Thread: Greg Abbott, Scott Walker to Tour Texas-Mexico Border

by Patrick Svitek
March 24, 2015

Likely 2016 presidential candidate Scott Walker is headed to the Texas-Mexico border on Friday, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will be there to show him the ropes.

Walker's trip is part of a swing through Texas that will take the Wisconsin governor to Houston on Saturday. He is the keynote speaker at the Harris County GOP's Lincoln-Reagan Dinner, which Abbott is also slated to attend.

"Gov. Walker looks forward to taking a close look at U.S. border security with Gov. Abbott," AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Walker's Our American Revival PAC, said in a statement. "While President Obama has failed to work with governors to address serious, ongoing concerns at the border, Gov. Walker looks forward to talking to officials on the ground about real solutions."

Abbott's office said he was already scheduled to be in the area on Friday to receive a briefing from the Department of Public Safety.

While Abbott is not yet playing favorites in the 2016 GOP presidential primary, he has expressed an interest in schooling potential candidates on an issue close to home: border security.

"Gov. Abbott is making border security a top priority and he believes it is vital that everyone understand the challenges that Texas – and the nation – face as a result of the federal government’s failure to take action," Abbott spokeswoman Amelia Chassé said in a statement. "He welcomes anyone to come to Texas and see these challenges firsthand, including President Obama, who has yet to visit the border."

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who on Monday became the first major candidate to declare his candidacy, has visited the region three times since taking office more than two years ago. Cruz, an Abbott protégé, has been an outspoken critic of Obama’s immigration policies, including the executive action Texas is now seeking to reverse in federal court.

https://www.texastribune.org/2015/03...-texas-border/

by Bob Price
24 Mar 2015

Expected presidential candidate, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, will head to the Texas/Mexico border with Texas Governor Greg Abbott for a firsthand look at our nation’s unsecured border. Walker is beginning a Texas tour on Friday that will include a stop in Houston on Saturday where he and Gov. Abbott will speak on the same stage at the Harris County GOP Lincoln-Reagan Dinner.

Governor Abbott’s office said the Governor was already scheduled to be in the border region to receive a previously scheduled briefing from the Texas Department of Public Safety. The Texas governor has expressed an interest in the past to show potential presidential candidates what is happening, and not happening, along the Texas/Mexico border.

“Gov. Abbott is making border security a top priority and he believes it is vital that everyone understand the challenges that Texas – and the nation – face as a result of the federal government’s failure to take action,” Abbott spokeswoman Amelia Chassé said in a statement obtained by Breitbart Texas. “He welcomes anyone to come to Texas and see these challenges firsthand, including President Obama, who has yet to visit the border.”

“Gov. Walker looks forward to taking a close look at U.S. border security with Gov. Abbott,” AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Walker’s Our American Revival PAC, said in a statement, according to an article in the Texas Tribune by Patrick Svitek. “While President Obama has failed to work with governors to address serious, ongoing concerns at the border, Gov. Walker looks forward to talking to officials on the ground about real solutions.”

Breitbart Texas reported last weekend that Governor Walker will be the keynote speaker at the Harris County Republican Party’s Lincoln-Reagan Dinner. The event will give an expected 800 attendees their first opportunity to hear from the presidential hopeful who is expected to announce his candidacy soon. This will be the third year in a row, the keynote address will be delivered by a 2016 Republican presidential hopeful. The 2014 keynote speaker was Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. He was preceded in 2013 by Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

Senator Cruz was the first Republican to declare his candidacy for the Republican nomination for President in 2016 with a speech on Monday to 11,000 students and supporters at Liberty University.

Governor Abbott will join Walker in Houston for the Lincoln-Reagan Dinner along with Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, Attorney General Ken Paxton and General Land Office Commissioner George P. Bush. The event will honor Bush’s grandfather, former President George H.W. Bush who served as chairman of the Harris County GOP fifty years ago.

Breitbart Texas will be on-hand Saturday evening to cover the remarks by Governor Walker in Houston.

http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2015/...r-with-abbott/

by Patrick Svitek
March 26, 2015

When Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker sets foot Friday in the Rio Grande Valley, it won't be your typical photo op on the border.

The likely presidential candidate is arriving in the region amid swirling questions about his position on an issue expected to factor prominently into the 2016 race: what exactly the United States should do with the 11 million people living in the country illegally. Walker has previously said he supports letting those immigrants ultimately obtain citizenship, a position strongly opposed by many of the voters he would need to win the 2016 Republican presidential primary.

