Texas’ position on the U.S.-Mexico border has put the state in a unique bind. Texas’ relatively thriving economy has made the state a magnet for anyone wanting a job, and as a result the state is the number one destination for Americans moving state-to-state over the past few years. I moved back to Texas myself a couple of years ago, both because my family has been here for generations so it’s home, and it’s where the jobs are. And it’s where the freedom is: Texas government does a better job than most of just staying out of your face. But being an economic powerhouse and sharing 1,200 miles of mostly river border with a corrupt, failing state wracked by a drug war have made Texas more of a magnet for illegal aliens than ever before. According to the Texas Comptroller’s office, illegal aliens cost Texans hundreds of millions of dollars per year, in everything from K-12 tuition to medical costs. Illegal aliens also skew the state’s educational and crime statistics. The porous border increases the threat of drug violence and terrorism, as Hizballah is known to be operating in Mexico and may be aiding the drug cartels. Border cities like Laredo and El Paso live with the ever-present threat that Mexico’s violence may spill over the border, as it has a few times already. The costs to the state are enormous, and the federal government has for decades left us to fend for ourselves. In a post-9-11 world this is unacceptable, but neither President Bush nor President Obama took border enforcement as seriously as the issue deserves. President Obama has gone out of his way to insult Texans and loosen border enforcement to appease the likes of La Raza.
In 2001, the Texas legislature and Gov. Perry passed the Texas DREAM Act. There were only four dissenting votes in the legislature, but the measure has now become a football in the presidential campaign. The Texas DREAM Act is not like the national DREAM Act that the Democrats keep pushing, and which deservedly keeps failing. The national DREAM Act is essentially an amnesty and would put millions of illegal aliens on the glide path toward citizenship and voting. The Texas DREAM Act deals narrowly with a subset of the illegal aliens living here who were brought across the border as children by their parents, and who have been here for years and stayed out of trouble. Having grown up in Texas, they are essentially Texans and only know the Lone Star State as their home. Texas’ DREAM Act gives them in-state tuition rates at Texas public colleges and universities. The fact that they shouldn’t be here because their parents broke the law and continue to break the law is countered by the fact that they are here — the question then is, what does the state do about that? With no national will to deport en masse, and with no Washington will to do anything but decrease border enforcement for political reasons, what do states like Texas do?
One thing they can do is try to turn off the magnets that attract illegal aliens, such as sanctuary cities. In the 2011 session of the Texas legislature, the issue of sanctuary cities came up but wasn’t dealt with in any finality. Gov. Perry even added sanctuary cities to a special session to force the lege to move, but the bill ultimately failed. So Houston, Austin, and other large Texas cities remain magnets for illegal aliens, in violation of federal laws that are on the books, but which aren’t enforced. These cities tend to be run by Democrats, blue dots in Texas’ red sea, and they have created these sanctuary policies largely due to politics and expediency. The majority of Texans across ethnic lines oppose sanctuary cities, but major money interests within both parties, and the Democrat left, support them for various reasons. The left sees the demographic shift associated with illegal immigration, chain migration, and eventual amnesty as their ticket back to power in Texas. The money interests, frankly, want to keep the border open because it draws in cheap labor. The Texas taxpayer is less than an afterthought. The president openly mocks us.
Well said. I’ve made this exact argument myself. If the state cannot enforce federal immigration law and the federal government sues states that try to craft legislation to deal with illegal aliens, what can anyone do? The only approach available is to try and attack the economic drain with education so that some of the people we’re no allowed to get rid of at least won’t be suckling at the public teat!
hello. you point to the border with Mexico and tell them to start walking. enter legally and undo the criminality your parents have done. they are also illegal aliens. it will be another generation before their children can be naturalized. for the children of illegals to benefit from our society, they must first become legal citizens. do not hand illegals fish, teach them how to fish.
Um… Isn’t going to college kind of like teaching someone to fish?
“Um… Isn’t going to college kind of like teaching someone to fish?”
No. Putting them through K-12 is like teaching them to fish. Putting them through college is like digging their worms, baiting their hook for them, removing the fish, cleaning the catch and cooking it for them.
We do not have an obligation to provide any schooling beyond high school. A previous commenter was correct…Bush and Perry bought the Hispanic vote with Texan’s hard-earned money.
Hey Barza: You can teach your neighbor to fish for free. It’s wrong to force your neighbor to pay part of the $100,000.00 given to thousands of illegal Mexicans.
How about they spend three years in the armed forces, or building a border fence, then they can become citizens. That would show that they loved America.
Rick Perry is perhaps the only leader at the state or national level who has led (or really done anything) with crisis on the Mexican border. He knows the issues intimately. Perry has dramatically increased law enforcement on the border doing Border Patrol and DEA-type work with state officers. He is the only candidate who has the experience and the will to address real enforcement-centered immigration reform and the relevant executive experience to guide him.
Yes, like it or not, there will be some Dream Act whistles and bells attached to get it through Congress. But with Perry, the balance, however is most likely to be on enforcement, unlike anything the other candidates have done, or anything since the border was patrolled by the U.S. Military in the 1920′s.
I am not saying that we should support the small alternative to the Dream Act that exists in Texas, although it would help him appeal to “moderate” or independent voters in the general election. I am saying that this governor has the experience and knowledge to lead in this area (and in many more areas).
Rick Perry is the real deal.
Right on target, Barza. Here’s a question for all the commenters who have absolutely NO first hand experience with the effect of illegal immigration on the everday lives of citizens like those in Texas. How long is the border between Mexico and Pennsylvania? between Mexico and Minnesota? between Mexico and Massachusetts? What expertise on dealing with all the social problems caused by the failure of the Bush and Obama administrations to deal with the flow of illegals into the border states does Rick Santorum have? Does Michele Bachmann have? Does Mitt Romney have? Here’s the answer: they have NONE! This debate is like discussing the possibility of man-made global warming with Sean Penn, or Robert Redford, or Michael Moore. It is possible to have an honest difference of opinion, but the opinion of someone who has Jack Squat actual knowledge about the realities of the issue has no cred!
Are any of you conservatives getting a little tired of all the bickering between the Presidential candidates about who did something that some don’t agree with in the past? Wouldn’t you like to hear each one talk about what they view as the most serious problems that they will face on the first day of office, and what their plan is to begin to resolve it? Aren’t you looking for the candidate with the bed-rock principles and leadership ability who could pull the sword out of the stone and lead a revitalization of our constitutional republic? Do you really care about why Mitt Romney doesn’t like Rick Perry; or why Rick Perry doesn’t like Mitt Romney; or why Michele Bachmann believes that Gardasil causes mental retardation because some unidentified woman came up to her after a speech and told her it was true; or why Rick Santorum doesn’t like anyone who is drawing more support that he is? Wouldn’t you rather see all of the candidates taking the approach that Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich are doing in trying to draw a clear distinction between what Barack Obama has done to bring us to the economic position we find ourselves in now and what they would do to lead us out of this fiasco?
It can happen if we want it to be so, and if we let the candidates know it!
Man, this is just what the rest of us conservative Texans need who put up with the illegal aliens on a daily basis. It is so bad here in central Texas that the illegals no longer come to the stores on last Saturday or Sunday nights to do their shopping. They now go out at all hours of the day, with complete disdain for the citizens of Texas.
To say that the Texas Dream Act that Perry signed is not as bad as the National Dream Act they keep trying to force down our throats is insulting to many Texans. Where do you think the idea of amnesty comes from? We give them work permits because the businesses here, and throughout the country, want cheap labor. And then the big companies reward us by sending the good paying jobs overseas to save more money. And then they say that since we are taxing them through the guest worker program, we might as well give them amnesty.
We don’t need a RINO democrat in the white house who is so keen on pandering to the illegals. The majority of Hispanics I know are against any form of amnesty, period. And telling legislators in the Texas legislature that if they pass the sanctuary cities bill and split up the families, the children, when they grow up, will not vote for republicans for political office because they split up their families. That is the biggest hunk of baloney ever. These people will not vote for republicans, ever. We were there at the State Affairs Committee meeting. We heard this with out own ears.
While many would make good citizens, they need to come across legally and through proper channels. That means no welfare, no foodstamps, no chain migration, no birthright citizenship. They are destroying our country,
In my opinion, the only reason the Texas Dream Act didn’t grant them citizenship is because the state of Texas is not authorized to grant citizenship to anyone, plain and simple. If there had been a way they would have done it.
