7 questions about immigration crisis

Washington (CNN) — More money. More National Guard troops at the border. More children deported.

A slew of possible solutions for the immigration crisis at the southern border emerged this week as President Barack Obama visited Texas.

Despite the plentiful demands and proposals, a clear path forward for Obama and Congress remained uncertain in the hyper-partisan environment of an election year.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of children from Central America who illegally entered the United States in recent months still wait in an overwhelmed immigration system, some in overcrowded holding facilities in the Lone Star State and elsewhere.

The White House calls it an “urgent” humanitarian issue involving kids fleeing dire conditions in their home countries, while Republicans complain Obama invited it by halting deportations of some minors to create incentive for more to come.

Now, they say, he wants to exploit it to push for immigration reforms they oppose.

Boehner: Obama to blame for border crisis

Gov. Perry: Secure that border, Obama

Obama: We can solve immigration crisis

Here are five questions about what happens now:

1) What did Obama’s meeting with Texas Gov. Rick Perry accomplish?

A shared helicopter ride rarely garnered so much attention.

Obama and Perry, who hopes to burnish his national image after a disastrous bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, talked on the chopper from Fort Worth to Dallas on Wednesday. The President was in Texas for fund-raising events and talks with local figures on the immigration problem.

Afterward, both sides called the meeting respectful and noted some common ground. But Perry also urged Obama to send 1,000 more National Guard troops to the border area and take other steps to boost security.

In the end, a meeting that almost didn’t happen amounted to a public display of engagement with little impact.

Perry initially rejected an airport greeting with Obama, saying he wanted substantive talks. He relented when the President invited him to the meeting with local officials and others as well as the helicopter ride to get there.

Texas governor lashes out at Obama over immigration crisis

2) Will more National Guard troops help?

Not really.

The Obama administration points to previous increases in border security resources, and as the President noted after meeting with Perry, the flood of unaccompanied minors crossing the border — 57,000 in the past nine months — has little to do with evasion.

In fact, the youngsters seek out the border patrol to get into U.S. custody, believing it means a high likelihood they’ll end up living with relatives or family friends in America.

However, tougher border security has been a Republican immigration demand for years, and the current problem gives them another chance to appeal to their conservative base by demanding the deployment of more forces.

3) What about the $3.7 billion in emergency money Obama seeks?

The funding request announced Tuesday would bolster a range of federal efforts to deal with the immigration influx.

It seeks $1.6 billion to strengthen customs and border efforts as well as crack down on smugglers bringing the youngsters from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador across Mexico to the United States.

Another $300 million would go to help those countries counter claims by the smugglers to desperate parents that U.S. officials won’t send their children back.

“While we intend to do the right thing by these children, their parents need to know that this is an incredibly dangerous situation and it is unlikely that their children will be able to stay,” Obama said Wednesday.

The request also includes $1.8 billion to provide care for the unaccompanied children while in U.S. custody.

In total, it costs just over 10% of the $30 billion in proposed border security funding included in the immigration reform bill passed by the Senate but stalled in the Republican-controlled House.

Obama again criticized House GOP leaders for refusing to bring up the immigration legislation and he called for speedy approval of his emergency funding request.

“Are folks more interested in politics, or are they more interested in solving the problem?” he said.

House Republicans made clear they would take their time scrutinizing it.

House Speaker John Boehner, who also calls for more National Guard troops at the border, created a Republican working group to examine Obama’s emergency funding request and report back on Tuesday.

“If you look at the President’s request, it’s all more about continuing to deal with the problem. We’ve got to do something about sealing the border and ending this problem so that we can begin to move onto the bigger questions of immigration reform,” Boehner said.

While unclear how much of Obama’s proposal would survive in Congress, Boehner said he wanted the House to take some action on immigration before it leaves for a month-long recess in August.

Obama seeks emergency immigration funds, more authority

4) What about the 2008 law that requires deportation hearings for these kids?

The William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, signed by GOP President George W. Bush in the final month of his administration, distinguishes between undocumented minors from bordering countries — Mexico and Canada — and those from others that aren’t contiguous.

In essence, the difference involves turning back children who lack valid immigration status at the border because they would still be in their home country, versus holding a deportation hearing for those from non-bordering countries.

Republicans and some Democrats say such due process now clogs up the system when Central American minors are arriving at double the rate of the previous year.

Conservative GOP Sen. John Cornyn and Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, both of Texas, planned to introduce a proposal Thursday they say would make it easier to send back many of the child immigrants while ensuring that those with legitimate refugee or migration claims get a hearing.

Most Democrats, including leaders in the House and Senate, oppose such a change and instead call for more judges and other immigration resources to speed up the processing under existing law.

5) What’s this talk about enhanced powers for the homeland security secretary?

Rather than change the law, Obama and Democrats seek to give Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson more authority to speed up deportations once a judge orders the removal of an undocumented minor.

Specifics of such enhanced authority remain vague, but the result would be eliminating red tape in the final steps of the deportation process.

Democrats prefer this approach over the changes sought by Republicans in the 2008 law, but it would likely amount to more of an immediate step to address the current problem rather than any significant long-term change.

6) Can anything get done with the House up for re-election?

With Congress already in a state of virtual dysfunction, the chances for significant immigration legislation this year appear minimal.

However, the immigrant influx gives both parties new fodder to make their arguments to their respective bases.

In addition, moderate Republicans concerned over their party getting blamed for inaction want to see something happen so they can show some results to the important Hispanic-American demographic — the nation’s largest minority.

