Building managers in state Capitols around the Southeast would do well to instruct their maintenance staffs to stock up on gloves, mops, buckets, slime removal equipment, extra disinfectant and perhaps installing shower stalls for use by the Capitol workers who can’t go home during the day to delouse.

The slimy, discredited , parasitic hucksters at the Southern Poverty Law Center are oozing into the state lobbying business.

Ain’t that a hoot?

You read correctly. The open borders, anti-enforcement creatures who have given up counting and now weigh the cash and loot they bring in from deserving rubes who are dim enough to swallow the “there’s a nazi-behind-every – southern azalea bush and toothless klanners are taking over the nation” goop from the hate mongers’ rubbish are advertising for a … wait for it … Director of Government Relations.

One can only imagine the stampede of anxiously panting, always-angry, race-baiting Marxists preparing their resume for transmission to the profiteers’ Poverty Palace in Montgomery.

Advice to the prospective Director applicant: Make it clear on top of the page that you will happily and dutifully fight all immigration enforcement and “smear today, smear tomorrow and smear forever” in search of donations to help Morris redecorate El Rancho Dees’ –again – to get an employment interview.

Oh, to be a fly on the wall for the hiring interviews.

Having been defeated in numerous state legislatures on immigration enforcement – including Georgia’s – and left to smolder on the sidelines while pro-enforcement activists see effective and productive enforcement laws put in place each year, the charlatans at SPLC will soon have an out-in-the-open lobbying effort.

As a long-time denizen of the Gold-Domed Georgia Capitol, I am delirious with anticipation and excitement at the prospect of dealing with any SPLC lobbyist-critter in any committee hearing on the immigration legislation coming in the 2012 Georgia Legislative session. Controlled by the GOP. That has passed meaningful immigration enforcement-related legislation every year since 2005. Including this year .

That has to hurt professional pride, certainly the leftist agenda and likely the reputation among the open borders crazies who depend on the endless smears and direction from the SPLC.

I am reminded of the first time I had dealings with the SPLC mob. I wanted to compare Morris Dees to the late TV Evangelist Jim Bakker. But alas, his former partner, Millard Farmer, had already done that, “He’s the Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker of the civil rights movement…though I don’t mean to malign Jim and Tammy Faye…” Bless their now departed hearts.

I wanted to write that I see Dees as “a fraud and a con man.” But in 1996 well-known writer Stephen Bright beat me to it.

Or “Dees is a Fear monger, Profiteer and Hypocrite”…nope, already been done – Paul Hall, Managing Editor, the Jubilee Newspaper in Midpines, California.

From the Fairfax Journal editorial Lump of Coal on Morris Dees and the SPLC in December 2003: “…a bunch of slick, parasitic hucksters who live high on the hog by raising money on behalf of needy people who never see a dime of it.”

Rule of law, pro-American state legislators should prepare for the sure to come salvo of “hate-speech” smears from the Che Guevara t-shirt-clad SPLC lobbyists when there is actual discussion of an equal application of the law, protecting American workers and driving the hordes of illegal aliens out of the U.S.

I can’t wait. But I’ll need regular showers.

RICK PERRY WATCH

If you liked George W. Bush on immigration enforcement, border security and amnesty – you would love Rick Perry!

Somebody please send us a note if you ever hear Hannity, Limbaugh or Boortz mention any of the below on Perry.

This page created on September 27, 2011. It took about 2 hours on Google. Additional information (news, quotes and commentary) will be added on the bottom as it is found.

Note to the GOP: Nominate Rick Perry if you want pro-enforcement, anti-amnesty, independent voters – including this one – to stay home in November 2012. He is as bad for America’s future as Comrade Obama.

Let’s make clear something the American media never will: “Immigration” — legal or illegal — is not somehow a separate, unconnected issue from jobs, taxes, national security, education, health care, general quality of life or common national language and values.

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry on open borders:

“President Fox’s vision for an open border is a vision I embrace, as long as we demonstrate the will to address the obstacles to it. An open border means poverty has given way to opportunity, and Mexico’s citizens do not feel compelled to cross the border to find that opportunity.”

Texas Governor Rick Perry, 2001 HERE

IN 2007 he suggested offering renewable, 24-month visas for those who follow such requirements and “incarceration and/or deportation” for those who do not. ( note from DIS: we have deportation laws now for illegals, why not enforce them, you know – NOW ?)

