Texas Gov. Rick Perry testified before the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, urging the president and congress to take more diplomatic efforts to stop the surge of accompanied minors coming into the state and send the National Guard to the border.
Perry told members of the committee that the federal government has not tried to put any type of pressure on Mexico in order to stop the flow of accompanied children entering Texas every day.
"You cannot allow that many young people across your country and not know about it," Perry said. "There’s some disconnect there and we diplomatically have not engaged in that to a level of which I’m comfortable we could be.”
Perry recommended that Congress consider sending a thousand National Guardmen to the Texas board to provide more boots on the ground. Congressman Filemon Vela, D-Brownsville, asked Perry how the National Guard would stop the Central American children from coming to Texas to surrender.
“The power of boots on the ground I don’t think can be overstated and the message needs to be sent very clearly," Perry said. "It’s not a matter of once you come into the United States you’re going to be deported; this says you’re not going to be coming into the United States.”
Perry also called on the federal government to reimburse Texas for the $500 million that he said the state has spent on securing the border since 2005.
