AUSTIN (March 15, 2010)—After a weekend of bloody violence whose victims included two Americans and a Mexican man with ties to the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juarez across from El Paso, Gov. Rick Perry called on federal officials Monday to take immediate action to keep Mexico’s drug war from spilling across the border into Texas.

“How many Americans will have to die before our federal government takes serious action along the Texas-Mexico border?” Perry asked Monday.

“For years, they have failed in their vital duty to secure the border, resulting in escalating violence along the Texas-Mexico border.

“The federal government must immediately take steps to increase resources along the border to protect American lives,” he said.

The American couple, Lesley A. Enriquez, 35, who was pregnant, and Arthur H. Redelfs, 34, were shot to death Saturday in their vehicle near the Santa Fe International Bridge.

Their infant daughter was in the backseat of the vehicle, but was not injured.

The other victim, Jorge Alberto Salcido Ceniceros, was shot to death in his vehicle.

His two children were with him and were wounded.

The victims were returning home after attending a birthday party, authorities said.

Meanwhile Saturday, soldiers battled with armed men in the Mexican resort city of Acapulco for two hours in a fight that left a soldier and 15 gunmen dead.

Three soldiers and a bystander were wounded.

About 18,600 people, most of them drug cartel members, have died in drug-related violence in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon took power and launched an army crackdown on traffickers in late 2006.

Since January 2008, 4,700 murders have been reported in Ciudad Juarez, which has become one of the most violent cities in the world.

Because of the increase in violence, the Texas Department of Public Safety urged students in the state to avoid traveling to Mexican border cities.

Perry has sent a settler to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano asking the federal government to use predator drones, for surveillance missions over the Texas-Mexico border.

Three predator drones are now assigned to the southwest border are based in and operating exclusively in Arizona, Perry said.

Since January 2009, Perry has urged federal officials to approve a request for a thousand National Guard troops to support civilian law enforcement officers along the border.