MCALLEN, Texas (AP) — Gov. Rick Perry has testified at a U.S. House Homeland Security Committee hearing in South Texas that in addition to the humanitarian crisis created by a flood of unaccompanied child immigrants, there is a crisis involving border security.

More than 52,000 unaccompanied children have been apprehended since October after entering the United States illegally. Three-fourths of them are from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador and say they’re fleeing pervasive gang violence and crushing poverty.

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