RiNO SEASON:

Rick Perry's immigration 'Achilles heel' (Brianna Lee, September 1, 2011 , PBS)

Rick Perry is leading the pack in the quest for the Republican nomination for the 2012 presidential race - but his record on immigration, largely considered the Texas governor's "Achilles heel" among the conservative base, will be a prime target for scrutiny as the race pushes forward.

Despite Perry being one of the most conservative candidates in the field of Republican contenders, his stance on immigration has been notably divergent from the conservative orthodoxy. At Mother Jones, Josh Harkinson sums up the ways that Perry has balanced the immigration issue in a state with booming numbers of both Latino-Americans and Tea Party members:

Texas is not a national outlier on immigration policies so much as a brutal testing ground. Here, exit polls in 2010 showed a higher tea party affiliation than anywhere in the country, and yet the low-wage economy--the bedrock of the so-called 'Texas Miracle' -- depends on a steady influx of workers from south of the border. Perry's approach has been a shrewd blend of satisfying the tea party base by trumpeting the need to secure the border (which is a federal responsibility, not to mention pretty much impossible) while protecting his corporate donors from liability stemming from hiring undocumented workers.

In terms of policy, Perry's relatively moderate record on immigration is an easy one for staunch conservatives to criticize. The governor has called the notion of a border fence between the U.S. and Mexico "ridiculous," and he supported the Texas state DREAM Act - a law granting qualified undocumented students in-state tuition for college - in 2001, long before similar state laws were enacted in more than a dozen states across the U.S. Perry also opposed a mandate that would require employers to use a federal system called e-Verify to check the immigration status of all prospective employees, and has supported a guest worker program in the state. Additionally, after the passage of SB 1070 in Arizona, largely considered one of the strictest immigration laws in the country, Perry declared then that he would not seek to pass similar legislation in Texas despite a flurry of similar bills cropping up in other states.

It's not an Achilles heel, he's a Trojan Horse.

MORE:
Prominent Republicans distance themselves from anti-Islam rhetoric (Sal Gentile, August 16, 2011, PBS)

Not all Republicans, however, have embraced the anti-Islam rhetoric that has colored the GOP primary. Last week, for example, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, seen as a leading contender for president in either 2012 or 2016, offered a forceful and widely praised defense of a Muslim judge, Sohail Mohammed, whom he had appointed to a state judicial post. "The folks who criticize my appointment of Sohail Mohammed are ignorant," Christie said. "They're criticizing him because he's a Muslim-American." Of the anti-Shariah movement, Christie added: "This Shariah law business is crap. It's just crazy. And I'm tired of dealing with the crazies."

Now there may be another prominent Republican politician entering the national fray who has close ties to the Muslim-American community in his state: Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who declared his intention to run for president this weekend. Perry has instantly become a front-runner for the GOP nomination, along with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. He's a swaggering, self-identified Southern evangelical conservative who has held "prayer rallies" in his state and urged all Americans to pray to Jesus Christ. And yet, as Salon has reported, Perry has also cultivated an intimate friendship with the Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of a sect of Shia Muslims known as the Ismailis. The relationship has produced not only mutual praise but a pair of Islam-friendly programs in Texas, such as an initiative to train high school teachers in Muslim history and culture.

The executive director of the Council on Islamic American Relations in Houston told the Houston Chronicle recently that Perry has, in fact, won the favor of many conservative Muslims: "The Muslim community has a significant number of political conservatives, and they do support Perry," Mustafaa Carroll told the paper. Another Muslim activist said that while some states were criminalizing the use of Shariah law in American courts, Perry had largely ignored the issue: "He just never came down on it," Mohamed Elibiary told the Chronicle.

Posted by oj at September 3, 2011 7:52 AM
Tweet   

Follow @brothersjudd