Posted on 05/29/2015 12:02:17 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
When Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry talks about immigration on the campaign trail, he hammers President Obama's policies and touts his own experience standing up to the president during last summer's border crisis. But Perry will also need to demonstrate to Republican primary voters that his nuanced approach to immigration can succeed at the federal level.
Perry's path to the nomination may feature more roadblocks than there are Border Patrol checkpoints in South Texas. Perry did slow the influx of Central Americans into the Rio Grande Valley during last summer's border crisis, but at great cost to his state. A memo leaked from the Texas Department of Public Safety earlier this year appears to show that Perry had a larger role in stemming the tide of illegal immigrant children flowing into the U.S. than the Obama administration.
Perry deployed the National Guard to the border last summer, and his actions elicited an immediate response from the transnational drug cartels who smuggled unaccompanied alien children and other illegal immigrants from Central America into the U.S.
"As of August 2014, the cartels had told the 'river bosses' to stop sending unaccompanied alien children across from Mexico to the U.S. due to the deployment of the military to the U.S. border," the report states.
But Texas spent more than $100 million to regain control of the border, and the security did not last long. Border Patrol agents are preparing for another wave of illegal immigration from Central America, and Texas could face another border crisis. As the Washington Examiner's Paul Bedard noted, traffic at America's southern border is down from last year, but remains quite high compared to recent years past.
Perry, who is expected to launch his presidential campaign next week, has not fully detailed how he would secure the entire southern border as president. Lucy Nashed, Perry's spokeswoman, said in an email that it's a complex issue and added, "If Gov. Perry decides to run, he will lay out his plans at the appropriate time."
"No governor in the country has more firsthand experience with the federal government's failure to secure the border than Gov. Perry," Nashed said in a statement. "As we've learned in Texas, securing the border will take a combination of strategically placed resources including more personnel on the ground, strategic fencing in the metropolitan areas, aviation assets and other technology."
Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, told the Washington Examiner that the federal government should not leave Texas to shoulder this burden alone. She said she thinks the federal government should direct more funding toward border security, and look to Texas as the model for what other states must do to secure the border.
"It's a textbook case of respective state support of federal border security," Vaughan said. "Texas' efforts did make an important contribution...The Texas personnel were able to step in and help interdict a lot of the other crossers who were coming, who are even more dangerous in all likelihood [than the illegal immigrant children]."
But several members of his own party have criticized Perry for being too soft on immigration. During his previous campaign for president, Perry took fire for his support of in-state tuition discounts for illegal immigrants in Texas from former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.
In 2011, Perry defended his decision and said, "I don't think you have a heart" if you oppose the tuition discounts for illegal immigrants. Perry walked his assertion back earlier this year, saying that he used a "really bad choice of words," but that offering in-state tuition to illegal immigrants was "an intellectual decision about the economics of the state."
Perry's maneuvering on immigration may be representative of the intellectual gymnastics other Republican presidential candidates need to do to secure the GOP nomination. Many presidential candidates have recently altered their views on a pathway to citizenship or legal status for illegal immigrants, with the notable exception of Ted Cruz, who has been an outspoken opponent of illegal immigration and any pathway to citizenship.
Perry has said his record in Texas shows how the GOP can improve its standing with Hispanic voters. Perry's emphasis on border security appears to be aimed at immigration hawks in his party's base. While the events unfolding at the border during the campaign will likely dictate the candidates' message on immigration, the televised debates will also play a role. One GOP primary debate will be co-sponsored by Telemundo, the Spanish-language television station, and the general election could feature a debate in McAllen, Texas, ground zero for last summer's border crisis.
Maybe he needs a new jockstrap...
I admire and respect my ex-governor. He’s a good man.
But with Cruz and Walker already in it, it’s not a good idea for him to jump in at this point.
If he does formally enter, I simply can’t support him ahead of Cruz.
If he’s the last one standing among the three, which is unlikely, then I’ll re-evaluate.
Retire to your place in Round Top, Governor. You have earned a little R&R.
The candidate who is most honest with immigration is Ted Cruz.
What a predicament we have allowed to happen where a candidate has to guess on how many non citizen interlopers is either going to be against him or for him.
We have no clue to how many illegals will vote.
Treason on so many levels.
Is that a joke?
La Raza Rick Perry is one of the most pro-ILLEGAL alien Republicans in the field. His history of supporting the ILLEGAL hordes from the south is well-documented. And, combined with his many other faults and frauds, it preclude him from any serious consideration save for the liberal contingent who defend him in spite or because of it.
Jeeze, you don’t have a heart.
“Rick Perry may not be bulletproof on immigration”
Opps!
bump
From the same media that blamed Sarah Palin’s district ‘targetting’ map for Gabby Gifford’s shooting.
He is not. He is also not bulletproof on diverting tax money to businesses as incentive to relocate.
His catering to LA Raza was part of what sunk him last time.
And now that Texans had enough and threw him out of office he can’t produce new “sealing the border” actions to counter his previous record.
Let the old has been sink into the sunset.
His record doesn’t inspire many to support him, and he shoots himself in the head in debates.
Actually, I do have a heart. I have been a General Contractor in Southern California for the past 35 years. My heart bleeds for the generations of American tradesmen I have seen lose their livelihoods to the ILLEGAL hordes who continue to infest the Southwest. Heck, who am I kidding, they are all over the continent. A good friend and former competitor relocated to the state of Washington back in the early 90s. He informs me that area too has been overrun with cheap and ILLEGAL Mexican labor. His competitors hire them, as do mine, making it incredibly difficult to compete when you don't. Politicians like Perry and Obama with their open arms policies toward these vermin only make it worse, as do those who support them. I can and do expect that from liberal democRATs. I do not expect nor do I accept that from Republicans, including those calling themselves "conservatives" who support Perry.
Have you seen my tagline?
Bingo. Perry is one of the biggest crony capitalist corporate welfare enablers out there using vast amounts of taxpayer dollars to spread his form of love in the name of jobs that fail to materialize. He makes a small time grifter look good by comparison. To characterize Perry as a conservative is a cruel slap in the face to conservatism.
Just another satanic illuminati meat puppet.
I go on building sites in Virginia and all the crews speak Spanish here now. The building trades are closed to non-Spanish speakers. Sad.
Perry is another cheap labor importer.
I will not vote for surrendering the rule of law and the country.
Sad indeed. Imagine what it is like here where I am, just 9 miles from the US/Messican border.
My brother-in-law is now a master finish carpenter. Has his own company. Started as a framer out of high school banging nails. That was 20 years ago.
That path is now closed to citizens.
>> And now that Texans had enough and threw him out of office
Bull Shiite.
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