MOSCOW, July 22 (RIA Novosti) - Texas Governor Rick Perry ordered 1,000 National Guard troops to the state’s Mexican border, The New York Times reported Monday.
“I’ve directed Adjutant General John Nichols to immediately prepare for deployment up to 1,000 of his troops,” he said.
The Texas’ almost 2,000-kilometer border with Mexico has been a gateway for many migrants from Central America to enter the territory of the United States illegally.
“Drug cartels, human traffickers and individual criminals are exploiting this tragedy for their own criminal opportunities,” Perry said, adding that he “will not stand idly by while our citizens are under assault, and little children from Central America are detained in squalor.”
The New York Times pointed out that by seeking more military resources at the border, the Texas governor tried to restore his standing among Republicans, who had doubted his readiness to be tough on immigration when he defended in-state tuition for illegal immigrants in the United States in 2012.
Perry has served 13 years as a governor and aims for another term in 2016. Two weeks ago, during a meeting with US President Barack Obama, he demanded more action from federal government to handle the influx of migrants, The New York Times reported.
According to US Customs and Border Protection data, so far in 2014, more than 57,000 children have entered the United States through its southwestern border, about 30,000 more than during the same period in 2013. The largest numbers of migrants come from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.
