In Utah, it is different story, where criticism of the raid has been mounting.

Utah's attorney general, Mark Shurtleff, told the Deseret News newspaper last week that he wasn't sure if Texas really needed to take all of the children.

"As far as all the kids, I don't know. What else could they do?" Shurtleff said to the Salt Lake City newspaper. "My gut feeling is they shouldn't have. They've gone too far."

And at a town hall meeting on polygamy last week in St. George, about 45 miles from the twin FLDS towns of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, Terry Goddard, the Arizona attorney general also complained about Texas's reluctance to ask for assistance.

"We stand ready to help, and there are a number of ways we can do that," Goddard said at the meeting. "Right now, Texas is claiming they're an independent republic and we need to establish diplomatic relations with them."

Both attorneys general also said at the town hall meeting that the raid may have been unavoidable given the FLDS' actions and that having an isolated compound is quite different than what officials have dealt with in polygamous communities in Utah and Arizona.

But their comments frustrated state Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo, who isn't happy with the second-guessing.

"It does disturb me when you see actions and practices that have hurt children and then you have all of this Monday-morning quarterbacking," Darby said Wednesday. "Quite frankly, I'm disturbed that other state officials have turned a deaf ear to the criticism.

"What the state of Texas encountered at that ranch was enormous, far beyond what anybody thought would be there," Darby said. "The first reports were everyone thought there would be 60 children out there. To end up with 430 shows you how what CPS was facing out there."

Utah-based blogger Connor Boyack who started an online petition drive that received 2,000 signatures before being sent officials in Texas, Utah, Arizona and Washington, D.C. said many in the Beehive State now have an unfavorable view of Texas.

"I can't speak much for people in general, but the blogs and discussions I've seen talking about this issue don't have favorable words for the Texas government," Boyack said. "Texas' slogan for its tourism efforts claims that it's like a whole other country, and many feel that that statement is more accurate than one might think of at first glance."

FLDS attorney Rod Parker said he believes some Texans are also starting to question the state's actions.

"I think we're seeing more and more signs that some people think their political leaders actions are wrong," Parker said. "I'm getting the sense that the tide is starting to turn."

The massive raid on Eldorado compound was triggered by telephone calls to an abuse hot line in which a woman claimed to be an underage wife with children at the compound. Those calls are now believed to have been a hoax.

FLDS members came to West Texas in 2003, when the church bought the ranch four miles north of Eldorado. Most of the estimated 10,000 members of the FLDS live in Colorado City and Hildale.