This week Governor Perry announced that he will send 1,000
National Guards troops to the border to solve the border crisis. Perry did this
despite hearing a report from border police departments that crime has not
risen due to the growing number of immigrants coming in, specifically the unaccompanied
minors. Militarizing the border is the answer if the problem is crime, but the
problem isn’t crime. The real problem (and one that can be fixed) is people not
efficiently being legally let into the country and granted citizenship or quickly
deported depending on the circumstance. This problem can’t be solved with
increase border security. This can only be solved through legislation, but it
is not happening because there is so much gridlock and stubborn debate. Governor
Perry is doing a good job in making public the need for something to happen for
immigration reform, but that something is not 1000 troops. The goal should have
been to make the federal government look like the fool, not Texas.
This current
immigration problem cannot be fixed through military. Increased crime can be
fixed through military, but, despite what Perry thinks, that is not the
problem. The only thing these troops can do is wait around with these kids that
are waiting to either get their citizenship or get deported. In fact, it has
been reported that children run to the new troops after they cross the border. This
shows that not only are these troops not helping the situation, but it shows
that these kids aren’t afraid of law enforcement because they don’t want to do
anything illegal or be involved in crimes.
Governor
Perry wants the federal government to pay the 3 million a week that it costs to
send 1000 troops. While it is the federal government that is not fixing the problem
when they are capable to, it should not be them to pay the money. Instead, Governor
Perry should pick up the bill because this whole thing was publicity for his
presidency. No problems were solved by what he did, except the problem that he
was not currently being talked about in the news. So in the end the troops were
a huge success and did exactly what they were supposed to do: get Rick Perry on
the news. But in all seriousness, Texas should pay for it because it has the
most support for what Perry did and it was Texas (in the form of Rick Perry) that
made it happen. Deploying troops had nothing to do with the federal government
and they shouldn’t pay money for it.
What
should happen is the troops need to be brought home immediately and that 3
million a week should go towards a better cause like feeding law-abiding children
that we have locked up in a large room at the border waiting until congress
passes a law that decides their fate.
2 comments:
Jake Moser argues that the deployment of National Guard troops to the border was unnecessary in his recent blog post, Charge the Troops to your Campaign Fund Instead, Mr. Perry. In the post, Jake argues that Governor Perry is correctly drawing attention to the issue of immigration reform but is wasting resources by using the National Guard in a purpose that will have no beneficial effect on the current immigration problem. The children who are arriving at the border in droves are not committing crimes and therefore additional law enforcement will serve no purpose other than to waste $3 million per week.
I agree with Mr. Moser’s commentary and also believe that Governor Perry is misusing State resources to keep his name in the media in preparation for a 2016 presidential run. The current immigration crisis cannot be solved at the state level and Governor Perry’s efforts will prove fruitless as the migrants will already be on American soil by the time they encounter border security personnel. The national media attention being brought to the issue should be used constructively to foster ideas that provide long-term solutions amicable to all parties involved.
The blog post is well written and makes compelling, well-reasoned arguments. In improving the commentary, I would suggest including a citation or embedded link confirming the estimated $38 million monthly cost statistic to assure the reader that facts are not being misstated. The argument regarding crime could be strengthened by including quotes from key officials in the affected region, such as Hidalgo County Judge Ramon Garcia, who told USA TODAY, “There is no public safety crisis here. These are not drug dealers. These are not terrorists. These are human beings looking for something better than what they had."
The issue I have with this argument is that, at the time, we didn't know the crime rates were not rising because the entire point of illegal activity on the border is to not get caught. If people are not getting caught then it's obvious that we can't say crime is higher now. With drastically less people patrolling the border (because they are having to care for these children and do a lot a of paper work for them) it's even easier for criminals to not get caught, thus; it means that the rate of crime would not go up because we simply don't know that the crime has happened. The National Guard was invoked to get manpower back to the border to ensure that crime has not increased and that it won't increase in the future. Accordingly, I believe it is short sighted to say, since crime didn't go up we should just wait for the national government to handle it, because if there are deficiencies in the border patrol it would only be a matter of time before the border is taken advantage of. Thus, I believe that Perry's call for the National Guard was justified.
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