Texas Gov. Rick Perry says talk from the White House about increased personnel deployed to secure the U.S.-Mexico border doesn’t wash with what he’s seeing in the Lone Star State.
“I have no idea what he’s talking about,” Mr. Perry said of President Obama. “He must have a totally different understanding about what a secure border is than what I do.”
“I’m not satisfied that 1,700 apprehensions a week is” secure, Mr. Perry added, “and that’s down from 10,000-plus a week.”
Mr. Perry, who is weighing another run at the White House in 2016, was speaking to Fox News host Bret Baier; he took Mr. Baier on both a helicopter and a boat tour of the southern border along the Rio Grande.
He said they’ve made “great progress” but that the border’s not secure yet and that he was “really disappointed” that Mr. Obama did not visit it to see things firsthand.
“I think it would have sent the message to the American people that he actually cares about this issue,” he said.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Monday that Mr. Obama’s executive actions to grant millions of illegal immigrants in the country temporary amnesty, and shield others from serious threat of deportation, will allow the government to deploy more resources to the border and to target serious criminals.
Mr. Johnson has also vowed to try to prevent a repeat of last summer, when tens of thousands of illegal immigrant children were crossing the border.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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