GUNFIRE HITTING CITY HALL PROMPTS TEXAS AG TO ASK FOR MORE TROOPS ON
BORDER

EL PASO - Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today demanded that
President Obama send more troops to the Texas-Mexico border and used
the shots that hit El Paso City Hall as an example of increased
violence on the border.

Abbott said in a letter that the seven shots that hit City Hall in El
Paso were an example of the violence that is plaguing the border area
and that sending 1,200 National Guard soldiers to the entire
U.S.-Mexico border is not enough.

He also cited the violence in Juarez and said that Americans lives are
at risk.

"More than 1,300 people have been murdered in Juarez this year as a
war continues relentlessly between the Juarez and Sinaloa drug
cartels," he told Obama.

He also said the "time for talk has passed."

Here is the letter by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott:

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

Deadly violence from drug cartels and transnational gangs in Mexico is
knocking on the United States' door with ever increasing frequency.

Yesterday, gunfire from the cartels pierced that threshold and struck
City Hall in El Paso. Fortunately no one was injured or killed. But
that good fortune was not the result of effective border control - it
was mere luck that the bullets struck buildings rather than bodies.

Luck and good fortune are not effective border enforcement policies.
The shocking reality of cross border gunfire proves the cold reality:
American lives are at risk. As the attached news article notes: "More
than 1,300 people have been murdered in Juarez this year as a war
continues relentlessly between the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels."
Americans must be protected as this deadly war bulges at our border.

Law enforcement officials with the Texas Department of Public Safety
and your own U.S. Customs and Border Protection will reveal the hard
truth. Our state is under constant assault from illegal activity
threatening a porous border.

The time for talk has passed. The time for action is now. The need is
urgent. Each day that passes increases the likelihood that an American
life will be lost because of the federal government's failure to
secure the border.

This threat demands immediate and effective action by your
Administration to secure our border. As the Attorney General of Texas,
I urge you to make border security your top priority so that no more
innocent lives are lost to border violence.