If the Legislature wants to add 250 troopers to the Department of Public Safety at a cost of nearly $100 million over the next two years, that's fine. Texas is generally a safe state, but it's a big one too. There are plenty of places between Orange and El Paso where those new DPS troopers could protect taxpayers and fight crime.They described the plan as an "active decision to shift first-responders with arrest powers from places where they can do a lot of good to places that make good background for campaign commercials," which quite honestly is a difficult point to argue.
Stationing them permanently on the U.S.-Mexico border, however, is a political stunt that should be nipped in the bud. That's not where they are needed, and it's not where they can be most effective.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Paper: DPS border deployment a 'political stunt'
The Beaumont Enterprise published a staff editorial yesterday which sums up my own views about the suggestion to hire 500 additional state troopers to guard the border:
I'm glad it's not just me who's figured this out. I'm getting tired of paying taxes just to make some politician look "tough on border security" to get re-elected.
ReplyDeleteDPS Director Steve McCraw is a political hack and crony of Rick Perry hand picked by the former Governor to do his bidding. All the hype about the "DPS Surge" and "Ranger Recon Teams" is nothing but theatre for Perry's delusional POTUS ambition and McCraw's delusions of a lofty position in the administration of President Perry.
ReplyDeleteWe need those troopers on the border!!!! Of Texas and Louisiana. East Texas has been taken over by marijuana growers and meth labs. Crime is a business of opportunity and the drugs have largely shifted from being imported to now being produced domestically. Domestically produced meth has replaced cocaine and heroin as the main traded controlled substance. Cartels aren't the main traffickers of the substances, domestic prison gangs control most of the drug trade in Texas. DPS needs to start telling the truth. Valuable state resources are being wasted this session.
ReplyDeleteWhat next... ISIS on the border. Which lies will DPS tell next. DPS has lost credibility in their attempts to secure funding for the border surge. DPS is not the solution to border issues.
Focusing on laws that define independent contractors may be the best border enforcement to prevent illegal entry. Going after businesses that classify employees as independent contractors is the best way to enforce border issues.
Why don't you TEA PARTY types focus on this massive expansion of government and waste of taxpayers resources. Effective border enforcement starts in the workplace. Locking up a bunch of people for illegal entry is a waste of money and only coat taxpayers more money. They come here for JOBS.
Keep them away from the border!
ReplyDelete10:17, I'm not holding my breath waiting for the "Tea Party types" to actually put their votes where their mouths are on the border theater. They are heavy consumers and issuers of the code words utilized by the usual suspects, and are just fine with the heavy hand of government when it's used to persecute/prosecute/control "those people."
ReplyDelete