Texas governor Perry shouldn't make women and children fleeing brutal violence in their own countries into "pawns in his ongoing politically driven antipathy toward the federal government.”

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TCRP condemns governor's dispatch of National guard to the Border as 'Political Gamesmanship'
July 21, 2014

Jim Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, has condemned Gov. Perry’s announcement of sending 1,000 National Guard to patrol the border as “ill-conceived” and “playing political gamesmanship with a humanitarian crisis.”

“What good will this do? Are they going to push the kids and mothers back across the river, shoot at them, or what? What the governor is doing is nonsensical and exposes National Guard officers to Civil Rights liability in federal court,” Harrington said.

Harrington condemned Perry’s announcement as a typical militaristic response to the humanitarian crisis, caused by the surge of 57,000 women and children into the country – women and children fleeing brutal violence in their own countries.

“Perry shouldn’t make them pawns in his ongoing politically driven antipathy toward the federal government,” Harrington said.

Perry has said Texas will spend $1.3 million per week to send Texas law enforcement officers to enforce border security.

He has not offered any assistance for the children who are already here, or to local shelters that are struggling to house and care for them.

“Obviously, it’s important to protect the border, but it’s equally important to protect and provide for the thousands of children who are now in the country,” Harrington said.

“Texas and the border states can come up with more creative ways to address the crisis and turn it around. It would be a better and more productive use of taxpayers’ money. We’re dealing with young children, not adults. This is not the children’s fault that they are caught up in violence in their homelands, and we have a humanitarian duty to them until we can figure out how to respond appropriately to the situation.

“They should not be victimized further by the situation into which they have been thrust by desperate parents. The governor should respect this, and not twist it for his own personal politics,” Harrington said.
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