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BORDER OVERLOAD
BORDER OVERLOAD
Gov. Perry, Obama to meet today
Money for minors
By JULIAN AGUILAR
$3.7B eyed for children
TEXAS TRIBUNE
By ERICA WERNER AND JIM KUHNHENN Gov. Rick Perry will meet with President Obama today to discuss the continuing crisis on the border, an aide to the governor confirmed Tuesday. The meeting follows Perry’s letter to the president on Monday that urged Obama to do more than shake hands upon his arrival in Texas. “Gov. Perry is pleased that President Obama has accepted his invitation to discuss the humanitarian and national security crises along our southern border, and he looks forward to meeting with the president (today),” Perry spokesman Travis Considine said in an email. The meeting will occur days after Perry lobbed an onslaught of criticism at the Obama administration for what the governor has said is the White House’s failure to secure the border. “The federal government is just absolutely failing. We either have an incredibly inept administration or they’re in on this somehow or another,” Perry said on ABC Sunday. The president will be in Dallas today for an event hosted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He will then travel to Austin for a Democratic National Committee event this evening. He will speak about the economy on Thursday morning, according to a White House statement. “At any point while you are here, I am available to sit down privately so we can talk and you may directly gain my state’s perspective on the effects of an unsecured border and what is necessary to make it secure,” Perry wrote the president in a letter Monday. Perry’s invitation comes in the midst of sparring between his office and the White House over the influx of undocumented immigrants in the Rio Grande Valley and South Texas. Perry has criticized the president for not stopping to see firsthand the crisis on the border. A White House spokesman said last week that Perry’s concerns were “hard to take seriously.” Perry’s office said in response that instead of being concerned about the flood of immigrants, the president was using Texas as an “ATM.” U.S. Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley Sector have apprehended more than 37,000 unaccompanied minors since October. Perry has repeatedly blamed the Obama administration for what he says is a failure to secure the border. In his letter, he hinted that his office has been ignored since 2009. “Since first calling the issue of border security to your attention in a 2009 letter requesting 1,000 National Guard troops to assist with securing our border, I have followed up with several further communications inviting you to tour the border and view this crisis firsthand,” he wrote. During a U.S. House Homeland Security meeting in McAllen last week, Perry said that a 2012 letter he sent to the president about the rise in unaccompanied minors garnered no response. Perry also said that the children should be sent back to their
See PERRY PAGE 9A
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Tackling what he has called a humanitarian crisis, President Barack Obama on Tuesday asked Congress for $3.7 billion to cope with a tide of minors from Central America who are illegally crossing the U.S. border, straining immigration resources and causing a political firestorm in Washington. The White House said the money would help increase the detention, care and transportation of unaccompanied children, help speed the removal of adults with children by in-
See BORDER PAGE 9A
Photo by Eric Gay | AP
Cindy Jimenez, 26, from Olancho, Honduras, and her son depart the bus station in McAllen, on June 20. Jimenez crossed illegally into the U.S.
QUEEN COMPETITION
THREE-TIME CHAMPION Vanessa Cantu has won three queen crowns By MELVA LAVIN THE ZAPATA TIMES
Courtesy photo
A Zapata resident has achieved one of her goals in life — that of being crown a national beauty queen. Vanessa Cantu, 5, was named Tiny Miss American Beauty in Kissime, Fla., in late June. The pageant, for girls aged 4 and 5, had contestants from Florida, Texas and other areas along the Gulf Coast. “I enjoy drawing, dancing, modeling, singing, playing and coloring with my older sister Kristal,” Cantu said during a Friday afternoon interview at the Laredo Morning Times. “I am fun and creative, and can count in threes.” In the competition, Cantu participated in modeling, evening gown and presence in addition to an interview, to which Cantu’s mother said she responded in English and Spanish. The mission of the American Beauty Pageant is “to provide each participant with a quality experience at a reasonable price in a fair and balanced environment,” according to its website. The company has been producing pageants for nine years. The crown is Cantu’s third. She was
Vanessa Cantu, 5, was named Tiny Miss American Beauty in Kissime, Fla., in late June. She has received three crowns so far, fulfilling one of her goals in life.
See QUEEN
PAGE 9A
WORLD WAR II ANNIVERSARY
Survivors recall horrific Saipan suicide attack By CHRIS CAROLA ASSOCIATED PRESS
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Even after seven decades, Wilfred “Spike” Mailloux won’t talk about surviving a bloody World War II battle unless longtime friend John Sidur is by his side. It was Sidur who found the severely wounded Mailloux hours after both survived Japan’s largest mass suicide attack in the Pacific. The pre-dawn assault launched 70 years ago Monday on the Japanheld island of Saipan nearly wiped out two former New York Nation-
al Guard battalions fighting alongside U.S. Marines. “He found me in the mud,” Mailloux recounted during a visit to the New York State Military Museum to attend a presentation on the battle’s 70th anniversary. Mailloux and Sidur are among the dwindling ranks of WWII veterans of the Army’s 27th Infantry Division, which endured some of the bloodiest fighting in the Pacific, only to have its reputation besmirched by a volatile Marine general in one of the war’s biggest controversies. In the Mariana Islands, 1,400
miles south of Tokyo, Saipan was sought by the Americans as a base for bombing raids against Japan. U.S. forces landed on Saipan on June 15, 1944, with two Marine divisions, the 2nd and the 4th, making the initial beach assaults and losing some 2,000 men on the first day alone. A few days later, the inexperienced 27th Division joined the fight. A New York National Guard outfit activated in October 1940, the “Appleknockers” still retained a sizable Empire State contingent among its ranks after two years of garrison duty in Hawaii.
The commander of the ground forces at Saipan was Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Holland M. Smith, dubbed “Howling Mad” for his volcanic temper. A week into the battle, Smith relieved the 27th’s commander, Maj. Gen. Ralph Smith (no relation), after the division lagged behind the Marine units operating on its flanks. The Marine commander not only blasted the 27th’s leadership, but he also openly criticized its soldiers in front of war correspondents, who later reported on the rift that became known as “Smith vs. Smith.”
Arthur Robinson, 92, of Saratoga Springs knew nothing of the Army versus Marine flap brewing on Saipan. As an infantryman in the 27th’s 105th Infantry Regiment, he was concentrating on staying alive. On July 3, he was wounded in both thighs by machine gun fire. Robinson endured a 10-mile ride in a Jeep to a field hospital, with the driver opting to travel on railroad tracks because the road was mined. On July 7, after three weeks of fighting, two battalions of the
See SAIPAN PAGE 9A