Reyes Fires Back at Perry After TV Appearance

A border congressman today lashed out at Texas Gov. Rick Perry after Perry's appearance Tuesday on Fox News where he proclaimed that the southern border is under siege while the federal government stands idly by.

U.S. Rep. Sylvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, said Perry should instead focus on the increased crime in Austin and other cities away from the Rio Grande.

“Austin, Texas, where Governor Perry resides in his $10,000-a-month rental mansion at taxpayer expense, reported a 72 percent increase in homicides in 2010,” Reyes said in a statement. “The city of Austin had more homicides last year ...

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Comments (26)

May 25, 2011 @ 8:51 p.m.

Reform Immigration for Texas Alliance (RITA) via Texas Tribune on Facebook

Perry is so full of it.
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May 25, 2011 @ 8:53 p.m.

ValorieJean Hosch via Texas Tribune on Facebook

Is this true??? I'm staying away from Austin!
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May 25, 2011 @ 8:55 p.m.

Sonora Hartley via Texas Tribune on Facebook

How many public school teachers could we get for $120,000?
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May 25, 2011 @ 8:58 p.m.

Rick Price ? via Texas Tribune on Facebook

Find the a-holes who torched the Governor's Mansion & give them the rental bill.
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May 25, 2011 @ 8:58 p.m.

Sharon Richard via Texas Tribune on Facebook

AMEN.
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May 25, 2011 @ 9 p.m.

Michael Cosper via Texas Tribune on Facebook

Homicides probably committed by illegal immigrants, we have a crime problem in austin and so much of it is done by illegals that the local newspaper will not mention the nationality of the culprit or suspect because the do not want to upset the open border politics of the Chamber of Commerce.
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May 25, 2011 @ 9:06 p.m.

Sam Smith via Texas Tribune on Facebook

Wow!
What a smackdown.
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May 25, 2011 @ 9:20 p.m.

Ben Martinez via Texas Tribune on Facebook

@Michael, you got it all figured out don't you. When you put together that many hypotheticals it is called bull shit.
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May 25, 2011 @ 9:24 p.m.

lisa harris

Yes all the illegals like to go to the sanctuary cities after they clear the border towns. No wonder the crime rate is higher in Austin. These people are so naive
May 25, 2011 @ 9:26 p.m.

Tim Thomas via Texas Tribune on Facebook

@Michael Cosper If only the paper in Austin posted names and pictures to its website. For instance Nordstrom III definitely an illegal, and his picture proves it:
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2010/09/10/press_release_from_the_austin_2.html

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=austin+american+statesman#sclient=psy&hl=en&source=hp&q=site:www.statesman.com+murder+2010&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=f2ed3297bf49c37e&biw=1143&bih=796
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May 25, 2011 @ 9:27 p.m.

Benjamin Collins via Texas Tribune on Facebook

The rate for 2010 was roughly 3/100k, so a 72% increase takes it to about 5/100k. Austin has about 800k people, so you're talking an increase from 24 to 40 homicides. Even at 5/100k, Austin is still near its historical low in homicide rate, and some of that increase may be attributable to demographic changes (I saw this suggested by an analyst). Meanwhile, about 92,000 people enter the country illegally through Texas each year.

To suggest that a marginal change in crime rate (of any type) in a municipality should have anything to do with the governor's role in calling on the Feds to live up to their responsibilities is purely demagogic.
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May 25, 2011 @ 9:33 p.m.

Enedelia Obregon via Texas Tribune on Facebook

Geez, Michael, looks as if you're in serious need of a scapegoat. BTW, did newpapers fear printing the nationalities of Timothy McVeigh after he killed 186 people in Oklahoma City? Or serial killer Ted Bundy? Or the Branch Davidian guy whose name escapes me? Or, should I continue with the list of home-grown killers?
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May 25, 2011 @ 9:48 p.m.

Armando Enrique Sierra via Texas Tribune on Facebook

@Sonora I'm with you. $120,000 a year is outrageous! The State could have used that money to buy a backup house for the Governor. I say he could live in a nice house with that kind of dough! Just saying, maybe we should begin to trim the excess in our bloated budget.....
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May 25, 2011 @ 10:05 p.m.

Marcus Cunningham via Texas Tribune on Facebook

Even if the percentages are significant, the raw numbers prove the point. The border is not as dangerous as Perry wants you to believe. Violence does occur, but it's all across the border. The cartels are very well aware that they can't pull off those stunts in the US.
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May 25, 2011 @ 10:17 p.m.

