Gov. Rick Perry has told just about anyone who will listen about his plan to dispatch elite teams of Texas Rangers to the border to do what he says the federal government won't — keep Texans safe from encroaching Mexican drug violence.

Just don't ask him for specifics.

While the Ranger Recon initiative has served as a strong rhetorical counterpoint when Perry slams the federal government, details about what the taxpayer-funded teams actually accomplish remain a secret.

State officials insist they do not tally arrests or drug and property seizures under the program, which they say doesn't have its own budget after more than a year in operation. They say the Ranger Recon teams are paid out of the state's larger border security initiative, but decline to put a dollar figure on the program's costs. Nor will they say how many of the state's 144 Rangers, the top criminal investigators in Texas, participate or where the teams have been active.

The Department of Public Safety, which oversees the program, said in response to an Associated Press public records request that the Rangers do no investigative work as part of the teams, but have engaged in about 10 "missions."

Arizona legislators are setting aside Gov. Jan Brewer's suggestion that lawmakers consider changing parts of the state's controversial immigration law.

Brewer on July 30 floated the idea of making "tweaks" to the law shortly after a federal judge blocked implementation of numerous provisions. Legislative aides said Tuesday the idea has been shelved, at least temporarily, mainly because of the state's pending appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

"Everyone agreed ... that it would have been acting in haste to act at this point," said Victor Riches, chief of staff for the House's Republican majority.

There's still a possibility that lawmakers could take up the issue in the future but nothing is in the works now, Riches added.

Brewer spokesman Paul Senseman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Brewer didn't suggest specific changes to the law but expressed a willingness to consider changes in response to the preliminary injunction issued July 28 by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton.

Tea party groups converged on a remote section of the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday to show support for Arizona's controversial immigration law and hear from more than a dozen conservative speakers, many of them candidates running for office in crowded Republican primaries.

Several speaking to the crowd of more than 400 demanded Congress and President Barack Obama devote more resources to increase border security in remote areas like the site of Sunday's demonstration southeast of Tucson.

"We are going to force them to do it, because if they don't, we will not stop screaming," said former state Sen. Pam Gorman, one of 10 Republicans vying for an open congressional seat in north Phoenix. Gorman carried a handgun in a holster slung over her shoulder as she mingled with demonstrators.

Obama on Friday signed a bill directing $600 million more to securing the U.S.-Mexico border — money that will pay for hiring 1,000 more Border Patrol agents along with customs agents, communications equipment and expanded use of unmanned aerial vehicles.

Records show that about 47,000 people have been removed or deported from the U.S. after the Homeland Security Department sifted through 3 million sets of fingerprints taken from bookings at local jails.

About one-quarter of those kicked out of the country did not have criminal records, according to government data obtained by immigration advocacy groups that have filed a lawsuit. The groups plan to release the data Tuesday and provided early copies to The Associated Press.

As issue is a fingerprint-sharing program known as Secure Communities that the government says is focused on getting rid of the "worst of the worst" criminal immigrants from the U.S.

Immigration advocates say that the government instead spends too much time on lower-level criminals or non-criminals.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement divides crimes into three categories, with Level 1 being the most serious. Most of those deported committed Level 2 or 3 crimes or were non-criminals, a monthly report of Secure Communities statistics shows.

In Arizona, the shooting death of a rancher blew the lid off simmering anger over border security and helped solidify support for a tough new immigration law. A similar eruption threatens in Virginia following the death of a Catholic nun in a car accident involving a man in the country illegally and accused of drunken driving.

The Benedictine Sisters of Virginia tried to discourage using the death of Sister Denise Mosier as a "forum of the illegal immigration agenda" and pleaded for a focus on "Christ's command to forgive."

"The sisters' mission is peace and love," said Corey Stewart, chairman of Prince William County's Board of Supervisors. "My mission is law enforcement and the protection of public safety."

Prince William County, about 25 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., stepped up its immigration enforcement in 2007 amid explosive growth of its Hispanic and immigrant populations. Under Stewart's leadership, the county implemented a local policy requiring police to determine the immigration status of all people arrested on suspicion of violating state or local laws.

The battle over immigration reform may now be spilling over to the US Constitution.

On Aug. 4, buzz picked up around our nation's capitol when Republican leaders began endorsing the idea to alter the 14th Amendment to not allow automatic citizenship to children born to illegal immigrants in the United States.

The line in question states, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States ..." As it stands, all individuals born in the United States are granted automatic citizenship, regardless of immigration status.

Senator Jeff Sessions of Arizona told the media, "I'm not sure exactly what the drafters of the (14th) amendment had in mind, but I doubt it was that somebody could fly in from Brazil and have a child and fly back home with that child, and that child is forever an American citizen."

The 14th Amendment was adopted in 1868. Its purpose was to help grant citizenship to recently freed slaves.

A Latino civil rights group is suing a Nebraska city to stop its new ordinance that bars residents from hiring or renting homes to illegal immigrants.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed the lawsuit Wednesday in federal court "to protect immigrants from unlawful, local regulation of immigration" and challenges to constitutional and federal authority.

Fremont city attorney Dean Skokan (skoh-KAN') says he couldn't comment because he hadn't yet seen the lawsuit.

The lawsuit targets the city's illegal-immigration ordinance that voters approved in June. The ban is set to go into effect on July 29.

The American Civil Liberties Union also has promised to challenge the ban in court, but had not filed a lawsuit by Wednesday morning.