Lost my vote completely. Illegal is illegal is illegal. Not sure what the hell he and his legislators were thinking. I don’t like being called a name by anyone because I disagree. I am an American citizen. Those “special illegal alien” children are NOT Americans.
And this conservative has chosen otherwise.
Say bye Rick, you lasted longer than I thought.
Your next political foe is taking notes.
Actually, it isn't. Ants eventually return to their home colony with the food they've collected from your house. They don't move in, evict you and take over your house.
“Compassionate conservatism” is a lot like the expression “gun control”: it’s not about compassion and it’s not conservative.
If they are under 18, and have no legal relatives here, then they need to go back when their parents do. They can come back when they are of age by producing a birth certificate.
The anchor baby law was ill-advised and, other than repealing it now, there is nothing we can do about those children born under it.
Perry’s stand on illegals was unfortunate. His need to insult the conservative base as “heartless” was unnecessary.
While I do understand Perry’s stand on one level, I also have to say that ultimately, he’s not doing the kids—or his constituents—any good in the long run.
What truly needs to happen is for Mexico’s people to stay home and fix their own country. Sure, it’s going to take some work, and doubtless a lot of bloodshed. We didn’t exactly take control of our own country with nary a scratch, after all. Our ancestors suffered greatly for what we have today.
I am not anti-Mexican. I just think they would live better and be better neighbors if they would just stay home and work for what they want. Lasting freedom cannot be stolen. It can only be earned.
How is government subsidizing their education? If any student qualifies for in-state tution in Texas, that does not mean they are receiving taxpayer funding. These students must secure their own funding, whether from personal funds or via a loan.
Romney says he is going to repeal Obama-care as POTUS(Duhhh, POTUSse dont repeal laws) while being forced to defend Romney-care. BLA-BLA-BLA
If the parents are deported back to Mexico, the reason the teenage children should not go with them is because the teenagers have not known Mexico as a home?
That's ridiculous. Children belong with their parents. If the parents move somewhere, they should take the children with them, even if the children are teenagers.
What do people like this writer say to military families? Children of military families have to move all the time to whatever new place the father is transferred.
I've never read an editorial lamenting how heartless it is for our military to force teenage children of military personnel to have to move to a new home they've never known before when the father receives new orders.
Maybe when Rico Perry is president he will institute a new policy that no military personnel who have teenage children can be transferred because only a person with no heart would force those teenagers to move.
Perry seems rather tone-deaf, which is too bad because he could have rationally explained his position on this, not so much to convince people he is right, but instead to convince them that it doesn’t reveal a basic flaw in his conservative outlook.
He operates in an environment with a good number of illegals who bring little kids into his state. The federal government will do nothing to get rid of them, so he’s stuck with them. Further, the feds require that these children of illegals be educated in Texas public shools, investing thousands of dollars integrating them into our society, teaching them our language and culture, and giving them the skills they need to be productive members of society.
Then they turn 18. They are now adults, and they are illegal. Obama won’t deport them unless engage in other criminal activity. The courts have ruled that they have many of the rights of citizens. Even if you can craft a law that would cut off official state aid, they will still get free health care, lots of federal help, and various indirect and direct state aid.
They speak english, they know little of their own countries, they have no “home” back there. Yes, that isn’t our problem, it is the fault of their parents, and I guess you could argue that kids should suffer the consequences of their parents wrong choices, but that isn’t a winning proposition politically — Americans are a compassionate people, and to some degree or another will not stand for destroying the lives of kids because of their parents choices.
So, they are 18, reasonably-well educated, moving out into the world where they won’t be deported. They will be a drain to the state economically, either because they will get assistance, or they will take jobs under-the-table, menial jobs without paying taxes, whatever.
But this is where it all breaks down. We can send them to college if they qualify, and make them even MORE productive members of society. But then what? If they are still illegal, they still can’t get jobs — they are just a higher class of bums at that point. On the other hand, they DO get jobs, somehow. They run their own businesses, somehow, they employ other people, somehow. There are millions of illegals living among us who manage to hold jobs, own homes, run businesses, provide employment, pay taxes, and be productive members of our communities.
But they are illegal. So the question is, what is “better” — a bunch of illegal high-school graduate 18-year-olds, or a bunch of illegal college-graduate 21-year-olds.
Some here think that is a simple question. I don’t. In Virginia, I supported NOT giving in-state tuition for illegals. But if Texas residents think it is better for their state to give in-state tuition to these kids (it’s not that many, because there aren’t that many who get a B-average through 3 years of high school), then I don’t have a problem with it.
Of course, I don’t have a problem with taking these same kids, and if they get a b-average in college, granting them green cards so they CAN work here if they find a job that doesn’t displace american workers; part of a comprehensive guest worker program that really advertises to americans, and keeps track of people to make sure they don’t overstay their visas.
I don’t favor giving them preference for citizenship, but I don’t mind them getting in the back of the line while they have their green cards. To the degree we WANT to allow some foreigners into this country, I think college-educated young men and women who already are ingrained in our culture and speak our language and consider themselves americans are a BETTER choice than some spanish-speaking person who just wants to come here and make some money to send home to their real country, while cheering for our soccer team to LOSE.
But I know that sounds like rewarding illegal behavior. I guess it is, but it wasn’t the kids illegal behavior. They were brought here by their parents. Unlike some here, I don’t believe the possibility of in-state tuition 12 years later is what drives someone to bring their 5-year-old into this country.
