Dealing with the Border

Are you okay with the amount of illegal immigrants trying to slip into the United States through Texas? How easy is it for cartels to smuggle drugs across our border?

A big problem in Texas right now is the struggle to keep the 1,200 mile border with Mexico protected and secure. Governor Perry’s recent announcement that he was deploying 1,000 National Guard troops to the border has generated widespread attention. I think Mr. Perry and state officials are doing the right thing to defend the border by the show of force even though it is costly because it is a necessary effort to stop the smuggling of people and drugs into Texas. This will prevent criminal aliens from filling up Texas jails unrelated to their immigration status. This has resulted in tens of thousands of arrests and tens of millions of dollars of drug seizures. Mr. Perry says “my citizens’ safety is what is foremost here.”

Many people and programs believe that patrolling the border is the federal government’s job and not the state’s. I agree with these people however, I think it is fair for the state government to step in if the issue is becoming severe and action needs to be taken. Texas has spent a lot of money on border security relative to the other states that share a border with Mexico but that is understandable due to the fact that the border Texas shares with Mexico is bigger than the others all put together. If people say that the federal government should be in charge of the border problem then they should do their job and take action or pay back the Texas state government for the actions they have already taken for them. Texas government is acting instead of the federal government because communities are at risk and we cannot afford to wait any longer. Officials with the state’s top law enforcement agency, the Department of Public Safety, say dozens of killings, assaults, shootings and kidnappings in Texas have been directly related to Mexican drug cartels. “There can be no national security without border security”.