Perry to Deploy “Recon Rangers”

In what he is calling a move to make Texans more secure, Texas governor Rick Perry has announced the deployment of a special team of Texas Rangers along the Texas-Mexico border. The special team is being called the “Recon Rangers” and was described in the Fort Worth Star Telegram as “resembling a military style commando unit in a foreign war zone.” In addition to the recon team, Perry has asked that a 200 member task force of Texas’ National Guard be deployed to assist in the operations. Perry said that in August of this year the team of recon rangers began monitoring private farms and ranches where cartels and human trafficking activities are thought to occur.

In a speech in Irving, Texas on September 10, Perry said that the creation of the recon rangers is necessary because the federal government has not paid enough attention to violence on the Texas-Mexico border.  “Texas continues to deal with the federal government’s abject failure to secure our international border,” and he added later that “I have no idea why Washington has been so averse to defending, securing the Southern border.”

Some have accused Perry of using the border issue as a way to charge up his campaign. An article by the Houston Chronicle quoted Senator Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, as saying, “Rick Perry gets real revved up right around election time. From border cameras to failed DPS funding, his border security measures have been abject failures.” Some of the local officials have also voiced their opinions about Perry’s plan. Laredo’s mayor, Raul Salinas, said that he is glad that Rangers have been deployed but would “appreciate coordination and cooperation with local authorities, because we can be of assistance. … We’re the first responders in combating the drug cartels.”

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