Texas Gov. Rick Perry today spoke to group of National Guard soldiers who are deploying to the border.
The governor said that more than 2,000 Guard had volunteered for the 1,000-person mission, which he ordered to deal with the massive influx of illegal aliens crossing the border.
Perry lit into Washington for failing to deal with the crisis on the border before leaving town on the congressional recess, and the president’s trip to Martha’s Vineyard.
Weighing in on national politics, Perry praised House Republicans for their “good faith effort” to pass a border-security bill that would have allocated additional funds to the child immigrant crisis before leaving town for the August recess. The bill – which would have been a non-starter with the Democrat-controlled Senate because it was perceived as weakening due process provisions for Central American children — was passed after senators had left town without a fix of their own.
“We expect the Senate to get back into town. I don’t know why they took a five-week vacation without dealing with this issue. Because I’ll tell you one thing: the narcoterrorists didn’t take a vacation.”
As Texas’ longest-serving governor, Perry is far from new to the issue of border security.
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