Perry takes heat in debate over his immigration policies

By Thomas Fitzgerald

Inquirer Politics Writer

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ORLANDO, Fla. - Texas Gov. Rick Perry came under fire on his immigration record during a televised Republican presidential debate Thursday for opposing a fence along the Mexico border and for allowing the children of undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates at Texas universities.


Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said that policy amounted to a $100,000 discount not available to citizens from 49 other states to go to the prestigious University of Texas at Austin. "We have to turn off the magnet of extraordinary government benefits," Romney said.

"If you say that we should not educate children that have come into our state for no other reason than they were brought here through no fault of their own, I don't think you have a heart," Perry said of his critics. He said the goal is to keep them from being a "drag" on society.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said Perry was "soft on illegal immigration," adding that no one is suggesting children of undocumented immigrants should not be able to attend U.S. colleges. The issue, Santorum said, is "why should they be given preferential treatment as an illegal in this country?"

In the days before the debate, Perry and Romney tore into each other, with Romney portraying Perry as an unelectable extremist on Social Security and Perry calling Romney "Obama light" and suggesting he might not be a real Republican.

The squabbling indicated the growing heat between the two leading candidates for the GOP nomination.

For the third time in a row, Romney criticized Perry for writing in his book that Social Security is unconstitutional and a matter for states.

Perry said Romney was misleading voters and he had never suggested that Social Security should be left to the states and that people who rely on the program now should know it will be there.

"There's a Rick Perry out there saying that the federal government shouldn't be in the pension business and that Social Security is unconstitutional, so you better find that Rick Perry and get him to stop saying that," Romney said. "We have to make it very, very clear that Social Security is a responsibility of the federal government."

Perry accused Romney of backing away from his health plan in Massachusetts, which requires people to buy policies, by removing favorable mentions of it between editions of his book. Romney denied Perry's allegation, saying: "I actually wrote my book, and in my book I said no such thing."

Perry, who has surged into the front of the GOP race in most polls, was expected to come out swinging after two sometimes-shaky performances in which he was the self-described "piñata" for most of his rivals. He was forced to defend his descriptions of Social Security as an unconstitutional "Ponzi scheme" and an executive order requiring middle-school girls to be vaccinated against the sexually transmitted HPV virus, which causes cervical cancer.

The two-hour debate, the second in Florida in as many weeks, was broadcast on Fox News, which sponsored the event along with Google and the state Republican Party. A crowd of 5,500 watched at the Orange County Convention Center.

It kicked off a span of intense campaign activity, with the Conservative Political Action Conference meeting here Friday, followed by a presidential straw poll Saturday run by the Florida GOP, with 3,500 delegates from every corner of the state.

Florida, a critical battleground state in presidential elections, may also play a key role in the GOP primaries.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday found that, by 57 percent to 39 percent, voters disapprove of the job President Obama is doing, the worst score in any of the university's state polls. In hypothetical 2012 matchups, Romney was leading the president 47 to 40 percent, while Obama was locked in a dead heat with Perry, 44 percent to 42 percent.

The poll also suggested that Perry's hard line on Social Security may not be an insurmountable liability in the primary in Florida, with a slight majority of Republicans, 52 percent, agreeing it is "fair" to describe the program as a Ponzi scheme. But 58 percent of voters overall disagreed with the characterization.

Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota hoped to use the debate to stop the runaway Perry from cornering the market on the conservative vote. The momentum she got from winning the Ames, Iowa, straw poll last month has dissipated, with a USA Today/Gallup survey released Monday finding showing Perry leading nationally with 31 percent of the GOP vote, and Bachmann at 5 percent.

She had a hard time breaking through the back-and-forth of the front-runners at times, but argued that conservative Republicans should vote for a pure conservative like her. "Every four years conservatives are told we have to settle - and this time it's 'Anybody but Obama,' " Bachmann said. "We need to choose a candidate who represents conservative constitutional principles."

Bachmann has begun running an Iowa-centric campaign, on the theory that her best chance of surviving to later rounds is to win the state's first-in-the-nation GOP caucuses, where religious and social conservatives are strong.

Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, a libertarian who favors the legalization of marijuana, joined the brawl Thursday after being excluded from every debate since the first one in May.

He provided competition for libertarian lion Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who shares Johnson's opposition to foreign involvement, the federal war on drugs and government regulation.

Paul said that he would veto "every single bill" that violates the 10th Amendment, which reserves powers not spelled out in the Constitution as federal to the states. "There is no authority . . . to do much of what we're doing."

Also joining the debate: Georgia businessman Herman Cain, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman.

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