Senate Finance Committee Chairwoman Jane Nelson (2009 AP Photo/Harry Cabluck)
Senate budget writers largely broke along party lines Tuesday as they debated Gov. Rick Perry’s deployment of the National Guard to the Texas-Mexico border. But amid the predictable thrusts and jabs, there was at least a joke about Dallas-Fort Worth motorists.
Republicans supported Perry’s move, citing this year’s surge in crossings by unaccompanied child migrants from Central America.
“We’ve got to stop this,” said Finance Committee Chairwoman Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound.
She said the federal government hasn’t done its job.
“I have great appreciation for the position of the governor. We’ve got to do something,” she said.
Democrats, though, called the deployment unwise – and unlikely to work.
Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, said that when Perry last month declared an emergency, he shouldn’t have cited six years’ worth of statistics as justification.
Perry said there had been more than 200,000 unauthorized immigrants booked into county jails since 2008.
Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, left (AP Photo/The Monitor, Gabe Hernandez)
Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, said drug cartels would evade soldiers, airmen and state Guard members, who are expected to be deployed in the most populous areas of South Texas, by simply going further up river. He mentioned Rio Grande City.
“I would rather give the money to [the Department of Public Safety] than to the National Guard,” said
Hinojosa, the committee’s vice chairman. “They have been there for many years, and they know the Valley.”
Texas Adjutant Gen. John Nichols said very few Guard members have arrived at the border. About 500 are undergoing training at Camp Swift near Bastrop, he said. When they complete their seven days of training, they’ll be sent to South Texas, he said. Only then will additional troops be called up, he said.
Nichols said that by staggering call ups, he has avoided paying troops as they waited for training.
He said he expects the $42.2 million provided for the mission so far to last until late October. Last week, a top Perry aide said the money would run out in early October.
Of the funds, $38.7 million is from a DPS radio purchases fund and $3.5 million is federal criminal-justice planning grant money.
Nelson, who represents part of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, raised a local concern.
“People in North Texas are worried that all of a sudden, all of our state troopers are now going to be pulled down to the border,” she said.
“They say it’s a great time to speed up in my area. Everybody’s down in the Valley,” she joked.