He added that, under such a system, he would support a “free flow of individuals between these two countries who want to work and want to be an asset to our country and to Mexico.” HERE

This open borders/free flow of labor concept may sound familiar to some readers – but completely new and fantastic to most. The media works very hard to insure that it is not widely known. Open borders has been a major demand of many in the business community for decades (“cheap” labor you know, increased markets and decreased tariffs. Sovereign nations are outdated and a detriment to increased profit) – not to mention the political, academic and media elite on both the left and the right.

A few examples:

“THERE SHALL BE OPEN BORDERS” – The Wall St. Journal 1984 HERE

“Open the Borders” – Reason Foundation HERE

Open Nafta Borders? Why Not? WSJ – again July 2, 2001 HERE

SIN FRONTERAS ORGANIZING PROJECT ( WITHOUT BORDERS ORGANIZING PROJECT!) HERE

OUR OPINIONS: Bush, Fox should pursue union similar to Europe – The Atlanta Journal Constitution September 7, 2001 HERE

MORE HERE
—

Rick Perry on protecting American workers with use of the federal no-cost E-Verify system. Texas has no E-Verify requirement, despite having one of the highest populations of illegal aliens in the nation.

“E-verify would not make a hill of beans’ difference in what’s happening in America today.” Perry said in a 2010 debate. HERE
—

Perry on bi-national health care. With Mexico.

“…Legislation authored by border legislators Pat Haggerty and Eddie Lucio establishes an important study that will look at the feasibility of bi-national health insurance. This study recognizes that the Mexican and U.S. sides of the border compose one region, and we must address health care problems throughout that region. That’s why I am also excited that Texas Secretary of State Henry Cuellar is working on an initiative that could extend the benefits of telemedicine to individuals living on the Mexican side of the border…”

Texas Governor Rick Perry speaking at a 2001 U.S. – Mexico border summit. HERE from the right, HERE from the left.
—

Amnesty…er, “guest worker” plans:

Rick Perry, 2006: “I support a guest worker program that takes undocumented workers off the black market and legitimizes their economic contributions without providing them citizenship status,” Perry said in 2006. “A guest worker program that provides foreign workers with an ID removes the incentive for millions of people to illegally enter our country.”

Amnesty, by another name. We already have “guest worker” programs and import a million and a half temporary workers each year – in addition to more than one million permanent legal immigrants – we also have 9% unemployment and around twenty-five million Americans out of work. Please read the entire Perry written article HERE

More?

Perry opposed an Arizona-style immigration law for his state, saying it “would not be the right direction for Texas.” Because it would turn police officers into immigration agents he complains (duh), a mindless talking point taken directly from La Raza and the Chamber of Commerce. And the Restaurant Association. And the construction lobby. And the Ag lobby. And the hotel and landscaping industries. HERE —

MEXICO CITY (AP) – Texas Gov. Rick Perry criticized the U.S. Congress on Tuesday for failing to make progress on immigration reform, suggesting its members lack “maturity” and calling the proposed construction of a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border “idiocy.”

Perry was in Mexico City on a trade mission intended to strengthen Texas and Mexico’s economic ties through trade, investment and energy initiatives, especially renewable energy.
“I don’t think this is that difficult of an issue if Congress would have the maturity to sit down and really discuss it and cut out all of the mean rhetoric and really talk about what is a solution to this issue,” Perry told a news conference.

HERE
—
MORE?

Taxpayer-subsidized, in-state tuition for illegal aliens.

Perry signed the Texas Dream Act in 2001 making it the law in Texas. “We must say to every Texas child learning in a Texas classroom, ‘We don’t care where you came from, but where you are going,’” Perry said. “The message is simple: Educacion es el futuro, y si se puede.” Perry still supports the measure.

He has yet to explain why Texas taxpayers must fund college education for illegal aliens who are ineligible for employment upon graduation.
—

Rick Perry on a workable border fence? Nope:

“No, I don’t support a fence on the border,” “The fact is, it’s 1,200 miles from [Brownsville to El Paso, Texas]. Two things: How long you think it would take to build that? And then if you build a 30-foot wall from El Paso to Brownsville, the 35-foot ladder business gets real good.”

Rick Perry, 2011 HERE
—
This from David Frum: Perry’s Immigration Problem: Even Bigger than it Looks

“Some will interpret Perry’s relaxed views on immigration as a rare indication of a more humane side to the otherwise hardline Texas conservative. Maybe.
But here’s another way to understand Perry’s stance:

Texas has pursued a distinctive economic strategy: drive down all costs of doing business, especially including wages.

