Free Republic

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry said on Wednesday he was wrong to say that opponents of his immigration policy in Texas have no heart, as he sought to dampen conservative ire over the comment. Perry, the Texas governor, has drawn fire from rival candidates Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann over remarks he used to defend a measure that allows children of illegal immigrants to pay cheaper in-state tuition rates at Texas colleges. The policy is outside usual conservative orthodoxy and Perry compounded the issue by saying at a Florida debate last week to those who oppose it,...

Rick Perry said Wednesday that he was sorry for saying at last week's Republican debate that those opposed to providing an in-state tuition break to the children of illegal immigrants "did not have a heart." “I was probably a bit over-passionate by using that word and it was inappropriate,” Perry said in a interview with Newsmax. “In Texas in 2001 we had 181 members of the legislature — only four voted against this piece of legislation — because it wasn’t about immigration it was about education.” But Perry stood by his argument that building a fence along the entire Mexican...