White outlines border security plan

Austin (KXAN) - In a hotel conference room next to Austin’s Airport, Gubernatorial Candidate Bill White outlined his plan to secure the Texas/Mexico Border.

“We will establish a partnership, an informal partnership between federal, state and local law enforcement operating along the border,” White says.

He also took the opportunity to point out what he thinks are the weak points in current Governor and his opponent, Rick Perry’s border securing plans.

“Four years ago Rick Perry said we shouldn’t wait for DC. He has not only failed to obtain the federal resources we needed but now he is blaming it on DC. We need a governor that can act,” White says.

After accepting the endorsement of the Texas Medical Association , Governor Perry made it clear he will not accept money from the nation’s capital for border security, if there are strings attached.

“There seems to be a clear difference here between his approach of, you know we’ll take anything you send out here and we don’t mind all the strings attached to our more thoughtful and I think more Texascentric approach of saying, you know we send a lot money to Washington D.C., we want to our share back when we think it’s going to the appropriate place,” Perry says.

White says he wants to use federal grant money to hire 1,000 more local law enforcement officers and 250 more Texas State Troopers to help protect the border.

White’s plan also calls for revamping the Texas Department of Public Safety .

“[It] starts with taking politics out of DPS, but it starts with increasing the levels of staffing so that they can respond to the demands,” White says.

White also made stops in Houston and Hidalgo on Thursday.

To view White’s border security plan click here .
To view Perry’s border security plan click here .