Texas workers receive some of the lowest wages in the nation; by some metrics, the very lowest. The encouragement of heavy unskilled immigration from Mexico and central America is an integral – even indispensable – element of the Texas low-wage job-creation strategy.

Perry’s views on immigration are not a “liberal” deviation from his views on the minimum wage, on Social Security, on healthcare coverage, etc. His high-immigration views are of a piece with his general preference for a low-cost, low-wage economy.

By contrast, Mitt Romney has begun to articulate a call for a high-wage economy. To get average wages rising again after a dozen years first of stagnation, then of outright decline, will not be easy. The most important step is to control healthcare costs. The rising cost of healthcare benefits devours workers’ cash pay.

But a rethink of immigration policies is also necessary. In the September 7 debate, Romney articulated something almost never said in a Republican primary: much, much, much more important than a fence or “boots on the ground” is tighter enforcement of labor laws inside the country. I’d go further: if the labor laws were effectively enforced, a border fence would be a costly redundance.

Why have labor laws gone so badly enforced? In very large part: because Rick Perry’s donors don’t want them enforced. The National Restaurant Association does not want them enforced. The construction industry does not want them enforced. Meatpackers do not want them enforced. The hotel and landscaping industries do not want them enforced. When you hear Republican candidates complain of “burdensome regulation,” keep in mind that the regulations that many small businesses find most “burdensome” are those intended to reserve American jobs for American legal residents.

On that issue, Gov. Perry has been, is now, and continues to be an advocate of laxer rules to promote more immigration in order to hold Texas and ultimately American wages low.”

HERE
—

Center for Immigration Studies

Who Benefited from Job Growth In Texas?

A Look at Employment Gains for Immigrants and the Native-Born, 2007 to 2011
By Steven A. Camarota, Ashley Monique Webster
September 2011
HERE—

More: NRO

Mark Krikorian

Most jobs in Texas went to new immigrants both legal and illegal

Remember all those new jobs in Texas Governor Perry keeps talking about? Would it surprise you to learn that the overwhelming majority went to newly arrived immigrants and not to Americans? Surprise! From 2007 to 2011, 81 percent of the job growth went to recently arrived foreign workers — about half legal, half illegal. Nor did all this wonderful job creation for foreigners seem to benefit Americans indirectly — native-born Texans saw the same doubling of unemployment that Americans elsewhere experienced during the recession. So, to the extent Perry has anything to do with all this — and he’s the one boasting of his role in making it happen — his main accomplishment seems to have been to dissolve the workforce and elect a new one. Maybe this is what the plantation owners want, and certainly their immigrant laborers aren’t complaining, but what’s in it for the rest of us?

HERE
—

Here are some Perry-facts from the Jacksonville, Ill., Courier-Journal:

“Texas has the second-highest poverty rate among the 50 states, behind only Mississippi. It has the second-highest percentage of population without a high school diploma. Texas leads the nation in the percentage of people with no health insurance, over one quarter. It is tied with Mississippi for having the biggest percentage of workers paid at or below the minimum wage.”

HERE

Rewarding illegal aliens:

“Such misery didn’t stop Perry from successfully pushing for in-state tuition for illegal aliens in Texas’ post-secondary education system in 2001. Perry never explains why he was forcing Texans to subsidize college education for people who cannot lawfully work in the USA. He did make his “feelings” clear on his action. “Educación es el futuro, y sí se puede.”
Sound familiar?
—

“In last week’s Tea Party debate in Florida, when confronted by fellow Republican presidential candidates for rewarding illegal immigration with state benefits, Perry’s shameless reply was the typical race-baiting, misdirection offered up by the radical leftist, anti-enforcement mob “The bottom line is it doesn’t make any difference what the sound of your last name is …” he whined. The topic was illegal immigration. Nobody mentioned anyone’s name.
Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal – D A King Perry record on immigration abysmal

Rick Perry’s record on immigration isn’t as bad as I thought. It’s worse!
HERE
—

Rich Lowry

National Review

Rick Perry’s border problem

Rick Perry stumbled through much of the last Republican debate, but not when speaking about immigration. He issued a clarion condemnation of critics of his state’s policy of giving the children of illegal [aliens] in-state tuition to college. Such naysayers, Perry declared, lack “a heart.” — The Texas governor prides himself on his distinctness from George W. Bush, yet on this issue he sounds just like him…

HERE

ADDED 28 September: I didn’t know that American Patrol had already built a Rick Perry Watch page when I did this one. You can see Glenn’s HERE
—
ADDED 5 October 2011

Howard Foster — Frum Forum
Who pays for the illegals in Texas?

