2007: [excerpt] "Perry, in Mexico with a Texan trade mission seeking opportunities in areas like renewable energy, said the federal government’s plan to build a wall along much of the border to keep out illegal immigrants was “idiocy.”
“We need those individuals to continue to grow our economy,” Perry told a briefing with reporters.
Thank you for posting this before I did. This
Houston Chronicle article from the day after the Reuters article you posted expands on Perry's thoughts:
MEXICO CITY — Leading a large delegation of Texas executives trying to drum up business in Mexico, Gov. Rick Perry on Tuesday criticized the U.S. Congress for failing to pass an immigration bill that would legalize millions of workers.
"I don't think this is that difficult an issue if Congress would have the maturity to sit down and really discuss it and cut out all the mean rhetoric," Perry said during a break in the third day of meetings with Mexican officials and business executives.
"We need those individuals to continue to grow our economy," he said of Texas' undocumented workers, most of whom hail from Mexico. "The vast, vast majority of those individuals want to come and work and take care of their families."
Perry made the remarks in Mexico City, where immigration is nearly as big a hot-button issue as it is in Washington. He spoke at a press conference shortly before meeting with President Felipe Calderon who, like past Mexican presidents, has lobbied for changes in U.S. immigration law that would include a guest-worker program.
Perry's statements seemed to put him at odds with many in the Republican Party's base who regarded the immigration overhaul bill that collapsed in the Senate in June as nothing more than an amnesty for illegal immigrants.
I'd further expand with comments he made the previous year, in 2006, about the need for a guest worker program (
http://governor.state.tx.us/news/editorial/10326/):
But to me neither amnesty nor mass deportation is the answer. The first unfairly rewards those who broke our laws, and the latter is not only unrealistic and unenforceable, but it would devastate our economy. That’s why I support a guest worker program that takes undocumented workers off the black market and legitimizes their economic contributions without providing them citizenship status
Yes! I'm certain the Houston Comicle expanded on his remarks. But you must quote this -- it can not be divorced from his remarks:
2007: [excerpt] "Perry, in Mexico with a Texan trade mission seeking opportunities in areas like renewable energy, said the federal government’s plan to build a wall along much of the border to keep out illegal immigrants was “idiocy.”
“We need those individuals to continue to grow our economy,” Perry told a briefing with reporters.
“If you show up illegally, without your card or you’re here as a criminal element, I’m for throwing the book at those folks, but the issue of people who want to legally, thoughtfully and appropriately come to America to work and help us build our economy — we should quickly come up with a program and an identification card to do that.” [end excerpt] Source