Government Security News

Immigration and Border Control: Perry advocates
for enforcement-first immigration strategy in
presidential launch
By Elijah Levine
Former texas governor Rick Perry
announced his bid for the Republican
presidential candidacy last
week. His immigration rhetoric in
the past several years has been one
that focuses more on border enforcement
than providing legal status
to the currently undocumented
population in the U.S.—a solution
an overwhelming majority of americans
now support. However, Perry
also signed the first state law in the
country to provide in-state tuition
to undocumented immigrants in
2001 and has recently said the U.S.
can’t deport 11 million people.
in a recent interview on Fox,
Perry vowed, if elected, to secure the
border as one of his first presidential
actions before a debate on immigration
reform can begin. He went on
to enumerate the specifics of such a
strategy:
“Put the personnel on the border,
the strategic fencing in place,
the aviation assets—so that, that
1800 mile border, from tijuana to
El Paso, from El Paso to Brownsville,
is secure and the american
people will know that it is secure.”
only after these actions, Perry
continued, can americans “have a
Former Governor Rick Perry
conversation about how immigration
reform needs to be conducted
and what have you.”
Perry hasn’t been shy to deploy
troops to the border during
his terms as governor. Last summer,
when thousands of Central american
children and families fleeing
violence arrived at the U.S. border
many states and cities welcomed
them into their communities, providing
basic humanitarian support.
But Perry chose a military response
to this humanitarian challenge by
sending approximately 1,000 National
guard troops to the border,
noting “our citizens are under assault.”
initial reports estimated that
this move cost texas over $12 million
per month.
trying to enforce our way out
of our immigration problems is no
solution. Since 1986, the federal
government has spent an estimated
$186.8 billion on immigration enforcement.
Yet during that time, the
unauthorized population has tripled
in size to 11 million. This is not due
to a lack of enforcement, but rather
a testament to the powerful demand
the U.S. economy has for workers, as
well as the similarly powerful desire
for families to unite across borders.
Perry’s strict border policies,
historically, have been proven not
to reap their intended benefits and
actually encourage lawlessness as
undocumented immigrants entrust
their lives to criminal cartels who
traffic people into the United States.
“Coyotes” prey on vulnerable immigrants
and present a humanitarian
crisis that militarization of the border
is exacerbating.
also, ahead of the announcement
of the President’s executive
action on immigration, Perry anticipated
texas’ plans to sue to the
administration in order to stop it.
While Perry has been a hawk
on immigration in many ways, his
comments at times indicate a different
view. Perry recently said in New
Hampshire that the removal of 11
million undocumented immigrants
from the United States in unrealistic,
“i don’t think anyone with a
sense of reality thinks that we’re go-
ing to ship 11 or 12 million people
back to where they’re from.”
also, in 2001, Perry signed the
texas DREaM act into law –which
was the first measure enacted in
a state to provide undocumented
immigrants with in-state tuition at
state colleges. That same year, however,
Perry vetoed a bill that would
have authorized undocumented immigrants
to obtain drivers’ licenses,
citing his concern that the bill didn’t
provide resources to sufficiently vet
potential candidates and verify birth
foreign birth certificates.
Perry has shown himself hard
to pin down on what his philosophy
is around immigration policy. Perhaps
over the next several months
as the campaign continues, he can
devise a more solid platform and
clearly explain what a Perry administration
would do on immigration
policy.
See more at: http://immigrationimpact.com/2015/06/08/rickperry-immigration/#sthash.zeBtcoFX.dpuf
Photo by Michael Vadon.
Immigration: O’Malley
Continued from page 27
assist in the representation of these
immigrant mothers and children to
help them navigate legal process so
“that their hopes and their dignity
is properly represented in this, the
land of the free and the home of the
brave.”
if o’Malley’s record as governor
is any indication of where his
administration will stand on immigration
policy, it is likely he would
take commonsense approaches that
would make real progress on longstanding
immigration challenges.
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