Illegal [aliens] cost the State of Texas (including its local governments) $8.8 billion per year. This is a staggering sum of money brought about by a steady flow of illegals obtaining public education, criminal justice, and medical care. It amounts to nearly 10% of the State’s total annual expenditures of approximately $90 billion. And 60,000 children of illegal [aliens] are born in Texas

HERE

KSAZ-TV — Phoenix

Driver who hit Scottsdale resident is an illegal alien

Last Friday, an arrest was made in a hit-and-run crash that took the life of 31-year-old Daniel Pollack, son of real estate investor Michael Pollack. Court documents are shedding some light on the suspect — who was in the country illegally. — Cristino Torres-Romero, 33, has been charged with leaving the scene of a death / injury collision

HERE

“…President Fox’s vision for an open border is a vision I embrace, as long as we demonstrate the will to address the obstacles to it. An open border means poverty has given way to opportunity, and Mexico’s citizens do not feel compelled to cross the border to find that opportunity….”

Texas Governor Rick Perry, 2001

HERE

HERE

Marietta Daily Journal

September 20, 2011

D.A. King: Perry record on immigration abysmal

Nobody in what remains of our American Republic wants Barack Obama to be a one-term bad memory more than this long-time American. That said, count me as firmly — and now actively — opposed to nominating Texas Gov. Rick Perry to serve as his replacement.

Even with the on-going assistance of the GOP hierarchy and some semi-honest conservative talk-radio hosts, his anti-enforcement record on American immigration laws should have taken him out of the running weeks ago.

A “plain-talking, good-old cowboy” governor of Texas for president. What could go wrong on immigration, si? In 2003, there were only four employers punished for hiring illegal labor. If you liked George W. Bush on immigration enforcement and amnesty, you would adore Perry.

On immigration enforcement, Perry is to the left of Bush. And the left of John McCain. And maybe even the left of Barack Obama.

Let’s make clear something the American media never will: “Immigration” — legal or illegal — is not somehow a separate, unconnected issue from jobs, taxes, national security, education, health care, general quality of life or common national language and values.

A badly needed look at what blind followers with an obvious and amazing herd mentality must ignore to support Perry: It is an undeniable fact that illegal employment is the root cause of most illegal immigration. Most illegal aliens migrate here because they know they can find a job.

They violate our immigration laws for the money.

The illegal employers know they have a better chance of being struck by lightning than being sanctioned for hiring artificially “cheap” black-market labor while Americans stand in the unemployment line.

They violate our immigration laws for the money.

To strike terror into the powerful business lobby (not to mention La Raza), just bring up the possibility of requiring all employers to use the no-cost federal E-Verify system to check their newly hired employees’ eligibility to work here. Use of E-Verify works and severely cuts down on illegal labor. And it raises wages.

In an effort to save jobs, many states — including Georgia — have in place laws that require use of E-Verify. Many more are in the process of passing E-Verify laws.

Even after 11 years of leadership from Gov. Rick Perry, Texas is not one of them.

Despite being having one of the highest illegal alien populations in the nation, Perry, rejecting reality and under strict supervision of Texas business, dismisses E-Verify with the idiotic statement that it “would not make a hill-of-beans difference” in stopping illegal immigration.

He does it for the campaign money.

Perry opposed an Arizona-style immigration law for his state, saying it “would not be the right direction for Texas.” Because it would turn police officers into immigration agents … (duh) a mindless talking point taken directly from La Raza.

Here are some things that Perry never mentions from the Jacksonville, Ill., Courier-Journal: “Texas has the second-highest poverty rate among the 50 states, behind only Mississippi. It has the second-highest percentage of population without a high school diploma. Texas leads the nation in the percentage of people with no health insurance, over one quarter. It is tied with Mississippi for having the biggest percentage of workers paid at or below the minimum wage.”

Such misery didn’t stop Perry from successfully pushing for in-state tuition for illegal aliens in Texas’ post-secondary education system in 2001. Perry never explains why he was forcing Texans to subsidize college education for people who cannot lawfully work in the USA. He did make his “feelings” clear on his action. “Educación es el futuro, y sí se puede.”

Sound familiar?

In last week’s Tea Party debate in Florida, when confronted by fellow Republican presidential candidates for rewarding illegal immigration with state benefits, Perry’s shameless reply was the typical race-baiting, misdirection offered up by the radical leftist, anti-enforcement mob “The bottom line is it doesn’t make any difference what the sound of your last name is …” he whined. The topic was illegal immigration. Nobody mentioned anyone’s name.