Perry vetoed a texting while driving bill, saying it was too intrusive on our lives. And he wouldn’t veto the pet breeders bill that punishes legitimate pet breeders, in an effort to stop puppy mills. Good luck stopping puppy mills. The breeders I know that raise pets for sale treat them like family, and spoil and pamper them. This pet breeders bill was part of the Humane Society’s attempt to further the progressive agenda of giving pets equal status with humans. Last time I read the Book of Genesis, God gave all the animals on land, birds in the air, and fish in the sea, to man to dominate over, not to be equal with. Many people love their pets, myself included, but they are not equal to me and other Americans. But was fine with cramming gardasil down our throats. That should have been an opt out situation.
And let’s not forget the Trans Texas Corridor, an attempt to confiscate one and a half million acres of prime Texas land for use for toll roads, that will be owned by a foreign nation, Spain I think it was. The people of Texas still haven’t forgotten this, nor have the majority of them forgiven Perry.
We supported Perry the last two time he ran for governor of Texas, even went to both inaugural balls. He talked a good show while running for governor, and left Texas in the lurch. What he says now, we have heard before, and know it to be an untruth, designed to get him elected. In my opinion, Rick Perry will do and say whatever it take to get elected, much like the man who currently resides in the white house.
Barza:
Fortunately for the nation, Rick Perry is a dead man walking. No one, in my opinion, can get away with telling his subjects in Texas that they are too stupid to make decisions having to do with the health and welfare of their own children, that legislators are too stupid to be trusted with such decisions and then lie about all of the circumstances surrounding his singular decision to circumvent them and in facist like manner, cut a deal under the table that has netted his campaign coffers $30,000.00 rather than the $5,000.00 he had alluded to in a previous debate. This from the New York Times. You can look it up. He lied.
Another thing no one can get away with in my opinion is telling every American who disagrees with his belief that illegal Mexican students should be favored over legal Mexican students to the tune of $100,000.00, or any amount you care to choose, they have no heart.
It is not those who disagree with Rick Perry who have no heart, it is his words that provide evidence that Rick Perry has no heart and when you study his statements, his record and his habitual lying, the fact is that he appears to be half brain-dead as Obama is because he actually believes that the people in this nation for the most part will believe or forgive any lie he tells at any particular gathering.
You want Obama lite? Vote for Rick Perry. He’s the closest thing you’ll ever find to Obama in terms of being a liar, wrong on policy and destructive to any potential this nation might have to save itself from itself.
If it’s not legal to hire illegals, where are these young people with college degrees going to work?
You educate them … to do _what_?
” The fact that they shouldn’t be here because their parents broke the law and continue to break the law is countered by the fact that they are here — the question then is, what does the state do about that?”
Defend the border against illegal incursions… Punish those who flout our soveriegnty… THAT is the State’s first function – to protect it’s integrity. The bleeding heart solutions REWARD law breaking. This ultimately subverts the foundations of the ultimate authority of the state. It not only surrenders it’s primary function, but awards those who subvert it’s authority. How, then, does it stand on solid ground in demanding that other laws are ollowed, like paying taxes, property rights, etc?
DREAM acts are the lethal wedge which pries apart the very underpinnings of civil authority.
On a personal note, I know many illegals, living in California, as I do. While most work hard, if they are candid, they are also filled with a HUGE sense of grievance about what they deserve from America. It seems that once here, they are nursed on this poisonous brew of entitlement, and grievance mixed with contempt. Exactly what kinds of citizens do you expect to fashion out of such poisonous components???
Get real.
Most Americans are full of crazy grievances too. The Mexicans don’t get these ideas until they are assimilated into what has become of our culture.
The details of Perry’s positions don’t matter. Anybody who thinks he is soft on immigration is a fool anyway. Can anybody really doubt that he is a deeply conservative person? Maybe Bachmann and Santorium are even more conservative, but any rational person has to be aware that it is a lot easier to be idealogically pure as a political voter than as a political executive.
What matters is whether Perry can defend his positions. So far, he has done so poorly. If he can’t defend his positions against squish Romney, shrill Bachmann and pip squeek Santorium, how is he going to defend his positions against the rabid attack dogs of the make believe media?
If he doesn’t get his act together, Rick is toast. And it will have nothing to do with any one issue.
hello. gasoline engines will not forever be here, polluting our environment, and giving us cancer. big oil today pays for welfare in Texas. a decline in the oil economy, and Perry extending compassionate welfare to illegals will bankrupt Texas.
proreason:
Thanks for finally showing for all to see what a fool you truly are. Almost in the Perry Zone. Name calling begats name calling. It is a tool of fools.
The Illegal Alien pandering has finally been exposed in these fatuous debates. This issue was also ignored by that last GOP hopeful, idiot McCain. Next lets hear more about the criminal acts and fraud originating from the DOJ, DOE and WH!
The illegal aliens, and the millions of Muslims allowed into the United States is about destruction of culture. The CFR North American Union will not happen until America is torn apart enough from the inside.
America could stop this by not allowing anyone on the government plantation to vote, and get an implant so they do not reproduce. Their Marxists, and are not a part of the solution.
Dr. Savage for POTUS.
hello. Dr. Savage makes good points about cultural integrity. i do not listen to his radio program, and do not understand your reference to the government plantation. your perception of American culture may be different than mine. i have faith our culture will always prevail. subversive undermining and basic moral and legal conflicts have melted our culture into the strongest free nation on Earth, and having bell ringers alike Dr. Savage, guarantees the stars and stripes forever.
Rick Santorum hit the nail on the head, mandating instate tuition for illegal aliens–and second generation illegal aliens at that–whose whole presence here in the U.S. is based on illegality and who, like everyone else who wants to got to college, should be trying to line up jobs and loans to pay their tuition–rewards them for their illegality to the tune of $100,000 in taxpayer money, while penalizing all those immigrants who came here legally and are now citizens, and all those natural U.S. citizens from out of state who have to pay full tuition.
This subsidization. of course, is a huge magnet that will attract even more illegal aliens from an increasingly violent and chaotic Mexico that seems to be spinning out of control, to such an extent that it is presenting an increasingly ominous security problem for us. At some point–politically correct or not–we will have to use our military to seal this border, or most of Mexico–supposedly 10% of Mexico’s population is already here in the U.S.–will just swarm across our border to safety here in the U.S. and bring this anarchic violence with them.
I can’t believe people buy this argument by Romney. All of the sudden this is $100k subsidy to illegals? It’s not a subsidy, but even if it was, the assumption is that it somehow costs the state $100k. 1. Our tuition rates are based on residency. 2 We have no state income tax. 3. Part of the deal is the have had to lived in TX for 3 years, which like it or not, makes them a resident. 4. Last time I checked, we aren’t turning away out of state students. Even if we didn’t have this option, out of state students would still pay out of state rates. 5. If this helps them contribute to our state instead of take from it then more power to them. 6. The reason it’s not a subsidy is they still have to pay for college. 7. For those that say we shouldn’t give preferential treatment to illegals over US citizens: Stop being drama queens! This is a TX solution to TX problem About 1% of students even qualify for this program. What are we supposed to just waive out of state tuition altogether just bc some people in other states are actually stupid enough to think this is actually a magnet? They still have to graduate from a TX high school and get accepted to college. If we weren’t required by law to educate them k-12 and the Feds were actually doing their jobs then I might be more understanding. Until then, shut up and worry about your own state!
“personally, I don’t like the Texas DREAM Act, but thanks to the federal government’s dangerous irresponsibly — which has grown far worse under President Obama — the state doesn’t have many good options.”
Bingo. The choices you make have to be compared to the choices you have.
Te xas Dream Act signed into law in 2001. Obama became president in 2009.
I think it’s healthy to have the discussion and it is important to know the facts (which we virtually never get from the propaganda machine), but proreason is dead right. If Perry stumbles this badly in the “hostility-lite” environment, he will wilt like an unwatered lily under the barrage from the leftist smear machine.
Sorry, we had an inarticulate guy from Texas who took a pummeling and brought down OUR entire message with him. Once is enough for that particular rodeo.
As to the issues that confront Perry on immigration: The PHYSICAL protection of our sieve we call a border; and Dream Act Texas kids…let’s not scrub these dishes too cleanly, before we get to eat all of what is on the table.
1)The Rio Grande river presents an obstacle to building something to stop border crashers…but not enough of an impediment for the border crashers from crossing? Please pardon me, but that smells like something one of Gary Johnson’s neighbors dogs left behind.
Figure out how they are crossing and engineer a way to stop them. Throwing up our hands and saying…”the federal government is run by a bunch of Marxist thugs who aren’t going to help us, so we might as well just give up” is a bit of a sellout argument to my way of thinking.
2)I feel sorry for good kids who have stayed clean and straight, but are here illegally through no choice of their own. I also feel sorry for victims of gangbangers, people shot while water skiing on a lake, murdered by drug cartels, victims of gun running (or walking) and Norton in most Honeymooner episodes.
