Perry says Iran plot requires border security

INDIANAPOLIS — Texas Gov. Rick Perry says an Iranian-backed terror plot coordinated in Mexico proves the U.S. must secure its southern border.

The Republican presidential hopeful used Tuesday's announcement that Iranian forces had sought to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. to call for more border troops, improved fencing along the Mexican border and increased border patrols including the use of predator drone surveillance.

Perry opened his speech to Republican activists in Indianapolis on Wednesday with a call for increased border security. He called allegations that Iranian forces sought to kill the Saudi diplomat "business as usual" for Iran.

Federal officials said Tuesday that one of the suspects coordinated with a man he thought to be a member of a Mexican drug cartel. He was a federal informant.