Posted on 09/25/2011 10:37:58 AM PDT by Clairity
In this week's GOP Presidential debate, Governor Mitt Romney and Senator Rick Santorum both repeated untruths about Governor Rick Perry's immigration position. It is time to set the record straight.
First let me say, I've not endorsed a candidate and though I've predicted a Perry win in 2012, it is not based on a personal desire, but rather the assessment of all the data that I believe the general election race will be dependent on. I did the same thing in 2006, predicting a Barack Obama win, but by no means endorsing his candidacy.
Second let me also say, this week's debate performance by Governor Rick Perry was bizarre and seemed to run out of complete steam in the final thirty minutes. In fact I was so curious as to the Governor's performance down the stretch I inquired to the Perry campaign to see if the Governor had taken ill, or had some other medical issue arise in the final half hour.
But on Thursday evening it did become clear that the GOP opponents intend to rhetorically bloody Governor Perry as best they can until they begin to be eliminated from the race.
In the debate, Chris Wallace asked a direct question to Mitt Romney regarding the in-state tuition rates of children who live in the state, but happen to have parents who came here illegally.
Mitt Romney replied, "I don't see how it is that a state like Texas--to go to the University of Texas--if you're an illegal alien--you get an in-state tuition discount. D'you know how much that is? It's twenty-two thousand dollars a year. Four years of college you're almost a hundred thousand dollar discount if you're an illegal alien--if you go to the University of Texas. If you're a United States citizen, from any one of the other forty-nine states, you have to pay a hundred thousand dollars more. That doesn't make sense to me. And that kind of magnet, draws people into this country, to get that education, to get that kind of hundred thousand dollar break, it makes no sense..."
I was disappointed that Chris Wallace didn't stop him and make him answer the question he had actually asked him.
Maybe Mitt Romney doesn't realize that many children of illegal aliens aren't illegals themselves. And as long as birth-rite citizenship is the law, anchor babies are protected under the law with equal benefits to all other American citizens.
Maybe Mitt Romney doesn't realize that nearly all of the rest of children of illegals had no choice in whether to live in Texas or not. If they were brought there by parents who were illegal--how is that the child's fault? Is Romney ready to charge those children with crimes? Mass deportations? Even Romney has not pledged to go that far.
Maybe Mitt Romney somehow missed the point that Governor Perry's problem is one that the Federal Government created for him. By refusing to enforce current immigration law, the Obama administration has made life for border states unbelievably difficult. And in some cases the Federal Government is even attempting to choke out state's rights to react to border issues in any way whatsoever.
Maybe Mitt Romney is completely ignorant of what the reality of dealing with the border actually means--in real terms. Gov. Perry had to raise $400 million in state taxes to attempt to shore up the border and do the job that the Feds should be doing.
Or maybe Governor Romney believes he doesn't need any votes from legal Hispanics and legal immigrants who are wrestling with the real issue of being in a position where their family's future is in question.
But to set the record straight, it was the state of Texas, and most specifically its lawfully elected legislature that drafted the legislation and passed it with only 4 votes of 181 possible to vote against it. Yes, Governor Perry signed it into law, but it was a definitively bi-partisan initiative that the people of Texas clearly wanted to see become law.
Additionally, Governor Perry has actual compassion for these children who ended up in his state, outside of their own doing. Educating them gets them working and contributing to the state's treasury faster, and is more meaningful than letting them sit on the sidelines.
And despite what the unusually angry Rick Santorum offered, all the legislation did was allow those children (NOT ILLEGAL ALIENS AT LARGE) to get the same "starting point" in state institutions that all of their classmates got. The stupid argument that Romney and Santorum grew red-faced and spittle-spewing over didn't seem to hold true against Texas where non-Texan students would have to pay $88,000 more than other Texas-raised children. And states discriminate that way against other children from other regions of the country--all the time.
President Obama will need to re-energize the American Hispanic vote in order for him to win re-election. They had left him on the economy, and they were never with him on his values. But Mitt Romney--who vows allegiance to a church that had at its core a racist doctrine until only a couple of decades ago--is verging on alienating other ethnic groups, in part because he is not telling the truth about the Texas legislature's law to allow children (not illegal aliens who crossed the border--the children of) to simply pay the same amount of tuition as the kids they sit next to in class.
In short Perry knows this problem intimately. And it will be a cold day in Hades before he ever signs a federal version of the DREAM Act. He believes in fencing, technology, state's rights, and workplace incentives.
Which more or less means he believes in the same enforcement techniques as all the rest of the GOP field.
And for Santorum and Romney to pretend otherwise is sanctimonious and dishonest.
One does not have to dig too deep to find garbage on Ricardo the Pan National Socalist RINO.
Volcker, as with any human being is not perfect. Only our creator can claim that title. So we take the good in proportion to the bad.
GO HERMAN CAIN!
Perry has proven to be a PROGRESSIVE,GO HERMAN CAIN!
stealing from American to give to criminals !