However, the hundreds of millions of dollars in one state…and the billions and billions of dollars stolen in a theft of services by border crashers is an additional drag on an overburdened society that is on a perilous march toward bankruptcy.
Handing out more and more and more entitlements, giveaways, subsidies, is an inducement for 10 million more border crashers to impose the care and custody of their children on our bent backs.
Am I heartless if I feel compassion but don’t have a dollar in my pocket to give to a beggar? If I have to feed my children and don’t have enough left over in my paycheck to fix my tire on my car, am I heartless for not paying for the children of the guy who stole my social security number or my identity?
It may not come from state income taxes, but last time I looked we pay for roads, bridges, police, fire, education as citizens. The funds for all that doesn’t come by plucking trillions off the money tree in the backyard.
These kids of border crashers are not the only victims of the scheme. If they have made it to college age…they ALREADY have received enormous benefits…on our dime.
I’m not looking to punish them. I’m looking for a way to stop them from multiplying…increasing the problem geometrically. Subsidizing them and rewarding them for being good citizens…or good pretend citizens…sounds fine. As long as the scheme ends with them…and is not an impetus for a million new ones tomorrow.
Because, frankly…a thief who takes a child with him to squeeze through a window he can’t fit through…to open the door for a complete ransacking of the house…allows him to steal indirectly what he can’t accomplish directly. And the kid is underage, so doesn’t get a criminal record. That simply is not a healthy program…for anyone.
Let these kids apply to college as foreign students, apply for a Visa and get loans to attend like millions of other kids do. We don’t need to give them MORE than American kids, who are citizens. Simply a chance to be better citizens than their parents ever were.
Every state subsidizes the education of illegal aliens…in prison (crime advanced training)…probably not the optimal subsidized education.
Is the bold voice from center field making recommendations for yet another debate team leader in the white house? Successful TV appearance by any candidate for public office with media reps in charge of the cross examinations deserves the equal attention given to used toilet tissue and must definitely suffer the same flushed fate. True patriotism neither demands nor desires a role in narcissistic performance exposing guilt free clinical neurosis with the updated classification as a lesser degree of psychosis.
Supporting party above patriotism carries no less risk to the republic than media’s agenda approved acts of leading the witnesses before poorly informed jurors. Public address should neither be limited to ones intellect nor directed by any proven biased directive. Like all history it must stand on its own merit totally without any crutch of blame or followup analysis. Only when voters desire truth found on the internet more than air brushed half truth of TV media can they demand return to their republic’s roots. Media bias should at least become less obvious when their bottom line reaches parity with the quality of their agenda.
I am sure your Irish ancestors would be thrilled with your rather perverted statment.
Dixie your race based comment is perverted. I am of German ancestry…should I be pushing for Teutonic rights and privilege? Do you want that back? German racism makes white supremacists look like multiculturalism because German racism wont take Pols or Irish.
I am an American and have a social compact with other Americans. Dixie when your the majority the republic is done.
One of the candidates (Perry? can’t remember) last night made a salient point by asking why a Mexican national who’s here illegally should be given preferential treatment over out-of-state students who are citizens. Why should an illegal be subsidized to the tune of $100k over the course of four years while citizens pay full tuition rates? He went on to say let the illegal attend school, but make him pay for it. It’s the unfairness and breath-taking circumvention of the rule of law that infuriates people. You can try to make excuses for Perry as a border state governor, but I can’t forget the thing about Bush that infuriated me most during his tenure as President and that was his soft-headed stance on illegal aliens. Because of this one issue I won’t support Perry’s bid for the nomination. If he wins it, I’ll have to hold my nose while casting my vote.
That was Rick Santorium. He was replying to Perry regarding education vs a drag on the state. unfortunately, I have to agree with Rick Santoruum, because our kids, when graduate the college, start with $100+ debt, to be paid off, and they have to compete with those who start from clean sheet, not to mention that we, parents have to pay for our kids AND them.
The children of the illegal aliens pay the same rate as any other TX resident students. They’re not getting free tuition
Out of state students are eligible for the in-state rate after they’ve been here one year, so the children of illegals are NOT given preferential treatment over them.
Rick Santorum proved he is not able to do basic math. If the savings is $10K per year then at most the savings are only $40K not $100K. Also the stats have been given stating that it’s only 1% of all students taking advantage of this opportunity. Of that 1% not all students are in 4 year degree programs but in much cheaper community colleges and other vocational training type schools.
So this is a big tempest in a teapot over a states rights issue. The people of Texas overwhelmingly supported this and it was passed with a veto proof margin.
The Republicans are stupid to completely alienate the growing hispanic vote with their vitriolic anti immigration rhetoric. If the R’s lose that voting block because of a small but vocal minority they will not win the WH for a very long time.
Rick Santorum does know math. He distorted the figures.
His solutions are vague and he lacks experience. He is also doing no favors to the potential to bring scores of conservative but too-often uninformed Hispanic voters to show up, as they did for Bush and Perry.
When we fail to enforce one set of laws against a group, and even provide rewards/incentives to benefit those who’ve broken the law (in this case the parents as well as the kids) we undermine everyone’s faith in the government, the legal system, and the basic fairness of America.
It’s not the taxpayer’s fault the kids were brought in anymore than it is the kids themselves. It’s the fault of the parents who broke the law, and our government/legal system for failing to enforce the laws and look the other way.
Why should I pay my taxes, I mean if the government won’t enforce immigration laws, if folks can ignore those, why shouldn’t I be able to ignore the tax laws, or traffic laws, or building codes, or environmental regs. Selective enforcement leads to a breakdown in society as more and more folks resent the injustice of selective enforcement.
hello. your monumental struggle with selective enforcement is the difference between revenue generators and wage earners in capitalist society. wealthy cocaine abusers alike Paris Hilton, Charlie Sheen, etc.- get a pass. corporations get wavers and loop holes. politicians go above the laws. we pay taxes into a system worth saving, and fight to correct the corruption- instead of changing the channel.
And one would expect you to want to take care of your offspring, after all …they are your legacy. And a reminder to all who you are.
Please help me understand how Perry, Bush, Obama or any other political clown can justify taking money from a legal tax paying resident and giving that money in any form to a criminal alien. If they want to take THEIR MONEY and give it to these criminals fine! But taking MY MONEY to give to them isn’t charity it it theft. I will not vote for any politician that offers anything but a boot in the ass to criminal aliens. I don’t care where they are from they need to go the hell home.
ya’ll.don’t. live. here.
Bryan Preston lives here.
He has written a very serious article, and you are arguing about ether.
I don’t think you get the level of rot that has set in. When a woman walks across the border and then goes to a hospital and gives birth, in a sanctuary city, she is not turned into the INS. The clerk handling her paperwork is bilingual in Spanish. And sympathetic to her position. So she is coached on how to apply for benefits. Okay? That clerk is not going to get hired to that position if she is against assisting the patient. The social workers are not going to get hired if the social workers are conservative. I know conservatives with social worker degrees. They don’t work in their degree field.
That child goes to school. In Texas. Not California. There aren’t big benefits, like Cali. There are crappy benefits. I know people who have moved out of state, to access better benefits. We send our kids to a school that’s 80% free or reduced school lunch population. It is as demanding a school as the very rich schools that their friends attend. Not on the foofy stuff- no pixie stick dioramas- but they learn to read with phonics, they have teachers teaching civics, despite it not being on the “test.” they have harder homework than I had, in a nice north dallas suburb. There are all- Spanish classes, and the teacher teaches everything in Spanish and then, sentence by sentence, in English. It sounds like a “learn a language” tape, day in and day out. Organized, demanding, dedicated veteran teachers. One of our kids was in the Spanish language class, with a teacher that created an IEP ( individual education plan) for each child, and followed through with it, point by point. That’s crazy dedication.
When that child heads off to high school- they have Texas history and Texas goverment, and the USA stuff.
When they head off to college- which is likely enough to be community college that they pay cash for- they have to take Texas Government, and Texas History, and the US history and US government to get their degree. They have more civic literacy than graduates from any other state in the union.
It’s not a way of cooking over- privileged whiny la raza types. It makes Texans. You can graduate from Harvard without knowing American history, or even Massachusetts history. But in Texas,you know Texas history, you know American history, you know how the state government works, you know how the US government works.
Yeah, technically they all ought to be in Mexico, but, the fed gov’t isn’t enforcing any laws. So, a law that works around that, and turns illegal immigrants into civically literate citizens? it’s the best of a bad world.
Thank you, ari, what you have to say is important to this conversation.
