TEXAS RANGERS RIDE IN, TO COOL RECEPTION

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 Calderon 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."

A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, Matt Chandler,
said a request from Mr. Perry for 1,000 National Guard troops is
under review, but he added that the Obama administration "has moved a
significant amount of resources to the border."

Increased presence of law enforcement at the border has curbed
illegal crossings, allowing officials to better detect and confiscate
the smuggling of illegal drugs, according to a July report by Customs
and Border Protection, which is part of the Homeland Security
Department. Its officials intercepted more than 2.7 million pounds of
illegal drugs from October of last year through June at or between
ports of entry, up more than 50% from the same period in previous
years. Most of the agency's operations are carried out along the
southern border, according to a spokesman.

The law-enforcement presence at the southern border also includes
local sheriffs, the state highway patrol and the federal Drug
Enforcement Administration.

While federal and state authorities wrangle over resources, border
leaders complain that help their communities really need -- like
beefing up local police departments -- is being overlooked. "We were
not consulted," said Laredo Mayor Raul Salinas, a Democrat.

Mr. Perry, who is facing a primary challenge from Sen. Kay Bailey
Hutchison, has been increasingly critical of Washington on a wide
range of issues.

Some Democratic border officials think that staking out an
anti-Washington primary position is behind Mr. Perry's decision to
send in the Rangers. "This is built around a Republican primary, not
effective security," said state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, an El Paso Democrat.

A spokeswoman from the governor's office, Katherine Cesinger, said
the Ranger deployment is part of a broader program to secure the
state's 1,245 mile border that the governor established some time
ago. Texas officials haven't disclosed the size of the Ranger
deployment; the total Ranger force has fewer than 200 members.
"Anyone who knows Gov. Perry knows this is nothing new," she said.

Chad Foster, an independent mayor of Eagle Pass, southwest of San
Antonio, and chairman of the Texas Border Coalition, said crime along
the border has fallen significantly in recent years and that state
resources would be better used to curb arms and money smuggling into Mexico.

But Don Reay, executive director of the Texas Border Sheriff's
Coalition, said the criticisms from border officials ignore a real
threat of violence spilling over from Mexico. "There's always the
need for more help when you look at the overall security issues in
the border," he said.