Thread: Texas governor not buying Bush's guest worker plan

http://www.sltrib.com/nationworld/ci_3133901


Texas governor not buying Bush's guest worker plan
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

WASHINGTON - President Bush's renewed push for an immigrant guest worker program drew a skeptical response from the leader of his home state Wednesday as Texas Gov. Rick Perry called on the federal government to first secure the porous U.S.-Mexican border before enacting the guest worker plan.
''Until the U.S.-Mexican border is secured to the point that we have substantially stopped the illegal trafficking of people and narcotics and terror, any discussion about a guest worker program is premature,'' Perry, normally a staunch Bush ally, said before returning to Texas after a two-day trip to Washington.
Perry also said he wants the federal government to declare the 2,000-mile border stretching from Texas to California a ''high-risk threat area'' to enable it to qualify for additional law enforcement money from the Homeland Security Department.
Perry joined fellow Republican Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida and Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona in testifying before the House Committee on Homeland Security. The hearing was held to examine disaster relief, but Perry and Napolitano also used the forum to vent their frustration with illegal immigration along the Southwest border.
''This is a huge problem, and it needs to be dealt with,'' Perry said, warning of ''another terrorist attack'' as a result of inadequate enforcement. Perry cited dramatic increases in illegal immigration from countries other than Mexico, including areas sympathetic to terrorist groups.

I'm starting to like this Perry guy a little bit. Maybe he's not the Bushbot I previously pegged him to be.