There is no excuse for Texan’s aiding and abetting foreign invaders. Perry signed off on the Texas Dream Act to get votes and to stay in power. Don’t try to sugar coat it with all your politically correct BS. He betrayed the citizens of his State.
The boarder has been open since 1848. The Southwest has had a large Hispanic population since before the civil war. The southwest has lived this way for decades but it is treason now. why?
Could you provide some evidence for your assertion that Perry ‘signed off’ on this Texas ‘Dream’ Act to get votes and secure his power?
I find the level of ignorance about the realities of the situation with regard to illegals..quite astonishing.
The facts exist; your opinions are not based on facts.
The facts are that the US Supreme Court in 1982 struck down the 1975 Texas Law that forbade state funding to illegals in the public schools. Fact.
Another fact is that since the federal govt refuses to secure the border and prevent illegals and deport them – and it is the only level of govt with the legal authority to do these actions – then, illegals are an enormous problem in the border states.
Fact- since the state, i.e, Texas, cannot legally keep them out or deport them (cattle cars are no longer the fad)..then, it must deal with the situation. You and others, operating solely in ideology, have no suggestions other than ‘shoot them all’ or ‘deport them all’ – neither of which are legally possible for the state.
So, it deals with higher education by having any illegal applicant be accepted if and only if, they are a resident, have been attending Texas High school for 3 years, and, are prepared to be a permanent resident. If Texas refused to allow such education, it would be responsible for creating a permanent underclass. Do you support such a class?
Oh – and Perry neither introduced the bill, nor did he vote on it. It was passed in the Texas Legislature except for four votes – a majority that made it legally impossible for Perry to veto.
So- apart from ignorant opinions – do you have any realistic, feasible advice about what to do with this situation?
So many ignorant and uncaring conservatives is embarrassing. First, most of our ancestors came over from another country – and without having to ask for citizenship. Many were rebels, jacobites, thieves, indentured servants, uneducated, unable to hold a job, etc. They were sent here to rid another country of their riff-raff. And look what happened? One of the greatest countries in history.
2) If you don’t live in Texas and near the border – shut up. You have no idea what you are talking about and your ignorance is going to cost us.
3) Build a wall? Really? Along a sandy river bed? Do you know how wide, deep and high that wall would have to be just to stop a few of the illegals? The cost would be outrageous to build and maintain – so much for our bridges and roads in disrepair. By the way, for those of you that live away from the border (yes, the ignorant), illegals are VERY good at adapting to the situation, so the wall will only be a useful for a few months until they find ways to get around it. And they WILL find ways. They always do. So, then we have a boondoggle that is 2000 miles long and costs more than we could possibly afford. People get a brain. It will NOT keep them out. They will just go over, under and around it. We can’t wall up all of America’s borders.
4.) The way to keep illegals out is for the FED to get involved and finally acknowledge what is going on down here. Obama can’t lie forever. Texas is spending itself into a hole trying to fill in the fed’s role. Since a wall will be useless, we need to create incentives for illegals in their own country. How about spending some of that wall money on getting Mexico’s economy back on it’s feet, which can be very advantageous for America. There are some very good opportunities in Mexico and S.A. that we are passing up. If you don’t want a prosperous Mexico, there are still ways remove incentives for illegals to come to America. But removing hopes from the innocent youth is mean, ugly, unChristian and cold-hearted.
5) And no, the Texas Dream Act is not one of the reasons poor Mexicans are coming to America – now that is funny (stupid, but funny). For those of you who don’t understand, the vast majority of illegals make very little money, can barely afford small rental homes/apartments and certainly don’t have money to send their kids to college. This program applies to only a few kids, they have to work towards becoming a US citizen and they pay the same rate as other Texas students they went to high school with – they do live in Texas. It is not subsidized in the technical sense. It is certainly better than all the costs for ER care from gun/knife wounds, prison food/education/health benefits that many illegal alien children get involved in because they have NO hope here or in Mexico. So much for the party that cares about people!
6) For those fools who believe we should just round up people and take them back to Mexico. Good luck! I’ll let you deal with the riots, wars, deaths, etc. I’ll let you decide which families to break-up and which companies will go out of business. There is a reality that so many of you are just ignoring. You think we have problems now, try your idea. (Do people not understand long-term repercussions of their actions anymore? What happened to America?
I could go on and on about some of the ridiculous and unintelligent comments made here – but I am tired of arguing with children who refuse to grow up and face reality.
Illegal immigration has become way too big a problem for the federal government to handle alone, even if it wanted to do so. Texas can’t solve the problem alone either. What it can do is avoid making the problem worse. Every “compassionate” effort on behalf of illegals who are already here serves to encourage more to come. The “Dream Act” is just one of many incentives for illegals to come over the border and to stay. The money spent on in-state tuition for illegals should be spent for border security, workplace enforcement, restitution to citizens that have been directly harmed by illegal alien criminals.
I’m looking at these issues and considering whether I should deal with real life problems as a realist or an ideologue.
First, the border. That is the responsibility of the federal govt, and, under Obama, it refuses to stop illegals coming in and refuses to deport them. Therefore, what is a state to do – realistically?
A fence is constructive in some terrain in other states but not in Texas, where most of the border is the Rio Grande river and other parts are canyons. So, the realistic solution is, as Perry said – ‘boots on the ground’, satellite surveillance etc. But the federal govt won’t provide this or provide the funds for it. OK?
Therefore – Texas has a huge illegal population. Remember, it can’t deport them, and it, itself, doesn’t have the funds or legal authority to keep them out.
Therefore, Texas had to make some hard choices. It can’t deport the students, who were brought here by their parents. They are already in Texas schools.
In 1975, Texas passed a law REFUSING to educate the children of aliens with state tax dollars. Then, began the many court cases, and finally, the US Supreme Court, using the 14th amendment, in 1982 required that public schools educate any and all, regardless of citizenship,and declared that prohibiting state funds being used to educate ‘illegals’ was unconstitutional. So, both in pre-college and college situations, these decisions are being made, not by one person (eg, the Governor) but by the courts and the legislatures.
The Texas higher education act deals with a real problem. The state must legally educate them until high school graduation and then, it must prevent the emergence of an economic underclass, proscribed from higher education and thus, participation in a robust economy and thus, confined to a criminal economy. How does it do this?
Remember, it can’t deport these students. And, it absolutely must prevent an economic and educational underclass. So, it must allow education and a path to citizenship. So, the Texas legislature in 2001 passed its in-state law, passed by all but 4 members of the Texas legislature – and thus, immune to any gubnatorial veto.
“To qualify, the student must have lived in the state for at least three years before graduating from a Texas high school or receiving a high school equivalency diploma in Texas. The student also must have lived for at least part of that time with a parent or legal guardian and could not have an established residence outside of Texas. In addition, such students were required to sign an affidavit stating that they would apply for permanent residency as soon as they are eligible to do so.”
That is, this applicant must pay tuition; the same rate as other in-state students…and..apply for permanent residency. That is vital: apply for permanent residency.
This seems to me to be a realistic three- point approach to a real problem. No ideological approach can deal with this situation – a situation where: illegals exist, the federal govt will neither prevent their entrance nor deport them…and therefore, what are you to do????
“Several states — Texas, California, New York, Utah, Illinois, Washington, Nebraska, New Mexico, Maryland (community colleges), Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Kansas — have passed state laws providing in-state tuition benefits to illegal aliens who have attended high school in the state for three or more years. Similar legislation is pending in Florida, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. (Connecticut also passed such a law, but the governor vetoed it.) The Nevada system of higher education does not consider immigration status for in-state tuition, but does require it for a state-sponsored scholarship.”
Texas does not have income taxes, so the state support of these educational institutions comes from the various other taxes, such as property taxes (which would be part of the rent), sales taxes etc.
I think that realism trumps ideology any day, anywhere. We already have an ideologue in the White House and the results are disastrous; we need realists to face the real world.
Thanks for one of the sanest explanations I’ve seen on this issue.
Some people need to grow up and face facts instead of just chanting ‘build the damn fence’.
Amen.
Perry was more than a “disappointment” yesterday; I was stunned at his tone-deafness. Anti-corporatism aside (run, Sarah, run!), I just wrote the following to the Perry campaign:
“I do not need to vote for a Republican if I want to support illegal immigration (which includes taxpayer dollars paying for their education). YOU HAVE LOST MY VOTE IN THE FLORIDA PRIMARY. I do *not* want any “BS” response (I’m originally from Washington, DC and worked in the Federal Government for 12 years) – AT A MINIMUM a full admission of error for this akin to your public Gardasil statement. YOU LOSE.”
You’re the perfect candidate for the Dream Act, Ashley Gomez– just do it in Mexico, not here.