Mac Mcclure via Texas Tribune on Facebook

Reyes needs to take a fishing trip to the"safest" lake in Texas, Falcon lake, and report back.
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May 25, 2011 @ 10:24 p.m.

judy burns

Thank you, Represenative Reyes. You said it well.
May 25, 2011 @ 10:32 p.m.

V Marshall

There is quite literally no good party choice in Texas. I've been here 12 years and it constantly floors me how bad the politicians are on both sides of the aisle. It is no wonder that Texans only allow their elected leaders to meet 6 months out of every 2 years. When I first moved here, I thought that was asinine but I've come to completely understand. The first time I lived here, the Democrats controlled everything. It was just as bad, but at least Ann was had some personality.
May 26, 2011 @ 5:36 a.m.

Michael Cosper via Texas Tribune on Facebook

The cartels are in Texas and have been for along time. They own nice houses and ranches, businesses, you name it, they have been pulling off "stunts" here for a long time also. Even NPR has reported on this as being the case. The Mexican drug war is not confined to Mexico.
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May 26, 2011 @ 5:38 a.m.

Michael Cosper via Texas Tribune on Facebook

The political correctness of the Texas press serves a political purpose and it is not the purpose of fighting crime but providing cheap labor.
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May 26, 2011 @ 5:42 a.m.

Michael Cosper via Texas Tribune on Facebook

I have watched APD let two illegal immigrant drunk drivers go in front of my house because they did not want to deal with the hassle of immigration paperwork. This was after they rolled a car and tried to escape the scene but were too drunk too. One climbed a neighbor's fence and passed out in a fire ant mound, pathetic and commical at the same time just as the texas press is.
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May 26, 2011 @ 6:09 a.m.

annie03

Michael--it's people who think like you that make Texans look like biggotted, bombastic idiots to the rest of the world. Villifying a whole segment of humanity went away with Jim Crow lawas and Nazi facisim.
May 26, 2011 @ 7:17 a.m.

Lee Dunkelberg via Texas Tribune on Facebook

I'm sure all those being laid off due to budget cuts and everyone denied services by the GOTeaP will not begrudge the gov his $10K a month rent.
@Michael, we will pray for you.
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May 26, 2011 @ 10:42 a.m.

Stuart Greenfield

Sonora Hartley wrote:
> How many public school teachers could we get for $120,000?

and the answer is about 2
May 26, 2011 @ 11:53 a.m.

Mac Mcclure via Texas Tribune on Facebook

What do all you liberals think about Obama's 1.5 million dollar vacation to Hawaii. I didn't see you complaining about how much he spends on his vacations and golf outings.
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May 26, 2011 @ 3:48 p.m.

Rudy Gonzales

I see there are a boat load of comments on illegals committing crimes. I'd like to see a break down of exactly how many crimes are directly attributed to illegals. Sylvestre Reyes is a hell of a lot smarter than Rick Perry and has a better grasp of what's going on on the border. Perry is trying to ride a wave to see if people would consider him for the presidency. Perry is a pompous ass with aspirations of following in Bush's footsteps. Perry is a career politician and murderer who has absolutely no chance in hell to make past the primaries. Why the people of Texas vote for him is beyond me! I doubt seriously that Perry would make it past the primaries. Rick Perry, the career politician who let an innocent man be put to death and has done nothing to fix Texas' budget short-fall. This from a "Conservative Governor and legislature" who spent money like it was candy.
June 21, 2011 @ 6:35 p.m.

Tomas Pineda

I like how Reyes has his picture taken in front of barred windows...that's not helping his case.

Also I couldn't find enough 2010 stats, but I did find 2009 stats here: http://www.city-data.com/crime/

Brownsville, McAllen, Laredo and El Paso combined had 37 murders (per 100,000) in 2009

Austin had 22 Murders (per 100,000) in 2009.

I found Austin 2010 stats, and they had 39 Murders in 2010. I did find that El Paso had only 2 Murders in 2010. (Found here: http://malford.ci.austin.tx.us/police/zipcode/zipcode/indx_nindx_zip_1210.pdf)

Also Austin has a pop of roughly 790,390 (2010 Census)

The aforementioned border cities have a population of roughly 1,190,000 combined. (2010 Census)