WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 21: Texas Governor Rick Perry delivers remarks about immigration and the need for more aggressive enforcement along the Texas-Mexico border at the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation August 21, 2014 in Washington, DC. The governor of Texas since 2000 and a one-time presidential candidate, Perry was recently indicted by a Travis County grand jury for abuse of power and coercion of a public servant after he vetoed $7.5 million in funding for the state's Public Integrity Unit, which is investigating Perry's Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) (2014 Getty Images)
MEXICO – Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s recent comments about the possibility that Islamic fundamentalist terrorists could already be operating in the country and that they entered through the porous Mexican border are “absurd,” according to Mexico’s foreign relations secretary.
Jose Antonio Meade said in a statement Saturday that the U.S. governor’s statements during a Thursday speech were based on “beliefs, speculation and absolutely unfounded and absurd analysis.”
“It was certified by authorized forces from the Pentagon, State Department and in cooperation with Mexican authorities in the United States that there is no element that gives credence to the belief expressed by the governor,” Meade said.
Perry said last week that “there is a very real possibility” that ISIS terrorists could be entering the United States from Mexico across what he called an “unsecured” Southwest border. While he admitted that there is “no clear evidence” that they are, he said the ongoing border crisis should be looked at as a matter of national security.
“I think there is the obvious, great concern that — because of the condition of the border from the standpoint of it not being secure and us not knowing who is penetrating across — that individuals from ISIS or other terrorist states could be,” Perry said during a conference on border security and immigration at the Heritage Foundation.
Meade said that “to create foreign policy, there needs to be data,” and that it is “very unfortunate that (there) are those who entertain making foreign policy based on beliefs, assumptions and analysis that are absolutely baseless and absurd.”
The debate almost coincides with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto’s visit to California next week to discuss border immigration.
Based on reporting by the Associated Press.
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