It’s not about race, culture or nationality. It’s about the chaos and anarchy that mass migration brings with it.
The fact of the matter is that this college tuition issue is just one aspect of a situation with Mexico and our thousands of miles of border with them that is getting more and more ominous, seemingly by the day, and the “ordinary” flow of the “normal” number pf hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens that sneak into the U.S. each year are the least of our problems.
Mexico is fast dissolving into a maelstrom of corruption, mass murder, bloodshed, lawlessness, and anarchy. In just the last few months there have been numerous massacres in Mexico, with the discovery of mass graves becoming almost a monthly or even a weekly event and subornation, co-opting and/or assassinations by drug cartel members of police and government officials is becoming commonplace in Mexico. Two weeks ago drug cartel enforcers hung on a bridge in Mexico the tortured and disemboweled bodies of two young Tweeters–a man and a woman–who apparently Tweeted about the drug dealers activities and irritated them, and just this week gunmen blocked off a street in Veracruz, backed up a truck, and dumped 35 decapitated bodies of rival drug dealers in the street.
Over the last year there have been reports of bullets from fighting in Mexican border towns along our border flying into our territory, there have been many dozens and perhaps hundreds of reported incursions by Mexican troops, some of them armed, into our territory over the last few years–most recently, just last week, a convoy of supposedly “lost” Mexican troops trying to cross one of our bridges into the U.S., reports of Mexican aircraft and drones operating over our cities, and several recent reported confrontations and shootouts by U.S. authorities with Mexican drug smugglers and coyotes, who sometimes wear Mexican military uniforms, are armed with Mexican military arms, and who drive Mexican military vehicles.
The Mexican government–such as it is–looks like it is loosing control of the country, and the ultra-violent drug cartels are, in effect, going to stage a coup, with the very predictable result that there will be a mass exodus of hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of Mexican refugees rapidly crossing into the U.S. in a matter of days or a few weeks, all like happening in the near future.
Yet, no preparations have been made for what looks increasingly like this inevitable event, nor has the issue of the drug cartel’s infiltration/subversion of our border states and governments, and the violence they inevitably bring with them been addressed at all that I can see.
The Mexican volcano is going to blow, folks–and apparently sooner rather than later– and the Obama administration just sits there with a stupid expression on its face and its thumb up its ass, doing nothing.
How did we ever get to this???
Tragically, because over the years the 80%! of us Americans who are NOT true leftists didn’t care enough – care enough to be informed enough and to stand firm enough and fight hard enough. We forgot – that freedom is not free, and that it never will be. And that we are actually allowing America to be pushed towards the edge by a 20% destructive leftist minority… is absolutely mind-boggling.
Like so many others, I am also extremely disappointed that the Texas DREAM Act was passed but understand the dynamics of how it came about. But as far as illegal immigration is concerned, we need for two things to happen.
One, a strong, articulate and principled candidate on our side. If Rick Perry still wants to become the GOP nominee, he needs to either do a little more preparation or fire his prep team. As quite a few have stated on various sites, in this TV and internet generation, we need someone who will tell it like it is and clearly and forcefully state the case for restoring America to its fiscal sanity and its Constitutional principles.
Two, a multi-pronged approach needs to be applied. First secure the border, for security reasons and to reduce illegal entry to a trickle. Then to insure nationwide usage of E-Verify, impose stiff fines against any and all violators. That would dry up most of the illegal jobs market and cause most illegals to SELF-deport. Then stop the use of sanctuary cities in its tracks simply by denying Federal funds. No one should be allowed to pick and choose which laws they want to follow. No one. Lastly, initiate a generous guest worker program for jobs the rest of us would not totally fill by using tamper-proof ID cards which would be permanently revoked for any criminal activity.
Four more years of Obama would surely push America over the edge, and cause real and needless suffering by real people. Pray that does not happen.
Chaos, and anarchy brings the destruction of culture. With the destruction of culture, there is no culture, and no morality which is what the New Age is all about.
Unless we are willing to send brown shirts to deport all the illegals and their children who live here, conservatives and Republicans should consider more realistic solutions and stop bashing others (like Perry and the Texas legislature) who have tried to make the best of the hand the feds have left them with.
We need to secure the border – but since the Hispanic population is growing, one sure way to permanent minority status for Republicans and conservatives is to continue with this rigid premise that all illegals must be deported regardless of whether they have been contributing members of society since their arrival or not.
You may not be a bigot, but you come off that way – and Hispanics will wind up voting Dem in numbers like African Americans if you keep it up.
And one other thing – if a young adult has grown up in this country, it only makes sense for Texas to educate them. The fact that there here is a failure on the Federal government’s part, not Texas’. Texas is only left with the mess, providing services, health care, and (at worst) prison space.
So what’s cheaper? Giving long-time residents in-state tuition rates, or giving them welfare, food stamps, and health care because they’re uneducated and poor?
So, explain to me again, just how do Mexican illegal aliens–by definition citizens of Mexico, not the United States or Texas, criminals who have broken several laws to enter the U.S. and to stay here and to avoid deportation (likely to include some or all of the following–illegal entry into the U.S., identity theft, phony Social Security numbers, off the books unreported income, tax evasion, lies sworn under oath on official documents to various local, state and federal agencies, insurance companies, banks, and state departments of motor vehicles)–who want to go to Texas colleges have a right to in-state tuition–subsidized by the tax payers of Texas for legal U.S. (and presumably Texas) citizens, and worth an estimated $25,000 in tax payer dollars each year for a four year total of $100,000 dollars–that is superior to the claims of law abiding natural U.S. citizens who come from outside of Texas.
Moreover, what justifies such racial and political discrimination (discriminating in favor of the very specific class of Mexicans, illegal aliens, and criminals),awarding such Mexican illegal aliens the equivalent of $100,000 in tax payer money that is not similarly available to other aspiring American students of other races or backgrounds who are legal citizens?
Just why aren’t such illegal aliens not responsible for raising the money to attend college privately, by their own efforts, just like everyone else does–through gifts from relatives, jobs, and scholarship money–but are to be given this money that no one else–and certainly not law abiding American citizens–can get, tax payer money awarded to Mexican illegal aliens specifically because of their race and their status as law breakers?
Ask your questions to the US federal govt, which refuses to block or deport illegals and has instead, fobbed off all responsibility for them to the states.
Oh- and when a state (Arizona) tries to deal with their illegality, Obama sues that state.
Ask your oquestions to the US Supreme Court, which ruled in 1982 that Texas, which had tried in 1975 to refuse public schooling to illegals..had to school them until high school graduation.
Ask your questions to the Texas Legislature, which, trying to prevent an economic apartheid underclass, made up of and only of, hispanics not allowed to attend college, ruled, by a majority vote (only 4 nays) to offer in-state tuition fees to specific sets of illegals. Such a vote, kindly THINK, is immune to gubnatorial veto.
Ask your questions to the Texas legislature which, along with other states that also offer in-state tuition rates to illegals, set up the criteria for such: must have gone to in-state high school for 3 years, living with parents, and, must apply for permanent residency.
Don’t be an ideological robot, with a mechanical response that IGNORES THE FACTS. The facts are, the federal govt has rejected its immigration responsiblity, fobbed off illegals to the states…and handicapped them by legally obliging them to public educate them (1982), by forbidding the states to deport them, by forbidding the states to even inquire if someone is illegal…at work or at school. Ask yourself about the FACTS and don’t be a robot.
How would you deal with the situation if you would, for one minute, acknowledge what the federal govt has done to the states?
“Respect the race and the race will vote for you” – what, did Adolf create that saying?
Bryan agrees that it’s insulting that Perry says we don’t have a “heart” if we don’t support the Texas DREAM act,
BUT
pulls the straw men out of his hat to say we are insulting if we want to build a fence or criticize the Texas’ DREAM act if we don’t live in Texas.
Ignoring of course the fact that we are discussing all this because Governor Perry is running for President of the United States and we’d like to know how his policies re: immigration in Texas would translate to the country as a whole.
Perhaps you could use some of that water you’re carrying to put out the burning straw men.
First, we have to recognize that Mexico is our neighbor but not a friend and ally. They are not going to help us with the problem of illegal immigration. Put a fence along the entire border, even if it runs straight down the middle of the Rio Grande or 10 feet from someone’s house.
Second, we have to clearly state that merely landing on American soil at birth does not automatically confer citizenship. Citizenship is reserved for the offspring of citizens and legal residents.
Third, we have to recognize that illegal immigrants who bring their children to this country are bad parents who deserve to have their children taken from them. They are involving their children in criminal activity. If Mexicans realize that coming to this country illegally means that they can get sent home without their children, they will stay home.
1) “Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man.”
