W is Texan through and through.
As is Rick Perry.
There is no need to come up with theories such as “he was raised on the East Coast or his father is NWO” to try explaining Texans varied views on illegal immigration. The state carries within it the seeds of all of the varied views, for the state is so diverse.
I know an Hispanic of the old school who lived in the Midwest for years but was born and raised in Texas. Now back in Texas, he says every illegal should be sent packing. His own ancestors have been in Texas as far back as he knows anything about them, but long, long years ago the border was passed over back and forth and back and forth, without laws to attempt regulation. Suffice it to say in his mind this Hispanic is an American, period. He does not want those here who now come over, flouting our laws, and swarming into our systems and overloading them.
W has expressed his sympathy for the struggling poor of Mexico who come here to work in order to put food on their children’s table. He has seen and met and spoken with people like this and he has too big of a bleeding heart for his own, and this nation’s, good.
Other people claim his business buddies run the whole show and that’s all he cares about...their views who themselves use illegal workers. I do not believe that is his reason. But that is merely my opinion.
Point is, we have it all. We have militants who are trying to take over Texas and America by immigrant invasion. We have old school Hispanics that are angry at these invaders and want them rounded up and deported. We have conservative evangelicals who demand border enforcement and we have liberal evangelicals and some Catholics who claim it is unChristian to turn these people back or even detain them, who house them in churches. We have criminal gangs linked to Mexico. You name it, we have it.
For Rick Perry or W, no need to look beyond Texas itself to find the seeds of whatever is their particular view.
Average Texans are very fed up with the invasion and the violence, and with the hypocrisy of Mexico in encouraging these illegals to come here while having the most severe punishment for anyone entering Mexico illegally.
As far as theories about Perry and his views on international issues and open borders or at least lax borders, well you're always influenced or at least seriously listen to your biggest donors, else they stop being your biggest donors, and in Perry's case, that's home builders. I believe that does shape his views, at least partly, on why he wanted open borders, and why he was lax later on, to the point of those ridiculous webcams.
At the same time he was preaching the virtues of open borders, he and his staff was starting to formulate his plans about the TTC, and he had friends and associates who benefited from that, and not just the Rudy Giulianis and Dan Shelleys that we know about. There was $150 billion worth of work with the TTC over the next 50 years. That was going to tie into Mexico's plans for a large corridor, and I have to ask where the line was drawn between his friends/donors benefiting and his concerns about Texans or any kind of compassionate views he claimed to have had about poor people along the border.
I'm not saying that Perry isn't compassionate - when he gave the speech about
his shared dreams of open borders with Mexico, he was incredibly compassionate. The parts about getting healthcare to poor people on both sides of the border, increasing the education and education options available, etc., all of that tugs at the heartstrings. That's all great, and it sucks people into his sphere. There are even a few FReepers that bought into that speech and support his having signed the Texas DREAM Act. Some people even held up his views on helping poor people along both sides of the border, especially with healthcare, as a sign of what a good Christian he is.
But I have to weigh that against who his donors and friends are and whether that also influences his actions, and I have to weigh that in light of 9/11, and that he waited until just the past few years to get really strict on the border (the webcams were a charade), especially as he was getting attacked by his Republican opponents in the 2010 race, and trying to cozy up to the Tea Party.
At the same time, he made it very clear that he wouldn't sign off on Arizona-style illegal immigration legislation, and that set off a lot of warning bells for folks.
Too many times his friends and donors benefit from the actions and influence of his office. Just this week a Perry donor
received a few million in taxpayer dollars for a shady company that filed a false application for that money. On that application, there were people falsely listed as directors that had ties to Perry's staff either as a consultant or as a member of a related council.
Here we are in June of 2011, and we are still seeing the same kinds of Perry shenanigans that we've come to expect from him.