, the ink on that law was barely dry before it was overturned by a judge – as usual.
In this last Texas Legislative session Gov. Perry signed the Texas Photo ID Voting Law -- it took 6 years to get it through -- Only 6 states have a PHOTO Voter ID requirement.
Texas has a long history with Mexico and being "Mexican" does not mean that you aren't an American, or a Texan. A lot of Texans have Mexican heritage or are married to someone who does. Perry doesn't lead with his chin. He's a thoughtful man.
Rick Perry is as ready to fix this as anyone and understands it probably better than anyone running -- or commenting anonymously on a chat site.
Somebody should ask Perry about enforcement of immigration laws in the interior of the United States. If he is opposed to e-verify and deportations we need to move on to another candidate.
We could sub it out to the North Koreans...
If compared against the cost of social and hospital services for illegals, a serious fence and a functioning Border Patrol might seem like a cheap investment.
I wonder how many folks aren’t going to bother reading the whole article and going just on the headline, condemn Perry.
I’m not a Perry fan, but he’s right on this one.
There are long stretches of the southwestern border with Mexico, particularly in Texas along the Rio Grande, where natural terrain is a deterrent. The geography there is brutal, as Perry well knows.
A man-built wall would be redundant and a waste of money.
Concentrate barriers where people can actually cross.
A 100 yard wide mine field would be far more efficient
expense and results....if you spend gazillions on a wall but its not monitored its a waste of money....didn’t Perry say he wanted to use predators to track illegal drugs coming across the border?? not perfect but a more efficient use of tax $$$..
I still don't know why we don't have a militarized border in this time of 'war'.
And if the threat of Terrorism is so high as to invade Iraq and strike in other places, one would assume you would cover your border as well.
Ok a couple years ago he called it “nonsense”...and the PerryBots are have sworn thats in the past and he’s a “changed man”..... bwahahahahahahah
I would have figured a 500 yard free-fire zone each side of the line from the Gulf to the Pacific would be sufficient.
Maybe the materials would be expensive, but the labor would be mostly free -- because we could arrest every illegal that comes to the attention of LEO, and put them to work for six months on the wall, before deporting them to Mexico with a tattoo on their foreheads saying: "Property of Mexico."
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