Perry says, “Secure the border, Mr. President”

La Prensa de San Antonio.- Gov. Rick Perry discussed the border issue from a Texas perspective on national television earlier this week as a guest on the show On the Record w/Greta Van Susteren, publicly asking President Obama to secure the border.

The host asked the Governor about illegal immigration and the impact it had on Texas.

“Here’s the bigger issue for me … and it’s one that we try to focus on and try to get people all across the country to look at -- we can have these discussions and debates about immigration reform, but it doesn’t matter until we secure the border,” Perry said.

In the wake of the preliminary injunction against the Arizona law SB 1070, Perry weighed in supporting Gov. Jan Brewer, although he said a similar law was not the right direction for Texas.

Regardless of our feelings about SB 1070, Perry indicated, we must secure the border. “The federal government failing to secure the border is the biggest failure,” he said.

“We certainly support Arizona’s sovereign right to pass the law, and as a matter of fact, we are one of eight states that filed an amicus brief to support Arizona in that effort,” Perry said. “But it’s all for naught if you if we do not do what the federal government is supposed to be doing, which is securing our border,” he added.

Van Susteren asked if the recent help for Border States announced by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was insufficient. Perry reviewed the situation, citing Texas has two thirds of the U.S./Mexico border

“Well, I said this was a good first step. But look, we -- we got a 1,200-mile border. They're talking about sending 1,250 National Guard troops to an 1,800-mile border that we have with Mexico, the entire U.S./Mexico border." said Perry. "The idea that you're going to send 280 to Texas is -- it's almost -- it's offensive, the fact of the matter is. And I've said that. I've said it to the administration and I've said it publicly."

He went on to explain, "you need 3,000 Border Patrol on the border between El Paso and Brownsville. That 1,200 miles, you need Predator drones in the air. You need technology … You need motion detectors and the types of cameras that we can use. You -- you can secure the border. We've done it. Greta, we spend $115 million to $120 million biannum (ph) using our own Texas state troopers, our Texas Rangers, our National Guard to go in where the federal government has been abject failures at this.

“It’s becoming really frustrating … the border with Mexico is a war zone – these drug cartels are using it as a base of operations …if you don’t secure the border, we’ll never have immigration reform,” Perry said.

“Secure the border, Mr. President,” he added.

Van Susteren pointed out the escalation of violence in border cities on the Mexican side has progressed from shootings to executions to a car bomb detonated by cell phone.

“The border is not a safe place today because the cartels have free range …We have seen cartels continually changing their modes of operation … they will change their tactics, these are very sophisticated individuals who have substantial amounts of money. Their weaponry is highly sophisticated. They use fully automatic 7.62, I mean, big rounds. These people mean business. And until we get people on the border, we have the boots on the ground to be able to impact them and they know we mean business, they're going to continue to control the border,” he said.