2) OK, all we need to do is pass a constitutional amendment eliminating the birthright citizenship clause of the 14th. So that’s 290 Representatives, 67 Senators, and the legislatures of 37 states. No problem at all.
3) So how many children do you intend to add to the foster care system? Are the the children who get adopted granted citizenship? Eligible for in-state tuition? What about those that keep bouncing around from home to home?
If you want to propose solutions that don’t work in the real world become a Democrat. At least their fantasy world has unicorns.
No, they will not. If they are as desperately poor as some of the people I have seen in Mexico, or if they are terrified of what future their children will face from the coming maelstrom. People will throw their children to safty if times are bad enough, and times are bad enougt now in Mexico for many.
now, back up your shoulds with law. sanc-tu-a-ry cities cannot ask what people’s status is. my kids go to school with kids who vacation in mexico city, as in visit their aunts and uncles.kids go from here to mexico for middle-school, and then maybe return, depending on their parents.
I knew a black guy who moved to town, and asked his boss if race was a problem, and the guy said ‘Naw- at least we know you’re American.’ Okay? race doesn’t play here the way it does in the rest of the country.
it’s not a border with a fence. it’s a lot of people making rational decisions for themselves. do you want hard-working mexicans to end up embittered loiterers on welfare, or do you want them to go to community college and become nurses and dental techs and police officers? that’s the choice. not, some weird ethnic cleansing fantasy of an impermeable border.
The Dream Act problem would not exist if illegal alien parents had been deported in the first place — if immigration laws would have been enforced as agreed in the 1986 amnesty. Same goes for the anchor baby problem, numbering in the millions and increasing by 300,000 a year.
Texas Governor Rick Perry has faltered on the illegal immigration issue. It is not a matter of heart; it is a matter of protecting our sovereign nation and our economy. The real “2006 Secure Border Act” a double fence would require access infrastructure along the perimeter to lay roads, between the fences. These same access roads could be used to properly patrol those rugged areas by armed military, deployed to assist the US Border Patrol in very dangerous areas.
As Ron Paul sharply stabbed in a few words and said with open clarity about illegal immigration “”no free education, no subsidies, no citizenship” for illegal immigrants.
My Guess Ron Paul would definitely agree with a first step, to get the illegal alien occupation under control using E-Verify. Lama Smiths E-Verify “the Legal Workforce Act” is here with perfect timing as illegal immigration has exploded in the debates. At the very least, it is a step in the right direction. Even if E-Verify have some flaws and some illegal aliens are able to obtain employment, it won’t last very long. Those hired illegally will be apprehended eventually when the irregularities are corrected. It’s better to have something as a deterrent, than to have nothing at all.
IT CONCERNS MILLIONS OF TEA PARTY MEMBERS, WHY HAS ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION NOT TREATED AS A FELONY?
Of course the usual radical voices are raised, as critics opposing this Historical Immigration Bill, H.R. 2885 are searching for any loophole to drag it down. They are using what inflammatory rhetoric or lies they can muster against the passage of E-Verify “the Legal Workforce Act.” First they contest it that legal American workers could be turned away in being hired. So that person just addresses that grievance by going to their local Social security office; illegal aliens will stay well clear of this agency. None of the media will inform their readership of this? Learn more information at NumbersUSA. Other websites that will deliver the facts about the criminal element, with wide ranging access to the E-media is American Patrol. We can all stand with our fellow jobless countryman by Calling House and Senate Leadership NOW Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.
For goodness sakes, grow a brain and read some of the posts from Texans.
Governor Perry and his constituent Texans are clearly in accord in support of their “Texas Dream Act.” In the last session, legislation effectively repealing the TDA, was heavily lobbied and ultimately withdrawn.
We ALL Need To Start Addressing the “Dream Acts and Other “Invasion” and “immigration” Issues from the Standpoint of a (hopefully) Newly Elected President.
We have a law, Simpson-Mazzoli, in place. The current Administration and numerous States are frankly acting in violation of some to all of its provisions. The Administration is not only failing to provide adequate funding, but through executive decisions and regulations is implementing practices that violate it in fact and in principle.
In terms of “State Dream Acts,” there are now 12 states with “Dream Act” legislation on their books. Clearly Texas citizens support theirs. In One State, Maryland, citizen-taxpayer-voters are attempting to get the issue on the 2012 ballot in hopes of overturning it. Several of the States with Dream Acts are evidencing substantial budget issues. Also see ETAB, Comment 16.
In terms of other provisions within Simpson-Mazzoli, numerous States (including Maryland) have Sanctuary Cities, Sanctuary Counties and/or operating as Sanctuary States. There are States on each end of the Spectrum in terms of support for existing law.
A Newly Elected President should act first to seal/secure the Border. While a sea to sea fence could help…terrain, contracting and litigation to prevent Eminent Domain acquisitions would greatly prolong any meaningful implementation. Further fences are susceptible to breaches from ladders, rappelling and tunnels. To expedite control the President would want to insure the federal government would put the boots on the ground with Ranger re-con teams, put the strategic fencing in place and put aviation assets along that border so we can immediately respond to the border when we see activities of concern. Further decisions on additional fencing could come later. The alternative approach is the type of solution Governor Perry has recommended.
Next a Newly Elected President would want to take steps to address an approach on dealing with compliance with existing law or alternatives. In that we have States at both ends of the spectrum, if we want a Simpson-Mazzoli type of Federal Law in place and at least generally observed … we could end up with having to establish a “State’s Rights” application for permission to a variance. If a State’s citizens are shown to support the “variance” (for example a State Dream Act) and agree to bear ALL financial costs related to it … they might be given authority to vary in this regard.
The President, the Congress, the States and their citizenry’s need to come together in an agreement. The present lawless failure to adhere to the “Rule of Law” does need to be considered and resolved by all of us.
With appreciation to Bryan and all of those providing your insights on the merits and approaches to solving this issue!
We are being invaded by an enemy as the enemy within greets them with open arms.
yeah, like “Aliens vs. Monsters” and “Cowboys and Aliens”. woooohooo!!!
The government has a responsibility and duty to enforce its laws. If it doesn’t make a good faith effort to enforce the laws, then it is complicit in the consequences of that negligence.
This lack of enforcement means the government is giving tacit approval to illegal immigration and is therefore complicit in the exploitation of illegal immigrant labor. When it is convenient to let it slide, politicians let is slide. When it is convenient to crack down they crack down. This is unfair and immoral exploitation of human beings.
If you park illegally every day for 20 years and then all of a sudden one day after 20 you get 20 years worth of daily parking tickets, that is idiotic. That is what it is like to be deported after you have lived here illegally for 20 years.
Through negligence in enforcing the law the government is in part responsible for illegal immigration and has a duty and responsibility to deal with it in a humane fashion.
I don’t understand why it is so hard to become a legal immigrant. Clearly there is a need for immigrant labor. I’m not in favor of blanket amnesty but I think we ought to let in legally more immigrants faster.
Simply put, you have to stand in line at one of our Consulates or our Embassy in Mexico to get the papers to start the legal immigration process rolling, and then you have to pay hefty fees to lawyers to draft the necessary legal paperwork, then it takes time for the U.S. government to process this paperwork, which supposedly gives us an idea of just who is applying to enter our country legally and, also simply put, there is a yearly quota for legal immigrants from Mexico. So, bottom line, it takes years, perseverance, patience, and a comparatively lot of money to successfully complete the process and get accepted as a legal immigrant to the U.S.
Meanwhile, line jumpers i.e. illegal aliens–who might not pass a background check, who don’t want to stand in line, fill out paperwork, pay fees, or wait years to legally enter the U.S.–simply sneak across the border, leaving all those chumps who want to enter legally standing in line, scrimping to pay legal fees, and waiting for years to enter the U.S. legally.
So, not only do illegal aliens break our laws and show contempt for them and us, not only do they place the burden of their and their families care on us, and scam taxpayers out of many billions of dollars each year in extra medical, educational, social service, and law enforcement costs (according to a recent set of government statistics 25 % of the prisoners in our jails are foreigners, and of them 68% are Mexicans) while, at the same time, sending an estimated $20 billion dollars or more each year back to Mexico, they also screw the law abiding Mexicans who do try to enter our country legally.
And these are the people that Governor Perry and the State of Texas want to even further reward for their line jumping and criminality by pushing their children (line jumpers again) to the head of the line, by granting them in-state college tuition, giving them a taxpayer paid for subsidy worth $100K, and a break not available to legal U.S. citizens?
Get your facts straight. It’s not anywhere near a $100K subsidy! At most it’s $40,000 for the very few who attend a 4 year college but the stats say that only 1% of all students are in this category which includes the much cheaper community colleges, trade schools, etc.
