Texas sending 1,000 guardsmen to border
Activist insists troops need authority to arrest, detain

Published: 3 hours ago

Leo Hohmann

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is expected Monday to announce the deployment of up to 1,000 National Guard troops to the border following an incident in which members of Mexican drug cartels allegedly fired shots from a .50-caliber machine gun from the Mexican side of the border into Texas, sending U.S. Border Patrol guards scurrying for cover.

Following the shooting incident Friday night, Texas state Rep. Terry Canales, a Democrat, told the Associated Press he was briefed by his staff on Sunday after a conference call with the governor’s office, Texas National Guard and the state Department of Public Safety. Perry is scheduled to make the announcement Monday at 2 p.m.

More than 3,000 Border Patrol agents now work in South Texas, and Perry has repeatedly asked President Obama to send the National Guard to the border. At the same time, Perry has come under growing pressure from the conservative wing of his own party to act on his own under Article 1, Section 10, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution. This clause gives states the right to declare an ‘imminent danger’…and to call up the National Guard.

U.S. Border Patrol agents on the American side of the Rio Grande were forced to take cover Friday night when heavy weaponry was fired at them from the Mexican side of the river, sources told FoxNews.com.

Read more: http://www.wnd.com/2014/07/texas-sending...rWTMyQ9uEYzQ.99

'Bout time ... maybe

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n an interview with WND, William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, said he believed Perry’s decision was motivated not only by the gunfire at the border but by “the historic wave of protests across the country this weekend, which included more than 40 locations in Texas alone.”

“My concern, however, is that it will do no good to send National Guardsmen to the border if (human traffickers) are still shipping and smuggling illegals into the U.S.,” Gheen said.

“We need the National Guard to be given authority to arrest and detain near the border so they can be sent back.”

It won’t be the first time the National Guard has been sent to the border with Mexico.

In May 2006, President George W. Bush ordered about 6,000 guardsmen to the border as part of Operation Jumpstart, but they were not used in any law enforcement capacity. Rather, they were used to provide security, intelligence and help construct a border fence.

“We’re going to find out what Gov. Perry has in mind,” Gheen said. “Bush sent the National Guard to the border, and they were told not to have guns, and many of them ended up washing trucks for the Border Patrol. So it depends what you do with the Guard.”
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/07/texas-sending...BKP8Esksrvur.99

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