He was booed by the audience.

The Boston Globe matter-of-factly notes, “Perry’s positions also reflect the interests of influential Texas businesses — including construction and service-sector companies — which have funded his campaigns and rely on illegal immigrant labor.”

Freaked out by ObamaCare? Me too. But how about “PerryCare“? In 2001, Rick Perry proposed a bi-national Texas health care plan with … Mexico.

I wonder why I don’t hear any of this on “conservative” talk radio?

D.A. King is president of the Cobb-based Dustin Inman Society and a nationally recognized authority on illegal immigration. On the Web: www.TheDustinInmanSociety.org

Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal – D A King Perry record on immigration abysmal

ACTION NEEDED!

PLEASE CONTACT GEORGIA GOVERNOR NATHAN DEAL TO THANK HIM FOR APPOINTING OUR FRIEND PHIL KENT OF THE GEORGIA GANG TO THE STATE IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT BOARD ESTABLISHED BY HB 87! ASSURE HIM THAT GEORGIA’S PRO-ENFORCEMENT MAJORITY APPROVES OF HIS CHOICE AND UNDERSTANDS THAT PHIL HAS ALL THE RIGHT ENEMIES!

Late last month, the Governor, the Lt. Governor and the Speaker of the Georgia House named the appointees to an enforcement review board established by HB 87 to monitor compliance of public officials with the requirements set forth in Georgia’s 2006 immigration law (SB 529) and with the latest rules in HB 87.

Board members appointed by Governor Deal:

*Phil Kent, author, columnist and panelist on the weekly TV political discussion show the Georgia Gang.

*Shawn Hanley, past chairman of the Fulton County Republican Party, a resident of Roswell.

*Ben Vinson, an attorney from Atlanta who previously served as Majority Caucus Counsel in the Georgia House of Representatives.

Lieutenant Governor Cagle appointed:

*Boyd Austin, mayor of Dallas since 1995.

*Mike Yeager of Moreland, sheriff of Coweta County.

Speaker Ralston appointed:

Robert F. Mumford of Conyers, an attorney who served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2005 to 2009.

Terry R. Clark, of Moultrie, a member of the Colquitt County Commission.

Using all the normal race-baiting terms, the usual suspects are screaming that Phil Kent is too pro-enforcement to be on the board and are getting a great deal of help from the local media in trying to convince Governor Deal to remove him before the members are even sworn in. We know Phil will do a terrific, fair and educated job and are somewhat amused – but not surprised – to see the howls from the far-left illegal alien lobby about his appointment.

We are sure they would rather see someone like Jerry Gonzalez or illegal aliens themselves sit in review of complaints of violation.

Referred to as “human rights groups” by the press, the list of crazies screaming about Phil Kent’s appointment to the board goes like this: The Young Democrats of Georgia, Bill Nigut of the anti-enforcement ADL (Nigut is suggesting the board is meant to pursue an “anti-immigrant agenda”), the sleaziest of the sleaze… the SPLC, Angry Jerry Gonzalez and the well-funded illegal alien lobby at GALEO, and a cast of characters that make up a large portion of the organizers of the recent illegal alien marches on the Georgia Capitol against HB 87.

And… another mindless voice of little consequence, a local woman blogger named Grayson Daughters who uses the well-fitting name “Spacey G” in her cartoonish posts assures us that even the board’s title will “make-a-Nazi-proud.” This is the mentality you are rebutting.

THIS IS IMPORTANT! Please call and/or email the Governor’s office: “I am calling to thank the Governor for his appointments to the immigration enforcement review board that will review any complaints against elected officials who ignore the law on administering benefits and giving jobs to illegal aliens. Please tell the Governor that I called to express my support for all of his choices, including that of Mr. Phil Kent. Please assure the Governor that Phil has all the right anti-enforcement enemies and will do a fine job on the board. KEEP PHIL KENT ON THE BOARD!”

Contact info: Governor Deal’s office phone 404 656 1776. E-Mail HERE

Boston Globe

September 11, 2011

David Rogers, a lawyer and activist in Austin, said Perry’s in-state tuition law not only lowered rates for illegal immigrants, it made them eligible for thousands of dollars in tuition grants.

“Of all the active presidential candidates, he is by far the worst on immigration,’’ said Rogers, who serves on the board of the hard-line Immigration Reform Coalition of Texas. “On immigration, Rick Perry is further to the left than John McCain and George W. Bush and further to the left than Barack Obama. Has Barack Obama proposed anything that gives a $20,000 subsidy to illegal aliens?’’

