Texas Wins Border Game, Moves Goalposts

"Gov. Rick Perry's surge of law enforcement officers on the southern border recently met the most specific goal publicly set by its commander, a development that has received so little attention that critics say it calls into question the true aim of the deployment.  Col. Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, mentioned at a legislative committee last week that officers in the Rio Grande Valley operation zone had caught just 1,977 illegal immigrants the week before. In July, when weekly apprehensions averaged around 4,000, McCraw told lawmakers the mission's "intended objective" was to reduce unlawful crossing so much that officers encountered fewer than 2,000 per week.  The reason for the dramatic drop from an early summer high of 6,600 weekly detentions is unclear, but it took place almost entirely before the arrival of Texas National Guard troops, which are the biggest part of the $4 million-per-week surge.  There have been no discussions of recalling the guardsmen, most of whom only recently got to the area following training.  Perry, who has not specifically articulated a goal for his surge, explained through a spokeswoman the numbers could be an aberration or a temporary phenomenon caused by hot weather.  "The border is still unsecured," said the spokeswoman, Lucy Nashed.  McCraw, in a short interview reframed his July language, saying "it just so happens that was a goal we had, but we're not satisfied until we get 100 percent" of unlawful crossing eliminated.  State Rep. Dennis Bonnen, an Angleton Republican who chairs a special committee overseeing the cost of the deployment, agreed the goal should be to "no longer have people illegally crossing our border."  But critics called that unrealistic, and Democrats who have opposed the surge from the beginning cited the numbers and ensuing GOP reaction as evidence it was not needed or well planned.  "The numbers don't matter to them because the goal was for Perry to resurrect his presidential ambitions," said state Rep. Armando Walle, D-Houston, calling for a hearing to re-evaluate the surge. "That was the only goal of this operation." " - Houston Chronicle, Sept. 16, 2014.