Replies

Carling, I posted this on another thread, but I actually think it fits better right here. Besides, I want EVERYONE to see how I stand.

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From: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2782506/posts

(Another poster on that thread)

This is actually why Obama fears Perry so much. Obama is counting on the hispanic vote to carry him to victory. Along comes Perry and suddenly Obama is facing losing a large chunk of that base.

(My response)

I believe that is what Rush Limbaugh was getting at yesterday.

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_092111/content/01125112.guest.html

Upon going to that link (above) you see Rush advising his listeners that we will need to get the Texas electoral vote to win this election, and we will need to get the Hispanic vote from Obama to win this election against Obama.

Rush’s segment on this yesterday was every informative, should one have ears to listen.

However, not considering whether or not we need to take the Hispanic vote from Obama to win in the general election, I don’t think Perry is doing a good job in these debates explaining the entire immigration situation here.

He is particularly doing a bad job explaining himself on the Texas DREAM Act.

Here are a few things I wish he would at least address:

1. Perry needs to let people know that states have no right to deport. By not making people aware that a state can not, by any legal law in The U.S., deport immigrants, others may think, and they do, that he is soft. People mistakenly think Perry COULD send them back. He CAN’T, but yet too many people think that he CAN and that he just DOESN’T.

Rick Perry has to get that misguided notion straightened up if anyone is even to ever come close to understanding what he is doing or why. Like it or not, neither Perry nor the State of Texas can deport illegal immigrants. That is only, by law, a federal action.

2. Rick Perry needs to tell people from OTHER STATES that if they want in-state tuition, they can get it from their own stinkin’ states! I get tired of hearing person after person complain that THEIR child from Kentucky, or Michigan, or Maine can’t go to a Texas college with an in-state tuition rate for their child but yet... they complain that while their child can’t, some illegal living in Texas CAN.

You know, it’s ONE argument to say you don’t want illegal’s children getting to stay here or getting breaks. It is something totally different when they complain about not getting in-state tuition for their children for college in a state they don’t even live in. They CAN get in-state tuition.. in the state where they live!

Even if Perry can’t step back on his need to manage this problem we have in Texas, when he hears this complain (and I believe it was mentioned in this debate), Perry needs to look them in the eye and say “If you want in-state tuition for your child, then by golly find a college in YOUR state. This is for people who are living in Texas, and YOU don’t LIVE in Texas.

Sorry for that rant. Like I said, it is one thing to talk about something that would benefit a child of an illegal immigrant. It is another thing to complain about some out-of-state teenager not getting in-state tuition in Texas when they have their OWN states they can already get in-state tuition in.

3. Regarding this same issue, I have heard a few now ignorantly claim that these children of illegal immigrants living in Texas go to college FOR FREE! That is ludicrous!

Michele Bachmann quoted the DREAM Act discount as a savings of $22,000 I believe. The UT Austin website indicates a slightly lower tuition per semester rate, but when you include fees, she was probably very close.

So since she used The University of Texas Austin as her example, let’s just keep it at that here.

So a child of an illegal immigrant living in Texas for at least three years (maybe a lifetime for many) who has graduated from high school, submitted their application for American citizenship and going through that citizenship process, and having been accepted to The University of Texas Austin (one of the HARDEST universities in the country to get accepted to), gets an in-state tution rate.

Besides the fact that the student had to be GOOD enough to get into college and competitive enough to get into a major university, they are STILL going to have to pay the regular in-state tuition. These stellar students are NOT going to school for FREE.

4. I also wish Perry would point out that these students who are entering Texas colleges are in the process of working on and receiving their American citizenship. They are taking actions available through our federal government to be citizens, and the government would have track of them at that point and KNOW if they were following through their citizenship process as well (a cost of approximately $30,000.00 per person), that cost IN ADDITION TO the in-state tuition that student is paying out of his or her own (or family’s) pocket.

Of all the above points, I would think that would be the one that Perry could be the most proud of getting out to people.

I live in Texas, and I understand this is not a matter of wanting to reward illegal immigrants but more a situation we have to manage so that we are not left with these folk in the gutters killing each other (and us), selling drugs, making a living through prostitution rings, etc. Texas does not want all that junk in our state! So... we MANAGE the situation we are left with because of a lax federal government that has not protected us as it should have done and has not deported the illegal immigrants that should have been deported.

I also understand what Texas politicians feel they must do to manage the situation does not come off well to many others.

I just wish Rick Perry would clear up some of the absolute nonsense that is being thrown about with this issue and what is or is not being done here - what can, and can not be done here - and what has, and has not been done here in Texas.

This is not going to be his best issue with conservatives, and some people are going to be upset with The DREAM Act regardless, but my golly, when these incorrect fallacies are mentioned or people just don’t have the right information, the least he could do for himself is to defend what he can and correct all he should.

But just for me... HEY PEOPLE, IT’S NOT FREE.