I hope you are a liberal impersonating a conservative.
Does anyone know about Rick Perry’s support for US-Mexico Bi-national insurance plan? Rick Santorum mentioned it, but there was no follow up or clarification (surprise!) from the Perry camp.
Is he or was he ever in favor of a trans-national health insurance plan???
If this is true, Rick Perry should be urged to quit now.
By my understanding it was an effort to coordinate the insurance requirements between Texas and Mexico so that insurance companies could write policies that would be usable on both sides of the border. There is a large population that lives and works (legally) on opposite sides of the border.
FYI, California allows it and it’s simply an insurance policy that allows workers in a specific area to purchase insurance that covers on both sides of the border. One article I read had a worker getting emergency care for a heart attack in San Dieago then was able to be transported to Mexico for treatment after he was stabilized. The last time I looked this was a free market solution.
Purchasing your own insurance isn’t welfare.
Ari: I’m in agreement with your views. I lived in TX for some time and will return. When I lived in Brownsville, I lived so close to the border I walked over it to eat lunch frequently.
As for some of you, it’s sad that Conservatives now use what they suppose as an entitlement of a college education to argue against illegal immigration. Our secondary education system is destroying Conservatism while failing in its primary mission and these so-called Conservatives don’t care as long as they can use it as a wedge issue against illegal immigration. Perry is the only politician I know of that has proposed and is getting the type of educational reform we need. Perry knows there’s a problem with secondary ed, do we? http://www.google.com/search?gcx=w&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=perry+weekly+standard+picked+the+right+fight Why are we subsidizing education at all? Why is there in-state out-of-state distinction to begin with? There are Conservatives in this thread arguing “oh the kids of citizens will be 100k in the hole by graduation so . . . it’s not fair”? Really? Really? Um, and you’re ok with a 100k secondary education for average kids to “get a good job”? And why is the 100k debt? Oh because of federal subsidies for student loans! Wow. If these are representatives of Conservatism we’re screwed. Why is it the most adamant on the issue of illegal immigration sound like Liberals?
And all the bruhaha about “bi-national insurance plans” is silly. This is not new. It’s about as new as people from Upper Michigan going to bars and strip clubs in Canada. These folks seem not to know about borders. There are good medical schools and doctors in Mexico and they can treat you for common things much cheaper than in TX, at least when TX let the lawyers sue for malpractice at the drop of a hat. With tort reform now I expect that to be better in TX than it was. Until recently TX was a magnet for many forms of legal extremes. Acting shocked by “bi-national insurance” is comical. I’ve seen news stories about this for years, and people on the southern border frequently go to Mexican doctors.
But Mark: You don’t seem to realize that Texans are such namby-pamby pushovers that they don’t know their Governor has betrayed them and only re-elect the treasonous.
That is also why the Special Unit of the Texas Rangers—-a Perry innovation—has concentrated on eliminating the pending depradations in the Big Bend and Trans-Pecos Areas thereby subsidizing the indolent ranchers who are a magnet for the welfare cases on their way to California.
I must say the Perry critics who want the border all fenced in are acting in the finest traditions of Robert S. McNamara and his superb wall that protected Lang Vei and Khe Sanh so well.
We must all act swiftl to prevent those Mejicano anchor babes from growing up to be Tejanos like Sheriff Sigberto Gonzales. Perhaps some RU46 mixed in the marijuana will slow the birth rate down to non-replacement levels. Then there will be enough welfare to go around for all the real Americans in need.
(sarc off)
Dave: The point about the border fence is a good point. Folks on the border know it’s a joke. As Perry has said, a fence in certain areas make perfect sense and are often effective at those points, but 1200 miles of it? Can any of the 1200 mile fence advocates name any border fence anywhere in the world that has stopped human traffic and not stopped trade? No. Right now it takes 2 hours to cross the border in many places by car with nothing to declare and no reason for them to search you. Security is a blunt instrument, and very imperfect. This isn’t the West Bank. But that’s the problem. Folks that don’t know anything about the border or Mexico think it is. They don’t know that for all Mexico’s troubles, they have a trillion dollar economy, the world’s 14 largest, and are one of our largest trading partners. Shutting down the economy of the southern states is not a very good solution to stopping illegal immigration. Perry’s idea of a border patrolled using modern technology is completely sound, and in fact the only viable solution.
No fence has ever stopped criminality or drugs. The narco-gangs plaguing Mexico now can only be stopped by military cooperation with Mexico such as the Merida initiative, similar to what happened in Colombia, which the strident border fence advocates invariably oppose. BTW, Mexico became the main transit point for drugs only after the sea routes were interdicted, which are far easier to do than land routes. When Perry speaks of “boots on the ground,” he doesn’t mean border patrollers to stop those wanting to find work. So many claim they want to defeat illegal immigration in some idealistic fashion, but don’t mind it if it means maintaining the welfare state, forming a bloated and corrupt bureaucracy of fence patrollers trudging along with a lifetime pension, or simply killing the economy of the southern states. And they’d have the country believe you’re not a true Republican or Conservative if you aren’t idealistically determined as they are on illegal immigration.
What y’all don’t understand is that Texas was its own country before it became a part of the USA. Further to that, Texas has always had a good size hispanic population, these folks are Texans or if you want Tejano’s they are hard working, loyal and damn’d fine folk. A high percentage of them join the military and serve their country, compared to other Americans like in CA, MA NY they are more patriotic that most of these left wing anglo’s…
So we have a federal government that won’t enforce the law, what are we to do, as said before a lot of these kids grew up in Texas, they don’t know anything else and are proud Texans, a lot of them tried to join the US Military after 911 but couldn,t, so the idea of deporting several million of these kids is just assinine, better to bring them onboard and allow them to become proud Texans..
Another fact, 75% of the kids accepted to Texas colleges under the TDA go to the local Community Colleges. The annual tuition there is $3000, not the $22000 at UT Austin (the highest). To get into the big State universities you not only have to be a high school graduate, but in the top 10% of your class, not likely for an ESL river jumper. The in-state vs. out-of-state tuition is a long standing condition, and is true in many States. In-state tuition is NOT a subsidy. Out-of-state tuition is paying for a privilege.
Tejanos helped Anglos win the Texas Revolution, and our culture has always celebrated that natural blended flavor.
Most Texans oppose illegal immigration. But the US government refuses to enforce the border. Meanwhile, they require us to educate, support, and heal the illegals without the ability to deport them. If we must accept them, we must find the best way to incorporate them to be functional in our systems. The TDA was totally uncontroversial when it passed 10 years ago because it made lemonade out of a bad bunch of lemons. Ideally, we’d not have it because there’d be no illegals, but that is not reality.
A fence will simply not work on certain rugged stretches of the Rio Grande (100s of miles worth), and Perry knows that. Drones, satellites, remote sensing stations, and a lot of US border patrol personnel are needed. Not dozens, thousands are needed to round up illegals as they try to cross, then process and return them to Mexico. And, no, Sarah Palin would not put gun towers on the border to shoot parents and children trying to cross illegally (you must be an anti-Palin troll).
Perry is far from a perfect candidate, but he is getting an unfair shake regarding the TDA.
The fact is that if you don’t enforce your borders you soon will have no country; a result that I am sure Mexico would like to see occur.
The fact is that if you don’t enforce your laws, soon you will have anarchy.
The fact is that, if you allow non-citizens to, in effect, force citizens to support them, and give such non-citizens benefits and rights superior to those of citizens, soon citizenship will lose its value.
All of these things are in play in Perry’s decision to give in state tuition to illegal aliens.
When the feds won’t deport these people that leaves the states to deal with them. You either make the best you can out of a bad situation by educating them so they can become productive tax paying citizens or you do nothing and allow them to become a drag on society costing way more than the difference between instate tuition and out of state fees.
The utter ‘head in the sands’ ideological blindness of some remarks on this thread is astonishing. Face the facts!!!!!
1) The federal govt, alone, is legally authorized to both stop/prevent illegal immigration and deport those who get across the border.
Face the facts: This federal govt under Obama refuses to carry out its duty in this area.
Face the facts: When a state, such as Arizona, attempts to deal with illegals, by turning over those caught in a criminal act, to the federal govt…the Obama govt SUES Arizona!!!
2) Texas, as a border state, is subject to illegal entrants.
Face the facts: First – it can’t build a wall; it has no authority to do so..AND..THINK! It’s physically impossible to build a wall!!! Most of the border is a massive river! Do you suggest a wall, ahem, in the middle? Or on the border, shutting off access to each side? Or?
Other parts are canyons..
IT’S PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE to build a Texas wall!!!
