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Governor Rick Perry on Sunday said the arrival of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children from Central America was not the reason he had chosen to deploy 1,000 National Guard troops to the border.
In a fierce attack on President Barack Obama the Republican, a potential presidential candidate in 2016, repeated contested figures about homicides and sexual assaults carried out by illegal migrants and said “historic record highs” of individuals from countries “with substantial terrorist ties” were attempting to cross into the US from the south.
Also on Sunday Dan Pfeiffer, a senior White House adviser, said Obama would decide by the end of the summer how to address the immigration question and called reports that up to 5 million deportations might be delayed “uninformed speculation”.
Speaking to ABC, Pfieffer said the president was waiting for recommendations from the attorney general, Eric Holder, and homeland security secretary, Jeh Johnson, and added that any actions would be within “the confines of the law”.
“We’ll wait and see what those [recommendations] are before we make any judgments about them,” Pfeiffer said.
Congress adjourned for the summer on Friday without agreeing a resolution to the crisis. Pfeiffer said Obama had no choice but to act on his own because of Congress’s “failure to fix the immigration system” and provide extra money to deal with Central American children crossing the US-Mexico border.
Perry, however, told CNN’s State of the Union the plight of unaccompanied migrant children in the US was “a tragedy” but added: “From my perspective as the governor of Texas the reason we are deploying 1,000 National Guard troops is so that the people of Texas will feel that at least the state of Texas is doing something to try to make their communities safer.”
He continued: “It is about those individuals who are coming across the border. Countries that have substantial terrorist ties, whether it’s Afghanistan or Pakistan or Syria – we have historic record highs of individuals being apprehended from those countries. We say it’s time to secure the border.”
On the same show Mike Rogers, the Republican chair of the House of Representatives intelligence committee, was asked if Perry’s claims about illegal immigrants with links to terrorism were valid. He said: “We have seen a trend of countries that we are very concerned about, a rise of individuals being apprehended at the border.
“What’s worrying about that is that those are just the ones who get apprehended. A porous southern border is now on the advertising list for those who want to do nefarious activities within the United States. Everything from criminal activities … to trafficking and now these groups who we believe are in some way connected to terrorist organisations at least having the understanding.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that they’ve figured out the border is a weakness in our national security.”
Asked about reports that Obama is considering reducing the number of deportations of illegal immigrants, Perry said: “I think that is a side issue.
“What we are substantially more concerned about in the state of Texas … is the 80% of individuals who don’t get talked about enough that are coming into the US illegally and committing substantial crimes. Since September ’08 we have seen 203,000 individuals who have illegally come into the United States booked into Texas county jails.
“These individuals are responsible for 3,000 homicides and almost 8,000 sexual assaults. I wish the president would respect that desire of citizens of Texas and this country to secure the border. That’s the real issue and it’s one that all too often gets deflected by discussion of unaccompanied migrant children.”
Challenged by host Candy Crowley on his contention regarding “3,000 homicides”, which she called “wildly off”, Perry said: “Let me go back to those numbers. I do stand by them, by the way.
“What are the numbers of homicides that are acceptable? … How many homicides and sexual assaults do we have to see before the president of the United States acts to keep our citizens safe?”
The political fact-checking website Politifact.com has disputed Perry’s claim that illegal immigrants have committed 3,000 homicides, a claim that has also been made by Gregg Abbott, the Texas attorney general who is running to succeed Perry as governor in November’s election. The website awarded statements by both men “pants on fire” ratings.
Perry denied that the National Guard deployment was an electoral gambit for a potential presidential run.