HERE

/

Of course Obama must go. But we have already seen the results of a GOP president who answers directly to the Chamber of Commerce on immigration in George W. Bush. And we have seen Perry’s record.

New York Times
September 8, 2011

Grist for Left and Right in Perry Immigration Record

By JULIÁN AGUILAR and EMILY RAMSHAW

Ann Coulter, the conservative pundit, has called Gov. Rick Perry “a little bit too much like George Bush” on immigration — and she does not mean it as a compliment. Tea Party loyalists have decried Mr. Perry’s opposition to a border fence and Arizona-style enforcement laws. And Mitt Romney has taken not-so-veiled jabs at Mr. Perry, criticizing officials who provide “incentives that promote illegal immigration.”

As Mr. Perry edges into front-runner status for the Republican presidential nomination, his opponents are trying to plant seeds of doubt about how tough the border state’s governor has been on illegal immigration — from his compassion for immigrant students to the tightrope he has walked between securing the border and protecting Texas’ symbiotic relationship with Mexico.

Critics hope his track record, which some have generalized as tough on security and gentle on people, will be a complicating factor for the Republican faithful.

“You can’t even have an honest discussion about the economy without taking into consideration illegal immigration,” said Katrina Pierson, a member of the Dallas Tea Party’s steering committee. “Governor Perry has not met the standards, for me, to be the president of the United States if he can’t even address the real issues in Texas.”

The governor’s campaign counters that a serious discussion about immigration reform cannot take place until the Mexican border is secure.

“The Obama administration has failed to do so, but as president, Governor Perry will deploy adequate resources, manpower and technology to get the job done,” said Katherine Cesinger, a spokeswoman for Mr. Perry.

Mr. Perry’s first immigration-related move as governor was probably his most controversial. In 2001, he signed into law a bill making Texas the first state to grant in-state college tuition rates and financial aid to immigrant children, regardless of their legal status. In 2009, roughly 1 percent of Texas college students — about 12,000 students — benefited from the law.

Two years later, Mr. Perry joined forces with Vicente Fox, then the president of Mexico, to advocate for overhauling guest-worker laws. When the fiscal conservative commentator Lou Dobbs questioned him on immigration on CNN in 2003, Mr. Perry said that Texas had a “close, complex” relationship with Mexico, and that businesses relied on immigrants for affordable labor.

To that end, Mr. Perry has split with the platform of the Texas Republican Party, asserting that an Arizona-style immigration enforcement law — in which the authorities are required to question people about their legal status — is not a good fit for Texas.

“We have to understand why millions of people come here and why many more have died trying,” Mr. Perry said in his 2007 inaugural address. “It is for something as basic as the freedom to find a job and feed their families.”

Mr. Perry’s compassion ends where he believes Texas’ security concerns begin. He has never wavered in his desire to secure the 1,200-mile Texas-Mexico border with manpower, not “preposterous” fencing, or in his frustration with the federal government, which he believes has not adequately protected Texas from the drug violence raging across the Rio Grande.

In 2005, Mr. Perry announced a $10 million state program to increase border patrols and upgrade radio systems along the border. A year later, he unveiled plans to install hundreds of video cameras, creating a multimillion-dollar “virtual” wall that in its first four years proved overly ambitious, netting few arrests. Though Mr. Perry expressed support for improving guest-worker programs in 2003, when President George W. Bush pushed for it in 2005, the governor’s frustration with the federal government kept him from supporting it.

Meanwhile, Mr. Perry has remained at war with the Obama administration over his request in 2010 for 1,000 National Guard troops along the border; he got 250. In August, he asked the federal government to reimburse Texas $350 million, the estimated cost of imprisoning illegal immigrants in state lockups.

The immigration debate has at times been a minefield for Mr. Perry, who has had to balance the ardently anti-immigration views of his base with the backing of his major donors, some of whom often rely on immigrant labor. And the governor’s rhetoric — and his tone — has ebbed and flowed, coinciding with his re-election bids and a State Legislature that is growing ever redder.

In 2009, he endorsed legislation, which has since passed, requiring Texans to present a form of photo identification to vote, although some opponents said it singled out minority voters.

And this year, in the lead-up to his run for president, Mr. Perry deemed a measure to outlaw so-called sanctuary cities in Texas a legislative emergency. The bill would have stripped state financing for municipalities that barred local law enforcement from inquiring into the immigration status of individuals detained for any crime.

