Rick Perry Doesn’t Want Texas to Pay for Troops He’s Ordering to Border

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) made the decision last week to bypass the federal government and order 1,000 National Guard troops to help secure his state’s border with Mexico. But he would rather it not come out of the Texas budget.

“It’s a powerful reminder that what you are doing is a crime,” Perry told The Daily Signal, referring to undocumented immigrants who might come across the additional troops when crossing the border. “It’s just like a law enforcement effort in your neighborhood, where you see a parked patrol police car on the corner, and the bad guys see it and don’t commit a crime.”

More from the Signal, emphasis added:

Perhaps realizing the threat, President Obama dispatched a team to the border last week to determine whether a federally organized National Guard deployment was necessary.

No matter what (President Barack) Obama decides to do, Perry has said he intends to ask the federal government to pay for his deployment of 1,000 troops, estimated to cost $12 million a month.

Perry has been criticized for sending the troops, with the U.S. Border Patrol worrying that they lack the training to properly handle undocumented immigrants. Perry told the Signal that he is not granting the troops the authority to make arrests.

[Image via Christopher Halloran / Shutterstock.com]

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