Rick Perry is again showcasing his ignorance and naked political ambition. On Monday, he declared that he will be sending 1,000 Texas National Guard troops to the border with Mexico. To excuse this action, he is seizing on recent reports of more than 50,000 children that have been captured trying to enter the United States on our Southern border.This is a very bad idea for several reasons:
* We already have more patrol officers at the border than ever before -- about 5.4 Border Patrol officers for every mile of the border.
* Those officers are doing a very good job. After all, the children Perry is using as an excuse for his action did not get in the country. They were caught by the Border Patrol.
* The undocumented immigrant population is no longer growing (both because of the increased number of officers and because of the poor economy). There are currently as many (if not more) immigrants leaving the United States as there are entering it.
* Keeping 1,000 National Guardsmen at the border will cost the state of Texas about $12 million a month -- a silly expenditure after his own party has slashed state spending because they whine we don't have enough revenue to pay our bills (and want to cut more from the budget). That money could be put to a much better use by increasing the education budget (which is the lowest per capita of any state in the nation).
* The National Guard is trained to fight a war (and proved in Iraq and Afghanistan that they can do that well). They are not trained as border patrol officers (not should they be). Putting them on the border to do a job they have not been trained to do is just asking for trouble.
It would not surprise me if this crazy decision by Perry resulted in tragedy -- with innocent people, who just want to escape violence or provide for their families, being killed. And when that happens, I won't blame the National Guard. I'll blame Rick Perry -- because this action is nothing more than political. He wants to run for president in 2016 -- and to do that he needs to keep his name before the national public, and keep the anti-immigrant teabaggers happy (because they'll be the ones to pick the 2016 GOP nominee).
(The caricature of Rick Perry above is by DonkeyHotey.)