Children of illegal aliens are illegal aliens even if they were born in the US. Wishing has nothing to do with it, it is a fact backed up by 14th amendment.
Because you can't physically fence the entire border. The Rio Grande is the physical border of America. Are you going to plunk a fence down right through the middle of it?
Or for that matter, plunk a fence down in the straits between Florida and Cuba? (you know, to stop the Cubans and the Haitians)
Stupid? Rather, the stupid among us seem to be those lapping up the twisting of the truth, as is being done by this author.
If you actually believe that every illegal alien that is allowed in state tuition meets all the requirements then you are as naive as they come. They violate numerous federal and state laws and you actually believe that they are going to be completely honest on an affidavit that is validated by college administrators. Lol
You are just wrong. Show me where anyone born here has ever been ruled a non-citizen. You can’t.
A transcript is not an affidavit, and nothing is being “validated” by college adminstrators. If the adminstrators are going to commit fraud, then they don’t need a dream act, do they?
The actual law is bad enough, you don’t need to make stuff up to make it sound worse than it is. You’re assumptions and theories are not the same as facts.
Very nice homepage
They don’t need a transcript. A G.E.D. will do.
“If they are illegal, they cannot work here as a roofer with or without a college education.
So, why should we provide college educations to those who will never be able to work legally in the US?”
Newsflash - they did cross the border, they are here, and they are working.
Blame Obama, not Rick Perry for letting people cross our national borders illegally - the Fed owns the border, not the state Governor. Obama has rescinded the funding authorized by Bush to add additional border security.
The fact is, the kid’s of these people are here at no fault of their own. Mass deportation is simply and totally unrealistic, so they must be dealt with.
As a governor, this situation was dumped on Rick Perry. He has gone above and beyond his job role in catching and processing illegals and sent Obama the bill.
The fact that people crossed the border and have found work is not Rick Perry’s fault any more than the situation is Jan Brewer’s fault in Arizona. These people are here, some gave birth to children on US soil, others were dragged over the border by their parents.
Again, if you do not think it is fair for a child who attended 13 years of grade school to pay the same $22k/year to attend A&M University, just because their parents brought them here as infants illegally, than you should demand that whoever the republican front runner is make this same proclamation in the general election against Obama. Santorum and Romney have, but I guarantee you this - if either of these two bomb throwers ever becomes the nominee, their same words used to unfairly attack Perry in such a misleading way over this issue will be used by Obama against them in a much worse way.
Ten states have laws allowing instate tuition for illegals. In TX it was passed by the state legislature with only 4 dissenting votes.
Perry couldn't have vetoed.
to create a system of bi-national socialized medicine
I think it was insurance. Forget the illegal immigrants who get treated. Are you aware of how much it costs Texans for medical treatment for Mexicans who just come for treatment? They fly in and go to the Medical Center in Houston! It has been going on for decades!
Yes, I would be happy to share some of the cost for that with Mexicans!!!!!
The love fest won’t last long...they’ll get on his case next.
Don’t they need a transcript to show they went to school three years? And don’t colleges demand a transcript when you apply? I always needed one.
You may not be aware of this, but illegal immigration has been a problem for long before Obama was elected.
And those illegal aliens who are educated at our universities will never be able to legally work in the USA.
Face it. Rick Perry is an open borders socialist RINO who believes in open borders and wants to institute Bi National Socialized Medicine so that you can pay for the healthcare of people in Mexico and receive Mexican quality healthcare in the USA.
That said, the feds wont secure the border, Texans under Perry have spent 400 million to secure our border, I mean my and yours, the US Mexico border. It wasn't Santorums state or Mitts state, it was we Texans who have been paying out the nose to secure the US border.
There is a major problem here but as a legal immigrant, the law passed by the Texas Legislature actually said that if you (federal_reserve) are working toward your citizenship and have lived in Texas for 3 years graduating from a Texas high school, you will be considered a resident of Texas and will pay in state tuition.
Now many on FR would demand that you too, as a legal immigrant and working toward your citizenship and having lived in state and graduated from a Texas high school you should pay out of state tuition too. I don't agree, if you live here, pay taxes here and are on your way to becoming an American/Texan, you can pay instate tuition.
Romney sure pulled everyone into his little scheme.
That said it is up to Perry to articulate that or Cain will be the next best choice.
Other states do it so Texas may as well give in state tuition to illegal aliens?
And Perry did not only sign the bill, he bragged about signing the bill.
The law says three years in TX schools/diploma or a G.E.D. It was posted on a Perry thread yesterday. I don’t recall the name of the FReeper who posted it, but he highlighted the section in the law that said the G.E.D. could be substituted for a transcript. That’s all I can tell you, but I read it myself and I do recall what it said.
All these laws are the same. They put in the in-state requirement to appease opponents, and then slip ‘or the equivalent of a HS diploma’ in to accomplish the real intent of the law: to pander to illegals.
I didn't say that...you did!
Some of the biggest complainers about Texas' law live in states that have similar laws and probably don't know it!...which was my point.
Where do you live? Does your state have a similar law?
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