Illegal Immigrant Arrests: Rick Perry Cites Violent Crime Among Reasons To Secure The Border

Texas Governor Rick Perry is calling once again for more boots on the ground to stop the massive influx of illegal immigrants into the United States. The Lone Star State leader has been outspoken in his opposition to the way the Obama administration has enforced border security. While on a recent fundraising tour in the state, President Barack Obama declined a Perry invitation to tour the Texas border and witness the problems firsthand.

Rick Perry told the Tribune-Review that the 1,000 Texas National Guard members deployed to the Mexican border had nothing to do with “unaccompanied minors or children crossing the border.” According to both Perry and a new Pew report based upon government statistics, only about 20 percent of the illegal immigrants who stepped onto American soil this year are actually children.

A Texas Department of Public Safety study revealed that 203,000 illegal immigrants were arrested and charged with more than 640,000 crimes since 2008, according to the agency’s Texas Criminal Alien Arrest Data report.

The governor had this to say about the illegal immigrants’ crime report statistics:

“Of those crimes, 3,000 were homicides and nearly 8,000 were sexual assault. Thousands of lives have been shattered forever, that shouldn’t have been, if the federal government had done its job.”

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest does not appear phased by the illegal immigrant crime statistics as revealed by Perry.

Earnest had this to say about Governor Rick Perry’s comments on the number of murders, sexual assault, and other crimes committed by those who entered America illegally:

“Governor Perry will not just take these kinds of steps that are generating the kind of headlines I suspect he intended, but will actually take the kinds of steps that will be constructive to solving the problem over the long term.”

Perry further contends that President Obama took two years to react to the ongoing illegal immigration problem along the Texas border. As previously reported by The Inquisitr, the governor wrote a letter to the president in May 2012 asking for more help securing the border and stating that drug cartels and criminals were “infiltrating Texas.”

Excerpt from Governor Perry letter to President Obama:

“[There is] an emerging problem with a growing wave of unaccompanied minors crossing the border. Inaction encourages other minors to place themselves in extremely dangerous situations. Every day of delay risks more lives. Every child allowed to remain encourages hundreds more to attempt the journey.”

U.S. Border Patrol statistics indicate that the number of illegal immigrant children coming into Texas has increased from about 5,000 in 2012 to 50,000 this year.

What do you think about the illegal immigrants’ crime report and the efforts to secure the border by the federal government?

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