Posted Nov 29, 2011, 9:36 am
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Gov. Rick Perry, hoping to win back voters who think he's weak on illegal immigration, is promising to detain and deport every illegal border crosser if elected president.
Perry made the remarks right after picking up the endorsement of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
The Texas governor took aim at a "horrific policy" that he says allows non-violent immigrants to be released.
"My policy will be to detain and to deport every illegal alien that we apprehend. That is how we stop that issue,” Perry said. "And we’ll do it with expedited hearings, so that millions of illegal immigrants are not released into the general population until a hearing date’s set several weeks or months later as we see today."
Perry said he was against any type of "amnesty" for illegal immigrants already here, but he held out the possibility that Congress would enact reforms that offered some type of legal status to them.
“We have to identify everybody that’s here, and there’s going to be an appropriate discussion in Congress on how to deal with an individual who has been here maybe for some long period of time," Perry said.
"Amnesty is not on the table period. ... The idea that we’re going to tell people that somehow or another that that’s all forgiven is not going to happen. How we deal with them is a conversation. I don’t know if I know all the answers. I want to talk to the American people,” he said.
Perry found himself on the defensive when retired nurse Alice Bury of Amherst, N.H., asked him about his support for providing in-state college tuition rates for illegal immigrants who do well in high school. Perry told Bury he would not seek to impose that policy on other states.
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And he apologized profusely — again — for suggesting previously that opponents of the policy had no heart.
"I said in a debate something that was very inappropriate and I said people were heartless and that was an absolutely inappropriate thing to say," Perry said. "I understand your concern about the issue of illegal immigration and that was absolutely an incorrect thing for me to say."
Bury said after the event that Perry's support for the policy disappointed her and that she was leaning toward former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich or former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
Arpaio heaped praise on Perry during their joint appearance at Joey's Diner in Amherst.
"One reason I like him (is) because he’s been fighting this battle as the governor. He doesn’t just talk about it," Arpaio said. "He does something about it."
Arpaio was asked if he agreed with Perry's position on in-state tuition. Arpaio said Perry had adequately explained his views, but the sheriff signaled he had a different one.
"My philosophy is that if you are in this country illegally you should be deported," Arpaio said. "I've been keeping that promise and taking a lot of heat for it but I'm not changing. I'm going back to phoenix tomorrow to lock up some more illegal aliens."
He said it made no difference how long immigrants have resided in the United States: "If you're here illegally then you're here illegally," he said.
TucsonSentinel.com's original reporting and curation of border and immigration news is generously supported in part by a grant from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation.
2 comments on this story
I’M SURPRISED THAT THE GOVERNMENT HASN”T GIVEN THESE ILLEGAL FINANCIAL LEECHES THE RIGHT TO VOTE; OR HAVE THEY? DEMOCRATS ESPECIALLY ARE TRYING TO CHANGE THE LAWS, SO YOU DON’T NEED OFFICIAL PICTURE ID TO VOTE. ILLEGAL ALIENS ARE VOTING AND WILL AGAIN.
Illegal Immigration is a conspiracy against the American people; otherwise it would be a straight FELONY, with prison time. All patriotic American should fight for a new law, that convicts these people or we will never be able to relinquish the hold of the $15 Trillion deficit. Why in god’s honest truth should we be forced by federal courts to pay part of our income to subsidize foreign nationals who have no legal right to be here?
The time has come to build the real fence from Texas to California covering the whole 2500 miles with double-layer fencing. It is also the time to contact the Ways and Means Committee responsible for bringing ‘The Legal Workforce Act’, bill H.R.2885 to the House floor in Congress. Only the American voter or legal resident has a say in this urgent matter, which will produce large numbers of jobs STOLEN by the 8.2 illegal workers as estimated to self-deport. The number to call for the Washington political phones is 202-224-3121. The legislators need to listen to the People, instead of misleading us anymore. If you have further questions, go to the NumbersUSA via Google and study the facts of years of the fabrication and idiom we absorb through the Leftist associated newspapers or the politicians.
Learn what is happening around America, that President Obama’s administration doesn’t want you to know or the Leftist Progressive presses at AMERICAN PATROL The latest news is that (65%) or three Quarters of the population in a Rasmussen poll oppose birthright citizenship of 300.000 foothold babies smuggled into America; the costs of hospital, education and a mass of other expenditures falls to taxpayers.
Republican Newt Gingrich will have key tribulations in his electoral race, on a fact that illegal migrants violated the law not once, but in a substantial number of cases—twice over. That is the use of citizens or legal residents ID. Even twenty five years ago, unquestionably you had to possess a driver’s license, Social Security number as you do today. I personally carried my ID, just in case I was stopped by the authorities. Use of fraudulent ID, no matter the situation, specifically if they belong to a deceased person, a new child or as (as I even heard,) stolen from our warrior-soldiers fighting abroad. Hundreds of thousands of American have found out somebody has used their personal identities. But Federal appeals courts have been split over, whether the defendant must know that the phony ID numbers belongs to a real person.
Defense lawyers have argued that their clients should not be charged with stealing another individuals identity since the immigrants only were seeking papers, so they could get a job? The illegal aliens didn’t know if the numbers were fictitious or belonged to someone else, their lawyers say. That is a mindless excuse, as to think illegal aliens are stupid possessing any document to deceive an employer; but then the business owners are well aware of the sham, but hire the discount labor anyway. The Federal appeals courts based in Atlanta and Richmond also have ruled in the administrations favor in comparable cases, while the appeals court in Washington, D.C., sided with defendants. The ruling rejected an significant deterrent for prosecuting and deporting illegal aliens, who have been victimizing innocent Americans by stealing their identities to get jobs in America. Whether they are using someone’s stolen ID or not, they should be deported, whether they have been here one year or twenty five years, they should fingerprinted through ‘Secure Communities’ or through ICE detention. This is why American workers desperately need a Mandatory nationwide E-Verify program.
The American people cannot be apathetic anymore, as it is time to enforce our immigration laws. The E-Verify program that has gained notoriety, but not popular screeching columns of the Liberal press, the special interest lobbyists or radical open border and other so called anomaly organizations. ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IS FREE MONEY AND LARGE PROFITS FOR BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE IN CONGRESS, WHILE AMERICAN LABOR IS STILL TRYING TO FIND SOMEBODY WHO WILL HIRE THEM. ALL I KNOW IS THAT EVERY YEAR THE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS IS RISING FACT, TO FINANCIALLY ACCOMMODATE PEOPLE WHO HAVE NO LEGAL RIGHT TO BE IN THIS SOVEREIGN COUNTRY. ONE OF THE ABSURD BUT OUTRAGEOUS CIRCUMSTANCES FROM THIS IMPASSE IS THEY PROTEST IN THE STREETS DEMANDING EQUAL RIGHTS TO CITIZENS AND NATURALIZED CITIZENS.