Thread: Rick Perry now represents illegals, not Texans.

Perry sticks by immigrants' tuition breaks

Web Posted: 01/12/2007 01:31 AM CST

Clay Robison
Express-News Austin Bureau

AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday he'll oppose efforts to repeal a law, which he signed six years ago, giving tuition breaks to undocumented immigrants attending state universities.
"I'm for leaving the law like it is because I think it serves a good purpose," he said.


Express-News Multimedia

(Tom Reel/Express-News)

Gov. Rick Perry, inside his office, says he and the media have failed to educate the public adequately about the tuition law.


The governor also said he's willing to consider legislation to expand the death penalty to repeat child molesters, even if the victim isn't killed, but stopped short of endorsing the proposal.

"Let's have the debate and see how they do it," he told the San Antonio Express-News.

Perry said he and the media may have failed to educate the public adequately about the tuition law, which has drawn fire during the ongoing debate over illegal immigration.

State legislators have filed at least four bills to repeal the measure, which grants lower, in-state tuition to the children of immigrants who've lived in Texas at least three years, have graduated from a Texas high school and plan to become citizens.

Opponents say it's unfair to give the financial break to undocumented immigrants when many U.S. citizens who are non-Texas residents have to pay more to attend college here. Supporters say it helps immigrants become productive citizens.

"The only way that you can be eligible for that in-state tuition is if you are in the process of getting your citizenship. If you're not in the queue, working towards getting your citizenship, you're not eligible for it," Perry said. "I think that's been highly overlooked in this debate."

Under the law, students don't have to actually have applied for citizenship — they only have to promise they will.

On other immigration-related issues, Perry repeated his vow to seek $100 million to strengthen security along the border, urged the federal government to enact a guest worker program and said he opposes legislation to remove citizenship rights from the Texas-born children of undocumented immigrants.

"First and foremost, it (the birthright proposal) is unconstitutional," he said.

The governor said Washington's failure to enact a satisfactory immigration policy is to blame for a wave of inflammatory and anti-immigration initiatives, including the city of Farmers Branch's attempted crackdown on apartment landlords who rent to undocumented migrants.

"My hope is this new Congress will take seriously its duty of securing our border with Mexico and creating a guest worker program where we identify individuals who want to come to America, work, help take care of their families (and) help strengthen our economy," he said.

Perry predicted state laws against predators who attack children will be strengthened. Sexual assaults that result in death already can be prosecuted as capital crimes in a state that leads the nation in executions.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and some other lawmakers want to make repeat attackers of children eligible for the death penalty even if the victims don't die.

"There are some clear concerns that individuals that do harm to our children, in particular sexual predators, cannot be rehabilitated, and there are only two appropriate ways of meting out that justice," Perry said.

"One is keeping them in prison for the rest of their lives, and the other one is the death penalty. And I think those are legitimate options."

On another issue, Perry said he will seek emergency legislative approval of a constitutional amendment to provide property tax relief for seniors, similar to what other homeowners were provided in a tax tradeoff approved by lawmakers last spring.

The earlier tax swap — enacted to comply with a court order for changes in the school finance system — included phased-in reductions in school operating taxes. Many homeowners, however, found their first round of cuts all but wiped out by rising property values.

Homeowners older than 65 whose tax rates already were frozen didn't get additional relief because the change would have required a constitutional amendment, which Perry and legislative leaders feared would have taken too much time during the special session.

Now, Perry proposes that such an amendment be approved for Texans to vote on in May.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/ ... 6097d.html

"Supporters say it helps immigrants become productive citizens."

Actually, assimilating into our society and acting like US citizens AND not abusing our ridiculous entitlement programs, THAT'S how you become not only a more productive citizen, but a more productive human being!!!

It's giving illegal aliens special privileges over Out of State Americans.

You can't draw the best of the best from across America to your universities if you are making them pay more than the illegal aliens.

What a disgrace the Texas education system as become and I blame a lot of that on the illegal aliens in our education system. Dummy down the standardized aptitude test to accommodate children that can't even speak English. RRRRRRRRRRRR Thanks George and Tricky Rick.

Dixie

What about students that come here from countries other than Mexico (yes they DO exist!) The ones that actually have legal paperwork? I'll bet they pay out of state tutition. It seems like Mr. Perry likes to penalize legal, law abiding students but give all the breaks to the illegals!

http://www.governor.state.tx.us/contact



i dont get this though, if you want to email, your comments must be less than 200 words. that is so crazy. how can anyone voice their displeasure in less than 200 words to a governor who had only 38 percent of the vote?????