Gov. Rick Perry today released his updated homeland security plan, and border congressmen want to know why he’s not sending more federal security money to the border.
border
TribBlog: Advocacy Groups Say ‘No’ to More Border Fence
More than 30 religious, immigration and environmental advocacy groups sent a letter to Democratic U.S. Senate leaders Thursday calling on them to oppose a Republican measure to build more fencing on the southern border.
“A Country of Immigrants”
To the sound of drums and the sight of American flags, more than 25,000 people marched on Dallas City Hall in the latest episode in Texas’ endless immigration saga.
Counting the Colonias
A joint effort among the U.S. Census Bureau, Valley lawmakers and community groups is smoothing over the tensions of the past couple of weeks, when the bureau announced that 95 percent of residents of South Texas colonias were not getting their Census forms in the mail.
Sound and Fury
Just as in 2006, some Democrats are clamoring for immigration reforms, including easing pathways to citizenship, while Republicans are insisting more border security must come first. Policy experts, meanwhile, say the outcome this year will likely be the same as back then: nothing.
HuTube: Border Cameras on TV
A multi-million-dollar plan gone bust? That’s how our television partner in Houston, KHOU-TV, describes the governor’s virtual border watch program, which has cost $4 million but has netted only a handful of arrests.
TribBlog: DHS Says Skies Too Crowded For Drones
Texasโ congested air space is preventing the deployment of unmanned aerial drones to the southern border, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
TribBlog: Lt. Gov. Dewhurst Dispatches from the Border
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst went to El Paso today, talked with state, local and federal police, took an aerial tour over the dangerous borderlands and pronounced that Mexico’s drug war is a “very serious threat” to all Texans โ a threat the feds aren’t protecting you from.
Peace Bend?
Even as violence near the border rages and security becomes a more pressing issue, discussions about unifying Big Bend National Park with Mexico may be gaining momentum.
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
E. Smith interviews Gov. Rick Perry for the Trib and Newsweek, Philpott dissects the state’s budget mess in a weeklong series, Hamilton looks at whether Bill White is or was a trial lawyer, M. Smith finds experts all over the state anxiously watching a court case over who owns the water under our feet, Aguilar reports on the battle between Fort Stockton and Clayton Williams Jr. over water in West Texas, Ramshaw finds a population too disabled to get on by itself but not disabled enough to get state help and Miller spends a day with a young man and his mother coping with that situation, Ramsey peeks in on software that lets the government know whether its e-mail messages are getting read and who’s reading what, a highway commissioner reveals just how big a hole Texas has in its road budget, Grissom does the math on the state’s border cameras and learns they cost Texans about $153,800 per arrest, and E. Smith interviews Karen Hughes on the difference between corporate and political P.R. โ and whether there’s such a thing as “Obama Derangement Syndrome.” The best of our best from April 19 to April 23, 2010.


