The letter alone by no means disqualifies Perry. He has a lot of good positions on a lot of issues here in the year 2011.
What disqualifies him to me is legalizing the illegals. We can reverse bad legislation, but after it happens we cannot undo amnesty for tens of millions of illegals, which is national suicide.
Fair enough, just use the same criteria for everyone.
Whose stance on dealing with the illegal aliens already in the country do you agree with?
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Interviewing Rick Perry On Illegal Immigration
Because the federal government has failed to secure the border, states have had to act. In Texas we have sent Texas Rangers to the border, spent hundreds of millions to fight border crime, outlawed driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants and passed Voter ID.
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I called for abolishing sanctuary cities in my last State of the State address, and made it an emergency item for the Legislature. I’m a firm believer in giving law enforcement the discretion they need to do their job. Sanctuary city policies handcuff law enforcement officers in order to further a political agenda.
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I signed that bill because getting a driver’s license is a privilege, not a right. It just doesn’t make sense to me to extend that privilege to individuals who are here illegally.
Additionally, I vetoed a bill that would have allowed the use of a matricula consular, which is an ID card used by the Mexican government, to get a driver’s license in Texas.
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I support the right of each state to come up with its own plan to address the federal government’s failure on border security and illegal immigration.
The federal government has failed to secure the border, and states are left fending for themselves. States have every right under the 10th Amendment to pass laws and make decisions for themselves.
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We’ve spent about $400 million of our state tax dollars to put more boots on the ground, more helicopters in the sky and better intelligence in the hands of law enforcement.
And we’ve seen real results. Our surge in manpower has created major disruptions for the drug cartels and human smuggling rings. We’ve seized millions of pounds of drugs, taken 3,500 illegal weapons off the street and made America safer.
http://rightwingnews.com/interviews/interviewing-rick-perry-on-illegal-immigration-2/