Perry Vows Harsher Penalties for Human Traffickers

HOUSTON - When it comes to picking a battleground on which to wage rhetorical war, Governor Rick Perry has chosen the Texas border.

For years now the issue of illegal immigration and ‘narcoterrorism’ has saturated his political ads and stump speeches.

In Houston on Thursday, Perry labeled human trafficking as a horrible symptom of the state's unsecured border.

He offered local rescue groups $500,000 in state cash and pledged to push for sentences as severe as 99 years for those who force the innocent into slave labor and prostitution.

"Those who would commit these heinous acts need to know that if you are caught in Texas you are not going to see the light of day for a long, long time," Perry said.

Meantime in an interview with FOX 26 News, the governor's democratic opponent, Bill White, tried to whittle away at Perry's border security credibility.

Houston's former mayor claims local sheriffs from El Paso to Brownsville want fresh leadership in Austin.

"Sheriffs for 98 percent of Texans along the border support me for governor. They know it’s important that we have real action to make sure we don't have human traffickers and narcotraffickers that can go across the big expanses," said White.

Perry again told reporters that he will not agree to a debate until White makes public tax returns filed during his years serving in the Clinton administration as Under Secretary of Energy.