Strayhorn: Send Rangers to the border
By JAY ROOT
STAR-TELEGRAM AUSTIN BUREAU
Posted on Wed, Sep. 27, 2006
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AUSTIN -- The famed Texas Rangers, after being doubled in strength, would take charge of the state's homeland security under an initiative announced Tuesday by Carole Keeton Strayhorn, an independent candidate for Texas governor.
"When called to serve, the Texas Rangers have responded throughout Texas history," said Strayhorn, the state comptroller. "As governor, I am going to give this elite law enforcement organization the resources and responsibility to tackle one of our greatest challenges: securing our state."
Strayhorn's "Secure Texas" plan, which includes a poverty-reduction program in South Texas, comes as border security and anxiety over illegal immigration take center stage in the crowded race for governor. Although border enforcement is supposed to be a federal responsibility, all of the candidates for governor are heavily touting homeland security initiatives.
Republican Gov. Rick Perry says that when it comes to tightening the porous border, the state is picking up the ball Washington has dropped. He now wants the Legislature to approve $100 million to beef up border law enforcement next year.
Entertainer Kinky Friedman, another independent candidate, has made illegal immigration and border security a centerpiece of his campaign, often quipping that the current policy has sent this message across the border: "Give us your tired, your weak, your poor, your criminals, your drug dealers and your terrorists -- welcome to Texas."
Without specifying how he would pay for it, Friedman vows to send 10,000 National Guard troops to the border, up from about 1,500 there now. He also wants to impose fines of up to $50,000 on companies that hire illegal immigrants and require foreign workers to buy a taxpayer ID card and pass a criminal background check.
Cracking down on employers who hire illegal immigrants also figures prominently in Democrat Chris Bell's border security platform.
"We'll never make progress curbing illegal immigration unless we address the economic incentives that draw workers across the border," Bell says.
Neither Perry nor Strayhorn, despite calling action on border security an urgent priority for the next session of the Legislature, favors new state laws to penalize those who hire illegal immigrants, officials from both campaigns said.
Strayhorn announced her homeland security initiative during stops Tuesday in Houston and McAllen. She's planning more visits along the border today. Besides highlighting the security challenges along the state's long international border, Strayhorn raised the specter of terrorists targeting the state's petrochemical plants and ports.
"Texas leads the nation in the number of refineries, pipelines and ports, all of which are vulnerable to multiple, al Qaeda-style terrorist attacks," she said.
Her plan calls for doubling the size of the Texas Rangers, at a cost of $15 million, and giving the agency the lead role in homeland security. She would also spend $84 million to upgrade infrastructure and fight poverty in border counties.
Strayhorn said the state has enough money now to pay for those programs, but she did not say exactly where the money would come from.
Jay Root, 512-476-4294 jroot@star-telegram.com
© 2006 Star-Telegram and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
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