Perry says border work not done as conference opens

By Brandi Grissom / Austin Bureau

Article Launched: 12/04/2007 12:00:00 AM MST

SAN ANTONIO -- The Texas-Mexico border is safer now but work to secure the area is far from over, Gov. Rick Perry said Monday.

"We have shown that you can slow the bad guys down to a halt," Perry said on the first day of a five-day Texas Homeland Security Conference attended by about 3,000 law enforcement officers and emergency responders from across Texas.

State border security efforts will be among the topics discussed during the conference, both how those operations have worked in the past and how they will change in the future.

"It's about getting better," said Texas Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw.

Since 2005, Perry has spent at least $20 million in federal grants and state dollars on border security efforts. Much of that money went to sheriffs on the border.

Chertoff, Gutierrez, Rice: Plotting Bush’s North American Union

April 16, 2007

By Daniel Sheehy

[Previously by Daniel Sheehy: Fighting Immigration Anarchy At The Grass Roots]

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is a busy guy these days securing our border with Mexico—at least that’s what the "mainstream media" wants Americans to think.

During President Bush’s tour of Yuma, Arizona on April 9, we were shown pictures of Bush and Chertoff posing in front of a Predator B unmanned aerial vehicle, implying that the Predator is being used along the border to catch illegal aliens.

Other pictures showed Bush pointing to fencing that has been erected at the border since he visited the same spot one year ago.

"This border is more secure, and America is safer as a result," the president told several hundred border agents, National Guard personal, and local law enforcement officials during his visit to Yuma. "I appreciate the hard work of Secretary Michael Chertoff."