Though Mr. Perry tried to differentiate the bill from the strict Arizona law, the legislation ultimately died, largely because of an 11th-hour push from Republican businessmen — some of the governor’s financial backers — who opposed it.

Despite his recent efforts, Mr. Perry has largely remained opposed to legislation backed by the most conservative lawmakers, including efforts to repeal the tuition law and measures that would end birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants.

This stance has been highly unpopular with the Tea Party. “Governor Perry has been governor for 10 years,” said JoAnn Fleming, the chairwoman of the Texas Tea Party Caucus Advisory Committee, “and we’ve not had enough interior enforcement of immigration laws.”

But it has not won him many fans among progressives either, whose strategy is to keep the memory of sanctuary cities fresh in the minds of Hispanic voters until the 2012 general election.

“No candidate will be more effective at alienating Hispanic voters than Rick Perry,” said Shannon Perez, the political coordinator in Texas for the Service Employees International Union.

And neither side particularly trusts the conservative business community. Last week, an e-mail surfaced from some of the Republican donors who urged Mr. Perry to back down on sanctuary cities, offering the governor’s critics low-hanging fruit. In the message, Norman Adams, a co-founder of Texans for Sensible Immigration Policy, congratulated members for helping raise $205,000 for Mr. Perry’s presidential campaign and said their efforts were the key to courting Hispanic voters.

For Mr. Perry, criticism from both sides of the political spectrum is hardly new. In past races for governor, former Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison accused him of being lax on immigration — to no avail.

On the presidential trail, and as recently as the Republican presidential debate on Wednesday, Mr. Perry has taken heat from Mr. Romney, who, trailing Mr. Perry in several national polls, has made a point of reminding voters that as Massachusetts governor, he vetoed legislation that would have provided in-state tuition to illegal immigrants and strengthened the authority that state troopers have to enforce immigration laws.

Mr. Perry has said that young students should not be punished for their parents’ decisions, that a border fence will do nothing but bolster the “35-foot-ladder business, and that Arizona-style enforcement laws are not appropriate for Texas, a state that is 38 percent Hispanic.

But his latest talking points also include opposition to amnesty and to national legislation that would provide a path to legal residency for some children living in the country illegally.

HERE
———–
POLITICO

September 2, 2011

Rick Perry’s pro-immigration Texas base

As Mitt Romney starts to turning to an immigration contrast with Rick Perry, the Texas governor’s own supporters are highlighting his stands on that topic that may not wear well with a majority of early-state Republican activists.

POLITICO’s Ken Vogel passes along an email sent by Perry contributor Norman Adams that contained a separate email from Steve Hotze, also a Perry bundler based in Texas. Both emails make donor solicitations that underscore Perry’s position helping to kill a bill similar to the Arizona immigration legislation, for instance.

The upshot is that these are not necessarily positions that either primary and caucus voters know about Perry, or that will sit well with them.

As I noted in another post, it’s not clear that immigration is the driver of voter interests in presidential primaries that some believe it to be. But it will be interesting to see how Perry tries to keep both his donor base of Texas businessmen, who tend to favor the immigrants who aid the state’s economy, and voters happy.

Adams’ email, titled “Governor Perry and immigration,” is below:

Thank you for signing the checks! You helped Dr. Steve Hotze fulfill his fundraising promise to Governor Perry.

We raised $43,000 of the $205,000 Steve Hotze handed him last night.

In years past I have presented the Governor honorary awards for Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, for TLR, and for The Justice Foundation. However, it was the latest legislative session that gave Dr. Steve Hotze and me the best opportunity to convince Governor Perry that business owners, the economic engines that drive our economy, are overwhelmingly opposed to Arizona-style legislation. Republican Representatives and Senators, many of them our close friends, filed 108 Arizona-style bills! With the Texas legislature overwhelmingly Republican controlled, most were expected to pass.

With the help of business owners including you, we packed the hearings, we faxed, we phoned, we emailed the right people, and they listened! I was delighted last evening when the Governor looked across at me called my name and did not shoot me! Instead, he grabbed me by both arms, and of course, I grabbed him. I told him, Governor, the Houston Hispanic Chamber just named me an “Honorary Mexican” and I am here to tell you, if you will help us, Steve Hotze and I will lead the charge getting the Hispanic vote! They are Pro Life and Pro Family. They belong in the Republican Party. We must attract the Hispanic vote and together rid this country of the Obama Plague!

So, will the Governor listen? Let’s hope and pray he does! If he listens you will have played an important roll!

