Castro accused Perry of 'militarizing our border.' Castro blasts Perry for border stunts

The tense back-and-forth between Texas Rep. Joaquín Castro and Gov. Rick Perry over the crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border is not letting up.

The Democratic congressman sent a second response to Perry in a letter on Monday, accusing the governor of advocating for a “police state” on the border, of manipulating crime statistics and of using the situation for his personal political gain.


“The people of South Texas do not want to and should not have to live in a police state,” Castro wrote to Perry, who announced last Monday that he would be deploying 1,000 National Guard troops to the border.

The Republican governor has garnered significant national media attention for his push to stem the more than 50,000 undocumented Central American children that have arrived along the border since October and for his criticism of President Barack Obama for not controlling the situation.

( Also on POLITICO: House GOP cuts border funding bill)

Castro railed against the governor and others for turning the border crisis into political theater. “[F]for too long, the border has been used as a boogey man for political gain,” Castro wrote.

The congressman criticized Perry for photos he took with Fox News host Sean Hannity, in which the two posed with mounted machine guns on a boat that toured the border. “I am disappointed that your first instinct was to head down to the Rio Grande to pose by mounted machine guns as if on a trophy hunt,” Castro wrote. “These actions imply hostility toward young children fleeing violence in their home countries.”

Castro said the crime statistics Perry has used to justify his decision to send National Guard forces to the border “have been thoroughly debunked.” The governor has come under scrutiny from several outlets over statistics he released in his announcement of the plan and in a follow-up letter to Castro, which indicated that illegal immigrants alone have committed more than 3,000 homicides since 2008. PolitiFact rated that statement as “Pants on Fire,” calling the statement “both incorrect and ridiculous.”

The congressman concluded by asking Perry to meet with the entire Texas congressional delegation — “which you have not done in several years,” Castro claimed — to discuss how Congress can pass the president’s supplemental funding request aimed at easing the problem along the border. Obama has requested Congress to grant $3.7 billion to deal with the border crisis.

( Also on POLITICO: W.H. backs Senate Democrats' plan on border)

Monday’s letter is the latest in a growing spat between the two high-profile Texas political figures. Perry, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, announced his plan to deploy the National Guard troops to supplement Texas Department of Public Safety officials sent to the border in June. “I will not stand idly by,” the governor said in announcing Operation Strong Safety. “The price of inaction is too high.”

In response, Castro in an email to POLITICO accused Perry of “militarizing our border” and said that the governor should be sending the Red Cross, and not the National Guard, to the border. “The children fleeing violence in Central America are seeking out Border Patrol agents,” he wrote last week. “They are not trying to evade them. Why send soldiers to confront these kids?”

In a letter to Castro two days later on July 23, Perry said that Castro’s “comments indicated a basic misunderstanding about the very positive role the Guard will play in tackling the border security crisis.” Perry added that his decision was largely a response to the Obama administration’s inability to secure the border. On Castro’s claim that Guard troops would militarize the border, Perry said: “Nothing could be further from the truth.”