Texas Gov. Rick Perry revealed some alarming statistics about illegal alien influx on the "Hannity show Wednesday, claiming that more than 3,000 homicides were committed "by illegal aliens over the" last six years, Fox News reported. Well documented problems at the Texas border, exacerbated by a flood of thousands of unaccompanied minors from Central America, have been grabbing tons of headlines for the past few months.
Speaking to nationally-syndicated talk show host Sean Hannity on July 23, 2014, the interview comes amid the ongoing immigration crisis where an influx of immigrants from Central America have been caught crossing the United States' southern border. "We're not going to wait for the federal government, whether it's the administration or for Washington, D.C. For that matter. The crisis is full-blown. Everyone understands what the issue is here," Perry said of his plans to send up to 1,000 National Guard troops to help secure the southern border.
Since the crisis began, Perry has been a leading vocal critic of how the Obama administration has handled the southern borders, Politico reported. Problems worsened after President Barack Obama made a trip the Texas last week and did not stop to visit the border, saying he had no interest in a political photo opp. "It's come to the point where the details of the criminal activities have become so clear that we no longer can wait for Washington to secure the border. And Texas is going to do it with our law enforcement and with our National Guard."
Perry criticized the Obama administration's hesitancy to take actions at the border, claiming that Texans are being put in jeopardy by the porous border. "And Texans no longer, and I think Americans no longer can see a border that is open for the type of individuals that are coming across," he stated in the interview. "There have been over the course of the last five years, since the fall of '08, over 203,000 individuals who have come into Texas illegally that have been booked into our county jails. Those individuals have been accounted for over 3,000 homicides and over 8,000 sexual assaults."
Meanwhile, Perry also outlined that since the largest period of illegal immigration from Latin America, 1986 to present, was also the country's largest period of legal immigration, there was no reason to push the illegal route. "This isn't about politics, it's about showing the American people that you care, that you understand and that you have interest in solving the problem," Perry said.
Perry's state has received the majority of migrant children, especially in the Rio Grande region, and he has repeatedly called on the federal government to beef up border security. It currently has 3,000 border patrol agents covering 320 miles of land and 250 miles of water, which equates to 5.4 agents per mile, CNN reported.