I have been asked to speak to the C Club on September 20th, and to the Texas Roofers Association on September 21. Both groups want to hear what happened in the Texas Legislature. I hope to inspire them to get involved. Our immediate challenge, in addition to getting Governor Perry elected, is in Washington DC. We have to convince Lamar Smith that deporting illegal immigrants is not a pathway to full employment, but rather it is a pathway to economic disaster!

It should be obvious to you, I am encouraged, and I hope you are!

God bless you, and may He help us help America!

Norman E. Adams

Co-Founder

Texans for Sensible Immigration Policy

And here is Hotze’s email:

Dear Norman,

Thank you so much for your investment of $5,000 in Governor Rick Perry’s campaign for President and your help getting others to do the same.

You have taken advantage of a great opportunity to restore our nation and return it to its Constitutional foundation.

Because of your support and the other members of our team, we raised over $205,000 in investments for the Perry for President campaign. We were second in the greater Houston area and third in the state.

We are involved in a life and death struggle with the dark forces of socialism and Marxism.

Under the leadership of Rick Perry, free enterprise will once again flourish and conservative and Christian values will be revived.

With God’s help and your support I am confident that we shall be victorious in our efforts!

With much appreciation for your friendship and support, I remain, as always,

Sincerely yours,

Steven F. Hotze, M.D.

President

Conservative Republicans of Texas

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/62564.html#ixzz1XTrF9KZg

New York Times

Lawmaker Offers Plan to Lure Migrant Farm Workers

Published: September 8, 2011

A leading Republican lawmaker has proposed creating a program to bring 500,000 foreign migrant farm workers to the United States each year, responding to an outcry this summer from American farmers who said shortages of legally authorized labor were imperiling their crops.

The lawmaker, Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced his farm guest worker bill late on Wednesday and held a hearing on it in the House on Thursday. He is proposing a thorough overhaul of the existing guest worker program for agriculture, known as H-2A, which is shunned by most growers as too bureaucratic and costly for their fast-changing labor needs in fields and orchards.

Instead, farmers have turned to some 1.1 million illegal immigrants now estimated to be working in agriculture.

Mr. Smith offered his proposal after a bill he introduced in June, designed to prevent illegal immigrants from gaining jobs in this country, generated a wave of resistance from farmers. That bill would require all employers nationwide to use a federal electronic system, known as E-Verify, to confirm that new hires are legally authorized to work here.

Although Mr. Smith’s E-Verify bill includes a three-year grace period before it would take effect for agriculture, growers — including many Republicans — still balked, saying they would not support it unless Congress provided a supply of legal immigrants for farms.

Mr. Smith’s guest worker proposal adds an important piece to the Republican strategy for the angrily contested issue of immigration as Washington moves into campaign season. He framed his plan as an alternative to granting legal status to illegal immigrants already in the country, the approach President Obama supports.

Mr. Smith said his program would “provide growers who want to do the right thing with a reliable source of legal labor” and would also “protect the livelihoods of American workers and the rights of guest workers.”

The bill drew divided reaction from growers’ organizations. Groups from North and South Carolina and Georgia, particularly those representing farmers who have tried to work with the H-2A program, liked the proposal.

Many major farm organizations, including the California Farm Bureau Federation, said Mr. Smith’s program failed to meet their needs.

At the hearing, Chalmers R. Carr III, a South Carolina peach grower who is president of USA Farmers, a group of employers using H-2A workers, said Mr. Smith’s bill “positively addresses most every major issue that has been raised by the agricultural industry for many years.”

Mr. Smith’s proposal, for a new program he is calling H-2C, would shift management of the guest worker program from the Department of Labor, where he said farmers face a “culture of hostility,” to the Department of Agriculture. It would require only that employers attest that they had offered jobs to American workers, removing time-consuming procedural hurdles that farmers said had not helped attract Americans to strenuous migrant farm work.

It would allow binding arbitration in guest worker contracts, which he said would reduce “frivolous litigation.”

Many farm bureaus, however, are throwing their support behind a competing proposal by another Republican, Representative Dan Lungren of California. In an interview, Mr. Lungren said he would introduce his bill in the House next week. He said his talks with California growers had “proved to me you can’t get where we need to by reforming the H-2A program.”

Under his program, foreign migrant workers would not be tied to specific farmers as they are under Mr. Smith’s plan, but they would be issued work documents allowing them to come to the United States for 10 months a year to work for any agricultural employer.

With no provisions to legalize illegal immigrants, both proposals, which are rejected by farm worker groups, are expected to face strong opposition in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

HERE