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Texas Gov. Perry told CBS News Thursday (7.10.14) that the problems on the border could be resolved fairly easily. He called on President Obama to send 1,000 National Guard Troops. Wait. Is he serious?
A highly sympathetic reporter asked Perry if he thought that just the images of troops on the border would discourage those in Central America from either sending their children or taking them north to the border. Yes, was the essence of Perry’s answer.
First question: if the 1,000 troop trick doesn’t work, what do you do next? 10,000? 1000,000? What if all of that doesn’t work, either?
Keep in mind that a law passed in 2008, and signed by G.W. Bush, requires that children be given a deportation hearing if they reach the United States. That’s the law. Having one million troops on the border would not mean that a single child would be turned back or deported. Turning back children or families in the middle of the Rio Grande river would risk hundreds of deaths from drownings, which is why the Border Patrol doesn’t do it now.
One can only guess that Perry thinks he is a very clever guy and that he was trying to get Obama to do something stupid. Obama would be ridiculed nationwide if he sent 1,000 troops to patrol hundreds of miles of remote, desert landscape. Perry should know what most of far south Texas is like (more like the surface of the moon than what most people are used to seeing) and he must know that, aside from the rather silly symbolic nature of sending troops, 1,000 could not patrol even 1/4 of the border zone.
Perry should make a formal request that Obama send the troops. He should also sign a public statement saying that he thinks this would be enough to stop the tide rushing toward America. Then, if it doesn’t work, we would know who to blame.
Doug Terry, 7.11.14
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