Rick Perry Sends National Guard to Defend Border From Opportunity-Seeking Kids

Texas Gov. Rick Perry will send 1,000 National Guard troops to help secure the southern border, where tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors from Central America have crossed into the United States this year in a surge that is deemed a humanitarian crisis.

Perry will also call on President Barack Obama and Congress to hire an additional 3,000 border patrol agents for the Texas border, which would eventually replace the temporary guard forces, according to a person in his office with knowledge of his plans.

Comments

[ant1sthenes]

Nice headline, but I missed the news about Reason being bought out by Gawker.

1) It's not like kids are the only people crossing -- even for the economic migrants, there are plenty of adults.

2) The people bringing them over are neither children, nor very nice.

3) The cartels (who are often the people in #2) are taking advantage of the chaos and the strain on BPs manpower. They don't play nice, and they have military-grade arms (if nothing else, we know they have the ones our own damn government helped them get).

[J_West]

The moment you see the word "kids" in a media story you know you are dealing with propaganda. It's a cheap shot to manipulate emotion.

You might ask how these "kids" got across Mexico in the first place. Was there any government intervention here?

And what if it is not "thousands" of "kids" but "millions?" By the principles you seem to be propounding, if the entire "kid" demographic of the third world showed up at the border--no problem?

[PD Quig]

My understanding is that Mexico has installed a whole bunch of 1000 mile long Slip N' Slides. These poor unwitting kids step on one of the Slip N' Slides and --voom! -- the next thing they know they have traversed the length of the country.

This was Mexico's way to avoid having to provide shelter all the "refugees."

[J_West]

Here is a question for the Editor's of Reason: why has unrestricted immigration into the USA suddenly become a matter of top priority?

One theory is that immigration is the one issue on which libertarians can be on the winning side. After all, de facto open borders is being pushed by the government, the corporate sector and much of the mainstream media. Since it is going to be a "winner" then maybe for once libertarians can be winners also.

And when the borders have finally collapsed, Reason can pretend we have the triumph of liberty.

[RAHeinlein]

"Opportunity-seeking kids" - at what point did the libertarian movement decide that we should force citizens to care for anyone who desires assistance? Obviously, by definition, these "kids" are not supporting themselves....

[LibertarianX]

The title for this article is beneath Reason's normal standards. Intentionally misstating the problem doesn't help with a solution.

[MarkinLA]

?????

I think it is above their standards when it comes to the issue of illegal immigration. Normally there would be even more lies and distortions.

[Ayatollah Savaranola]

Opportunity seeking kids

Woohoo, we repealed the child labor laws.

Hey kids get on my lawn, And don't forget to trim the edges.

[avocats]

Opportunity seeking kids--exactly. And for that reason, not eligible for asylum.

[croaker]

The next step in this states rights fight is for 0bama to federalize the Texas National Guard and order them to stand down and return home. It's been done before.

[steve baker]

Touche!

[BunkerBill]

"Opportunity-Seeking Kids", are they looking for work in the coal mines? Libertarianism is like a Monty-Python sketch, it starts out good, then about the time you start to like it, it gets silly. Open Borders is a wonderful idea, designed for a perfected Libertarian world, that only works in the minds of Libertarian Intellectuals and not in the real world.

[Cytotoxic]

And in America for hundreds of years until 1924.

[BunkerBill]

An America without a massive Welfare State, get the Welfare State under control and then we can can talk about Open Borders again.

[Brochettaward]

The immigration articles annoy me because they attempt to appeal to emotion. Most of those coming over aren't kids, and I can't really get the narratives correct. They are fleeing violence (asylum seekers), or they are opportunity seekers...What you have here is Reason/libertarians who hold a theoretical belief on borders, but instead of making an intellectual argument for them, they take the easy way out with a cheap appeal to emotion. This is just intellectual dishonesty.

This is the same sort of headline and logic that gets leftwingers mocked around here.

I don't care how many immigrants are let in. Increase the number and make the process less of a bureaucratic mess (even if the problem, compared to other countries, is grossly overstated).

Can we not have thousands of people making a dangerous trek where people pay armed thugs, come in un-screened for disease, and instantly end up on the government dole? You know, because we don't live in a utopian world, and there are real negative consequences involved here that won't change because you try and make a cheap appeal to emotion. Intentions do not mitigate or excuse shitty results.

[AlgerHiss]

Hopefully I'm wrong, but Perry placing NG on the border will be no more than a stunt that will do nothing.

These NGs will probably have firearms, but no ammunition.

They will be given no more authority than to yell "Hey?you?.stop!".

They will quietly be instructed to not to lay a finger on anyone, but act like they will.

And the illegals will know this, and simply bitch-slap the NGs aside.

[Anon E. Mouse]

You obviously haven't spent much time in Texas.