So- Perry faces FACTS. He’s against illegals. He has no legal authority to stop them – but, he wants to do so. His suggestion: massive border patrols, satellite surveillance, ‘boots on the ground’..in Texas. A wall as well, where it CAN be built in other states.
3) What do you do with the ones who have come here?
Face the facts. Texas can’t deport them!!! So, stop blathering that Perry is ‘in favor of illegals’! He can’t deport them.
Oh- and, face the facts. Did you know that Texas, legally, has to educate them, in state funded public schools? They tried to refuse, in 1975. The US Supreme Court in 1982, ruled that they HAD to educate them. Got that? Those are FACTS!
4) Then what? After high school? What do you do? You can’t legally stop them coming in. You can’t deport them when they are here. You must, legally, educate them right up to high school graduation. FACTS.
Then what? Face the facts. Do you allow an underclass of people, whom you can’t deport (cattle cars are no longer allowed)…to exist in your cities? Or, do you ALLOW them to educate themselves for productive jobs in the society?
FACTS. THINK. It’s a no-brainer. You must allow them to become educated. That means, allowing them to go to college. IF and ONLY IF, they have spent three years here, in high school, live with a parent, and, will take out permanent residency, then..they can pay the in-state fees. No scholarships, no subsidies, no bursaries. They can pay.
Or, do you want an apartheid underclass???? Well?
5) This situation has NOTHING to do with ‘being in favor of illegals’, NOTHING to do with Perry supporting illegals. He doesn’t. He doesn’t want them coming in. But, he’s a realist, he faces the FACTS.
- the refusal of the federal govt to stop them/deport them;
- the Supreme Court’s rule that Texas must educate them
- the need to protect Texas against the devt of an economic underclass
So? Think. Don’t be ideological robots. Be realists and face the facts.
This problem will solve itself if the People have any say. The 82nd TX leg just passed a bill that makes it mandatory to prove citizenship to get or renew a licence. We now require official photo id to vote.
If we would add making it mandatory to disclose residency when registering children in school (not denying it–just quantifying it for now due to federal requirements), and make private based e-verify type program easily affordable for American businesses and mandating its use with stiff penalties, many illegals will leave of their own volition.
If they can’t work, they can’t eat. Proof of citizenship is a common sense requirement when the govt uses OUR money to help the less fortunate. Alms are good when given to the less fortunate, but not when doing so undermines the Rule of Law in our country and defies common sense.
I’m was just amazed at Santorum’s attack on Perry’s support for a “bi-national insurance plan.” The bill would have allowed people to buy the plan of their choice, not buy it for them!!!!! Talk about knee-jerkism. Perry has the audacity to suggest that consumers should be allowed to buy insurance from the provider of their choice, and this is bad? This is a Conservative critique of Perry? We need to put an end to these socialistic and corrupt laws that say we can’t buy insurance across state and national boundaries. Come on Conservatives, this is what we’re supposed to be for, right? Are you really going to follow Santorum’s demagoguery like lemmings?
Excellent comments have been posted on this thread by ari, ETAB, Mark, curtmilr, and others who have one thing in common: they all appear to know something about the realities of the situation that Texans (and Arizonians) face daily.
I hope that Tea Party patriots from other areas of the country take time to read their comments: you will be better informed than some of our Republican Presidential candidates!
Another BS argument in defense of the floundering Perry.
So, so anchor babies get special in-state treatment unavailable to US babies born neighboring US states?
Texas is a special case, whereby other border states (New Mexico, Arizona, California) are all different?
Mr. Potato Head; your arguments are as dense as your head. In other words, you are an ideological robot; you aren’t facing the FACTS.
The facts are that the Federal Govt has abdicated its responsibility for immigration and border control..and fobbed off the ENTIRE mess of illegals, on to the States. THINK, or try to think…
FACTS:
1) the border states can’t stop the aliens coming in and can’t deport them. That’s the function of the federal govt and it refuses to act. Indeed, it actively files lawsuits against those states who try to protect themselves against illegals. So- stop being so smart aleck and deal with the facts: they come in..and the State can’t deport them!!!!!!!
2) Texas tried to refuse them in the public schools but in 1982 the US Supreme Court ruled that it had to provide state education for illegals right to the end of high school. OK? So – deal with the facts; it’s the law.
3)Then what? After high school? Deport them? Oh gosh and golly, the state can’t do that and the Obama govt won’t do it. Gosh and golly. So, what can you do? I know some empty heads have suggested ‘pointing to the Mexican border and telling them to leave’. Ooooh, how bold. How clever. Will it work?
Refuse them a higher education? What will that do? Create an apartheid underclass? That’s really smart..
4) Several states — Texas, California, New York, Utah, Illinois, Washington, Nebraska, New Mexico, Maryland (community colleges), Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Kansas — have passed state laws providing in-state tuition benefits to illegal aliens who have attended high school in the state for three or more years.
Gosh – there are some border states in that list who are doing the same as Texas. Gosh.
And, try not to be too much of a twit, but the Texas Legislature, not Perry, moved and passed this law – with only 4 nays – which meant that Perry, even if he wanted to veto it..could not do so legally. Got that?????? So, try to think rather than be robotic.
5) These aren’t anchor babies. Don’t be even more potato head dense. After all, such children are legally, US citizens. These are children who were brought by their parents when they were pre-teens..and went through high school here (remember, it’s THE LAW; the state has to educate them).
So, the criteria are basic: three years and a completed high school diploma, living with parents, applying for permanent residency.
6) Now, I know that your solution to this problem is: DEPORT THEM ALL. But that’s what Potato Head Robots say. People who live in the real world and are real living human beings…are realists. They know that the State legally can’t deport them. So…since they are here…the state has to deal with the mess that the federal govt has fobbed off on to the states…And allowing them to go to college and apply for permanent residency status..is an adult and realistic solution to the Federal Mess.
Good thread; I have learned a lot from it. Of course it also brings into focus yet again the problems Republicans have in holding their, er, diverse, constituenciesint least in the same chapter, if not on the same page.
I think some apologists for law breakers have once again managed to turn a comment section into drivel.
The issue is the rule of law. It is illegal if it violates a law, state or federal or otherwise. It matters not a whit if it’s over $10.00 or a million.
The principle that people are equal under the law, means that rewards are not given from tax-payer money to illegal immigrants, illegal aliens, border jumpers, or the children thereof.
Self proclaimed intellectuals and crooked politicians should not be the people who have authority over my bank account. Money is fungible and the taxes I pay in California go into the same pot that some people seem to think they have a right to send to spend in Texas or send it to Washington D.C., co-mingle it the federal taxes I have paid, and then split the vigorish with their chosen winners.
My conclusion to all this nonsense is that 50 years of propaganda has convinced an awful lot of people that what they get is worth any price, even if the devil should demand their soul. Ever thought about getting a real job, making your own way in the country by working hard and saving a portion of what you make.
ETAB: Repeating yourself multiple times does not make your muddled thinking any clearer on some issues.
There’s a difference between you and me, CGW. I refer to facts; you refer only to your opinions.
The facts are..the federal and state laws.
The facts are…physical and demographic realities.
I’m not interested in your opinions – and your comments in this post are unintelligible.
ETAB:
If you incapabable of understanding the difference between legal and illegal you are hopeless. As for not caring about my opinions, I do not care about your bull**** comments.
A nation that built the Panama Canal, the Brooklyn bridge, the Holland Tunnel, put a man on the moon can build a wall that will secure our southern border. Anyone saying a fence is ineffective will have to explain why an apparently unmanned fence at the White House is so effective at keeping uninvited visitors out.
One day something will cross the border that will make Americans wake up. We know drugs and guns cross freely. Does anyone doubt a nuclear weapon or biological or chemical agent could cross easily? Does anyone doubt others than Mexicans cross these frontiers?
One thing that is crossing everyday is plagues and diseases of various kinds. Whoever heard of headlice ten years ago, or bed bugs? Are we to believe these just suddenly appeared. All sorts of diseases that were unheard of twenty years ago are common in major cities today.
If we do not secure our borders we are doomed. If you doubt it look at what happened to Rome. As for the illegals, if states ddo not step up and take the necessary actions we know what the Feds will do. I saw it overseas where the attitude in embassies was it wasn’t their responsibility who got visas. USAID snet hundreds of students fully funded to the US, but none was selected by the US government. When asked how effective the program was AID couldn’t respond because they didn’t know how many of these scholars bothered to return.
Does anyone believe May 5th was celebrated in NC or Wisconsin 20 years ago? California now is a majority hispanic state, th3e consequences of uncontrolled immigration foisted on us by big government, race hustlers, and corporations for the middle class and lower classes to bear is unforgiveable.