The $30 million “border surge” ordered by Texas Gov. Rick Perry shows no sign of stopping, even though apprehensions began plummeting before the National Guard got there, the local press reports.
The director of the Texas Department of Public Safety Steve McCraw told state lawmakers in July that the intention behind deploying 1,000 National Guard troops to the border was to reduce apprehensions for illegal crossing from a peak average of 6,600 per week to 2,000 per week. That metric was attained this month, according to The Houston Chronicle, but Perry says he doesn’t yet intend to recall the National Guard troops, which are the largest part of a border surge package costing Texas taxpayers $4 million each week, according to the Chronicle.
Perry ordered the deployment of 1,000 National Guard troops following this year's influx of tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors and children traveling with their mothers, the vast majority of them from Central America.
Despite the recent drop in illegal immigration, however, Perry continues to view the National Guard deployment as necessary. His critics, on the other hand, view the deployment as part of an effort to position himself for a presidential run in 2016, after appearing soft on immigration to the GOP base last time around for supporting his state's version of the Dream Act, according to The Washington Post.
Perry’s actions on the border have drawn repeated criticism from the Mexican government.
“Not only is it displeasing, but I think it’s reprehensible,” Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said last week of the National Guard deployment, according to Reuters. “It is an attack on good relations and neighborliness.”
The Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Affairs has also slammed Perry for saying that terrorists might be crossing into the United States through the southern border.
The Department of Homeland Security says “no credible intelligence” exists to show that the Islamic State group is planning an attack through the southern border. Officials with Customs and Border Patrol told lawmakers earlier this month that if such a group were to attempt an attack on the United States, its members would be much more likely to fly on a commercial airline than cross the U.S.-Mexico border.
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