Perry: Law Enforcement Agency, National Guard Will Counter Violence

The Brownsville Herald

Sep. 11--Texas Gov. Rick Perry has announced the deployment of specially trained Texas Ranger Reconnaissance Teams and about 200 Texas National Guard troops to the Texas-Mexico border to deal with the ongoing violence along the border.

Perry said Thursday he's sending law enforcement personnel and troops because the federal government as yet to answer his plea that 1,000 National Guard troops be sent to help secure the nation's border.

With 73 percent of the Texas border privately owned, landowners along the area often face extortion or threats from violent criminal organizations that smuggle drugs, people and weapons across the border, the governor's office said in a press release.

Perry said the Texas Ranger Reconnaissance Teams will be sent to "hot spots" and will be paid for with money provided through state legislation, the Associated Press reported. Because officials don't want to "compromise the mission" the locations where the Ranger teams will be deployed were not released, a spokeswoman for the governor's office said.

Cameron County Judge Carlos H. Cascos said he didn't know if the Texas Rangers and Texas National Guard troops would be sent to Cameron County. However, he has long said it was just a matter of time before the violence, that has been occurring in places like Laredo and El Paso, would spread to South Texas.

Cascos said it would be premature to judge Perry's action, adding, "The governor's office may have intelligence about violence that we might not be aware of."

"If we knew all the state's Department of Homeland Security knew, we would probably be doing the same thing," Cascos said.

Earlier this year, Perry asked Janet Napolitano, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, to send resources and 1,000 troops to the border area because of ongoing violence in northern Mexico. As of Thursday, he was stilling waiting for the federal government to respond to his request.

Hidalgo County Judge J.D. Salinas III did not return calls seeking comment.

Last week, a Matamoros shootout prompted The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College to close its campus for the weekend after officials said bullets from the shootout struck a campus building and a car.

Students and faculty were asked to leave the campus, and soccer games scheduled on the campus were moved to the Brownsville Sports Park, because of the shootout.

Cascos said he's "positive" that Perry is aware of last week's shooting and was probably informed by Steve McGraw, the former state homeland security chief, who has a "real good pulse on what is happening along the border."

"No one can dispute there is some drug activity going on, not only here (in Matamoros), but in Reynosa as well," Cascos said.

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