Walker is visiting the region with help of a Texas Republican whose border bona fides are far more honed: Greg Abbott. The Texas governor, who's leading the charge against President Obama's executive action on immigration, is expected to serve as Walker's tour guide Friday, letting him ride along with him in a helicopter over the border. Before Walker firmed up his plans, Abbott was already scheduled to be in the area for a briefing by the Texas Department of Public Safety.

The tour comes a day after reports surfaced that Walker told a private audience in New Hampshire this month that he supported allowing undocumented immigrants to eventually become citizens. The remarks, which Walker's team disputed, seemed at odds with his admission earlier this year that he no longer supports a pathway to citizenship.

"My view has changed. I'm flat out saying it," Walker said March 1 on Fox News. "Candidates can say that. Sometimes they don't."

Walker's supporters insist the shift is indicative of a man who is willing to be straight with the public about where he stands. That's done little to satisfy Walker's critics on the right, where the party faithful is scrambling to rally behind a conservative foil to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who backs a pathway to citizenship.

"Gov. Walker has shifted his position on immigration too much for me to trust what he has to say at this point in time," said Julie McCarty, a Texas Tea Party activist. While she expressed hope that Walker would come around, and called the border trip a "great start," she said, "Until he's ready to face the truth and talk seriously about immigration, his opinion will fall grossly short."

The tour sets Abbott up in a comfortable spot for 2016: chief ambassador to the border for White House hopefuls. But it also puts him in the spotlight with a likely presidential candidate who is vying for political oxygen with Abbott's protege, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, and Abbott's predecessor, former Gov. Rick Perry.

Both Texans are hoping their border-state experience and high-profile clashes with the federal government will set them apart in a crowded field for the GOP nomination.

"Gov. Perry made border security a top priority, including deploying the Texas National Guard and increasing law enforcement personnel in areas being exploited by criminal activity," Perry spokesman Travis Considine said in a statement. "Gov. Perry believes more leaders should visit the border in Texas to learn first-hand about the challenges our country faces that Washington continues to ignore."

Brandon Scholz, a Madison, Wis., lobbyist and Republican strategist, called the Wisconsin governor's recent remarks on immigration an "expansion of what he's talked about in the past" — not a reversal. The episode shows Walker is open and honest as he forms his positions on issues that a Wisconsin governor would not naturally encounter, Scholz added.

"Now that the governor's on a national stage, there are a lot more issues at play, and there's a lot more scrutiny," Scholz said. "You have to give some people some leeway."

Walker does not appear to be having any problems making inroads in Texas. A February University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll found Walker had eaten away at Cruz's lead among Texas Republicans, statistically tying him for first place among their 2016 presidential picks. And Walker has brought on board Austin fundraiser Susan Lilly to help navigate the state's well-stocked donor community.

On Saturday, Walker is scheduled to headline the Harris County GOP's Lincoln-Reagan Dinner in Houston, a star-studded event unlikely to dim the spotlight on his presidential ambitions.

"I would say on the ground here, we're a year out from the primary election and a lot of candidates are just starting to jump in," said Paul Simpson, chairman of the Harris County Republican Party. "Folks want to hear what he has to say, and we're going to give him a fair hearing."

https://www.texastribune.org/2015/03...immigration-v/

Posted: Friday, March 27, 2015 6:55 pm | Updated: 10:05 pm, Fri Mar 27, 2015.

Associated Press |

WESLACO, Texas (AP) — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker left a tour of the U.S.-Mexico border without addressing questions being raised about his stance on immigration.

The likely Republican presidential contender remained invisible to reporters on Friday during a visit that could have given him a chance to spotlight illegal immigration and border security.

Instead, the two-term governor arrived in Texas after reports that he expressed support for giving immigrants a pathway to citizenship during a recent closed-door meeting. Walker aides dispute those accounts and say he opposes what he calls "amnesty."

New Hampshire GOP chairwoman Jennifer Horn, who organized the meeting, said Walker voiced support for providing a path to legal status but not citizenship.

Walker toured the border with Gov. Greg Abbott.

http://www.lmtonline.com/featured-ap...3091bbebd.html

New Hampshire GOP chairwoman Jennifer Horn, who organized the meeting, said Walker voiced support for providing a path to legal status but not citizenship.

A path to legal status is a path to citizenship, not that it matters. But thanks for the clarification.

I think Walker cooked his goose at that fundraiser. Republicans don't want a path to legal status for illegal aliens, we want them deported. I don't think he'll do very well from here on, and, he has no one to blame but himself.