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Published: 20 June 2014 07:27 PM

AUSTIN  — Gov. Rick Perry on Friday wrote to one of his greatest political foes, President Barack Obama, inviting him to Texas to see what he called the “humanitarian crisis” unfolding as unaccompanied children pour across the border with Mexico illegally.

In a stern two-page letter, the Texas Republican asked the White House to send 1,000 additional National Guard troops with “arrest powers to support the Border Patrol,” as well as Lakota helicopters to South Texas, and to authorize the National Guard to use Predator drones to better combat drug and people smuggling.

Perry also wants the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to inspect facilities housing immigrants, especially children, who entered the U.S. illegally.

The missive came as the Obama administration announced it will open new detention facilities to house immigrant families. The federal government has been overwhelmed by waves of unaccompanied minors — mostly from Central America — who have been entering the United States in recent months. An estimated 47,000 unaccompanied children so far this budget year have crossed the border from Texas to Arizona in what Obama has himself called an “urgent humanitarian situation.”

Dallas News