he issued an executive order mandating that Texas girls receive HPV vaccine,... with an opt-out clause specifically protecting parental rights.
he burdened Texans when he extending in-state tuition to children of undocumented workers,Clearly Texan's don't feel burdened. Texas in state tuition law (HB 1403) from 10 years ago passed with veto proof majorities. It was tightened unanimously by the legislature in 2005 (SB 1528).
There's been no serious appeal attempt. One feeble effort this year never left committee and was not serious. According to the official document below, about 9,000 students compared to 1.1m enrolled are effected.
Here's an official state document outlining "Residency & In-State Tuition" and what the law actually does.
and Perry has opposed the creation of the Mexico–United States barrier, which is meant to keep out illegal aliens.He opposes a nearly two thousand mile barrier, a waste of scarce capital money costing at least $50 billion (CRS 2007 numbers) not including land acquisition costs or costs of private labor. He's in favor of "strategic fencing," that is, in favor of building the fence where it makes sense, along with flying predator drones and adding 3,000 more boots on the ground.
As a San Diegan, I can tell you the fence is not a cure all or silver bullet. We're frequently finding sophisticated tunnels with electricity, ventilation systems, rail lines… here's an example in Nogales from this week.
Rick Perry is what the establishment Republicans want, an ex(?)-Democrat that doesn't want to do anything about Illegal Immigration,I keep hearing this he'll "do nothing" but I can plainly see he's already done plenty.
As you all look through the list on your purity tests, ask yourselves, what other candidate is running with a long record and actual action on immigration/border issues? Romney? Bachmann?
Perry's signed bills against human trafficking (HB 1372, 4008 & SB 11 of '07), on increased border security (probably the Rangers on the border he's mentioned; HB1 of '07), for tougher employer sanctions (HB 1196 of '07), on document fraud (HB 126 of '07) and signed Voter ID. Source: http://www.txcc.org/illegal-immigration & Reuters (Voter ID signing)
He sent Rangers to the border: Texas governor sends Rangers to Mexico border (2009)
He also mentioned aerial assets on the border:
Texas Gov. Rick Perry says Predator drones should patrol Texas border (2010)
Texas gets a second aerial drone for border security (2011)
He's not for amnesty or "pathway to citizenship" as a reward:
In A December 2006 editorial, Gov. Perry wrote: "I would rather know who is crossing our border legally to work instead of not knowing who is crossing our border illegally to work. A guest worker program that provides foreign workers with an ID removes the incentive for millions of people to illegally enter our country. It also adds those workers to our tax base, generates revenue for needed social services and it can be done without providing citizenship." and "Along with millions of Americans, I think it is wrong to reward those who broke our laws with citizenship ahead of those who have followed the law and are waiting to enter this country legally. And like millions of Americans I do not support amnesty." (Emphasis mine.)
Source: http://governor.state.tx.us/news/editorial/10326/
He's a critic of E-Verify's lack of impact on Texas but it is used in thousands of Texas business although not required. However, Texas does require and use the I-9 "employment eligibility" forms which is where E-Verify is supposed to take its info. So in a real sense Texas already verifies eligibility, and under Perry it became harder on employers who violate the law and those who provide documents to defraud employers. Hutchison says Texas state doesn't use E-Verify to weed out undocumented workers applying for jobs (PolitiFact, 2010)
A mandatory E-Verify bill failed to pass the Texas legislature this year Business leaders say mandatory ‘E-Verify’ plan would harm small businesses (2011)
(Some say I-9 forms are meaningless but if I-9 is meaningless and that's where E-Verify gets its data what the hell use is mandatory E-Verify other than an unacceptable error rate and legal costs associated with that?)
Ban on driver's licenses for illegals (SB 1). ID measure passed quietly, while sanctuary cities bill died noisily
A bill banning "sanctuary cities," added by Perry to the recent special session, passed the Senate but failed in the Texas House. Same story as above: ID measure passed quietly, while sanctuary cities bill died noisily
Gee! Look at that! Old open borders RINO Rick, Governor Goodhair. He's never done anything about illegal immigration or border control. We need the untested Perfection Personified instead! /s
There are things I don't particularly like but we need more information, we need context if we're going to vet these candidates fairly and avoid putting faith in a candidate's that only right on rhetoric and lacking record of accomplishment.
Among the worst things we can do is to nominate a Republican version of the same empty vessel Obama was in 2008 for Democrats.
As Perry knew it would. But, he gets to claim he tried.