Many local officials on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande are panning Texas Gov. Rick Perry's latest initiative to stem illegal activity along the U.S.-Mexico border, complaining that the governor is wrongly painting their region as a lawless no man's land.

Last week, Mr. Perry said he is sending special teams of Texas Rangers to the border because of "the federal government's ongoing failure to adequately secure our international border." The Rangers, a state force that dates back to the 19th century, will focus on remote areas where smugglers are overrunning ranches and farms, the Republican governor said.

But views on the level of crime along the border vary, and in the mostly Democratic communities the Rangers are supposed to be helping, their arrival hasn't been cheered. For example, Brownsville Mayor Pat Ahumada, a Democrat, blasted the deployment as "an extremist and alarmist reaction to incidents that are happening in Mexico" and "the wrong signal to send to the nation and the world."

Mexico's northern border has been plagued with violence over past months as President Felipe Calderón tries to uproot powerful drug cartels. As the murder count mounts, American officials are becoming increasingly worried that the violence will spill into the U.S.

The Texas Border Coalition, a group of border mayors and county executives, told the governor in a letter that "while each of our communities has their own unique issues, being overwhelmed by criminal elements from Mexico is not one of them."