Fortunately, Perry opposes a national dream act. That is the issue for a Presidential candidate, not whether they were OK with a state deciding how to handle their illegal population. Perry also favors deporting illegals and for enhancing border security, so he should be much better than Obama at this. He opposed sanctuary cities, and spend hundreds of millions of Texas tax dollars trying to secure his border with boots on the ground.
He’s not as adamantly anti-immigrant (or anti-illegal-immigrant) as some in the conservative movement would like him to be, and that’s a good reason not to support him. But I believe he could have given his views a rational argument, like I have here, and at least he could have moved on.
But saying people who disagree with you “don’t have a heart” was just stupid. Just as talking about judging people by “the sound of their last name” was stupid. You can defend policy differences — you can’t defend stupid.
Perry, while temptingly votable in my voting lexicon - once, has relegated himself to the status of “State-politician”. I’ll never vote for him. I don’t care how he stands on any other matter. To me, illegal immigration is the nail in the coffin for this country, and anyone who has a ‘heart’ and excuses it, abets it, rewards it, gives it hope, all while calling me, personally, heartless, can take a flying frackin leap back to Texas and stay there.
Yes, excellent writing.
OK, so I’m heartless!
So is nature.
Once again, Mexico (and other countries where many illegals originate) are stuck in a cycle of corruption and lawlessness.
Send ALL illegals back, NO exceptions.
Yes, this WILL suck for some of them, it will not be “fair” as they were allowed to stay in the U.S. too long, now they think they are entitled to stay.
They are not.
An influx of American educated people, with experience of (relatively) honest government should provide a sufficient base of educated and motivated citizens to begin truly cleaning up their own government.
There are enough of them to form their own communities, communities where the corruption and shake-downs are not accepted.
This should lead to clearly successful communities, which should attract others to emulate them.
The corrupt status quo will resist this change, as the English crown resisted American independence.
But the seed of freedom in Mexico (and other $#@&-hole countries) is these young American educated repatriated citizens.
The Chinese refuse to allow their illegals to be returned, precisely because they fear the “contagion” of people who have experienced freedom.
In the long run, but not nearly so long as the corruption has been allowed to continue, this may be the only way to clean up these countries without waging war and imposing order on them.
I am confused by the furor over this issue. These parents have been paying sales tax and property tax or rent to people who pay property tax for years in most cases. Gov Perry wants a guest worker program so they could also pay Federal tax and State withholding. I don’t see it as unreasonable that they be able to pay in-state fees rather than out-of-state fees at Texas colleges if they are bonifed residents and have been paying state sales/property taxes.
The other issue is that no one expects to deport all 10-15 million illegal aliens. We would be better served by encouraging these kids who are well enough integrated and motivated to want to go to college rather than making a point of alienating them. We don’t need to create a subclass. We need to stop the inflow, stop anchor babies, create a guest worker program so we know who’s here and collect tax from them. We need to deport those here who commit crimes,or are on welfare and stop subsidizing all illegal alien health care. The guest worker program could include a very basic health plan. Gov Perry is not a great debater or even a good one but this issue is being marketed and spun to try and drag him down because he is the biggest threat to the Democratic takeover of America. This is not a single issue election and allowing anger to cloud the very real dangers of Mitt the RHINO, a tax, spend, control freak winning the nomination is in a word “stupid”.
Ping!
If they are going to come to the US illegally and if they are not deported for whatever reason, they should pay a price, They should be forced to register and obtain a photo ID and all Latinos should have to present a legal picture ID to vote since most of them are illegals. They should have to wait 5 four year election cycles to be eligible to vote. No free handouts and no in-state tuition for out of staters. Make them live in the state the required number of years. No food stamps and no free hospital care. If they don’t pay their bills deport them. I say all this in compassion. Compassion for my fellow Americans that have lost jobs and homes to these criminals.
Why? As members of the Spanish congregation of our denomination in our county we have seen the following:
**Bigamy! Many of the Illegals here have two families. One wife and set of children is here in the U.S. and other wife and children are abandoned in Mexico without the benefit of divorce.
** Whole villages are denuded of men ( and some women) between the ages of 16 and 50. The women and children left behind are defenseless against the attacks of gangs and drug lords.
*** The most ambitious, energetic, daring, and imaginative men and ( some women) are here in the U.S. Entrepreneurial energy and **political** energy is drained from their home countries.
** Many of the children in our congregation live in families were some of the children are citizen and others are not, and many have half-brothers and sisters in their home countries that they have never met.
** The non-citizen children are condemned to a life of black market employment and evasion of the law, while some of their siblings have every opportunity to make a life in the U.S.
** Many of the children in our congregation have never met a single member of their extended family. They are utterly cut off from grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
** The illegal children are not citizens, condemned for life to the underground, and if deported are **absolutely** Ill-equiped for survival in their home country. Many do not even speak Spanish well, and have no relationships built with their home country extended families.
It’s always amusing to read the “critiques” written by those who have never read what it is they claim to criticize.
Have you actually gone and read the Texas DREAM Act? Have you actually gone and looked up the numbers related to it, both when it was passed and now?
No, I didn’t think so.
“Either he’s completely deaf to the concerns of real conservatives, or he’s taking our vote for granted.”
How ironic. Dubya was both.