That’s why Boehner wants to get even a minor immigration measure passed this month, before House Republicans go home to face constituents in the campaign for the November election.

For Obama and Democrats, the debate lets them continue hammering Republicans for blocking the Senate immigration reform plan that includes a path to legal status for millions of people who came to America illegally.

Conservatives shaping the Republican agenda consider the Senate measure an amnesty for lawbreakers, while Democrats say it provides a fair opportunity for undocumented immigrants to formally join the system they already embraced.

In the end, the fight is about who gets credit for reforms that all agree are necessary, even if they don’t agree on exactly how to proceed.

Boehner expressed his frustration with the gridlock over immigration on Thursday, telling reporters that Obama’s lack of leadership caused the influx of child immigrants.

“He’s been president for five-and-a-half years,” Boehner thundered. “When’s he going to take responsibility for something?”

7) Will he or won’t he?

For now, the bigger question is whether Obama will travel to the Texas border region at the epicenter of the immigration influx.

He didn’t do so this week while in the state, prompting criticism from Perry and other Republicans.

“The American people expect to see their President when there is a disaster,” Perry told CNN’s Kate Bolduan in an interview that aired Thursday, citing Obama’s trip to the East Coast to tour damage caused by Superstorm Sandy in 2012. “He showed up at Sandy. Why not Texas?”

Obama, however, said Wednesday that visiting facilities where the children are processed and detained would be little more than a photo opportunity.

“There’s nothing that is taking place down there that I am not intimately aware of and briefed on. This isn’t theater. This is a problem,” the President said.

Cuellar, the Democratic congressman from Texas, responded that Obama needed to witness what the children endured. He told CNN’s “New Day” of an 11-year-old boy from Guatemala who died of dehydration after crossing the U.S. border.

“That is the face that I want him to see,” Cuellar said. “Don’t take any cameras, Mr. President, but go down there and see what we’re facing.”

Opinion: What Obama could learn on the border

Distrust of Obama makes border fix harder

CNN’s Paul Courson, Deirdre Walsh, Ed Payne, Dana Ford and Ted Barrett contributed to this report


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Obama's No-Win Immigration Predicament

President Obama, accompanied by Vice President Biden in the White House Rose Garden, lashed out at House Republicans for stalling immigration legislation.i i

hide captionPresident Obama, accompanied by Vice President Biden in the White House Rose Garden, lashed out at House Republicans for stalling immigration legislation.


Charles Dharapak/AP

President Obama, accompanied by Vice President Biden in the White House Rose Garden, lashed out at House Republicans for stalling immigration legislation.

President Obama, accompanied by Vice President Biden in the White House Rose Garden, lashed out at House Republicans for stalling immigration legislation.

Charles Dharapak/AP

President Obama’s tough predicament on immigration is only getting worse.

He certainly didn’t want to be dealing with an influx of unaccompanied minors illegally entering the U.S. across the Southern border, overwhelming the Homeland Security Department’s ability to deal with them during a critical midterm election year.

Obama also presumably didn’t want an immigration bill passed by the Senate a year ago to sit, forsaken, in the House. But that’s happened too, with Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, recently telling the president the Republican-controlled House won’t take up legislation to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws this year.

Responding to the first problem, the children who are illegally crossing into the U.S. and mainly coming from Central America, Obama announced Monday that he will be seeking more resources to address that influx while shifting current resources to the border — an announcement that not only failed to placate anyone but served to upset immigration advocates.

In a letter to Congress, Obama said he will be asking for additional resources — more than $2 billion, according to reports — to help manage what he called a “humanitarian crisis” at the border.

Besides facilitating the surge of more immigration judges, asylum officers and Immigration and Customs Enforcement lawyers to the Southern border to deal with the influx, the president was also asking Congress to extend extra authority to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson that would allow him to use more discretion in returning minors to their home countries.

That would sidestep safeguards Congress placed in law to give children more protection than adults because of their greater vulnerability to human trafficking — a result that angered and surprised immigration advocates.

“I was actually stunned,” Kevin Appleby, director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ office of migration policy and public affairs, told It’s All Politics.

“I think they’ve been trying to beat back their critics on their harsh enforcement record over the last year or so,” he said, referring to the administration’s aggressiveness in the use of deportations, which has been sharply criticized by immigration advocates and Latino groups. “To double down on that at this point surprised me.”

Appleby attended a White House meeting on immigration last week and said administration officials didn’t mention that they planned to request more money or reverse the protections in the law for child immigrants.

What’s more, Appleby said, because many of the children are fleeing violence in their Central American homelands, they are more refugees than immigrants.

“The administration’s move has sparked outrage among advocates for children and refugees and immigrant rights advocates and for good reason,” said Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, in a Monday teleconference with reporters. “If Congress authorizes this request, the Obama administration will be shuttling children right back to the dangerous situations they escaped without allowing them the opportunity to fully present their cases in court.”

Obama’s frustration was clear Monday in a White House Rose Garden statement that the GOP’s refusal to even take up immigration legislation left him no alternative other than to use the type of executive action they criticize as usurping congressional authority to try to address some of the border problems.

“If House Republicans are really concerned about me taking too many executive actions, the best solution to that is passing bills. Pass a bill,” Obama said. “Solve a problem. Don’t just say ‘no’ on something that everybody agrees needs to be done.”

Obama said he asked Attorney General Eric Holder and Johnson to review actions he could take on immigration without Congress and he promised to approve them this summer, seemingly even before knowing exactly what the members of his Cabinet would recommend.

For Obama and congressional Democrats — given the vow he made to Latino voters that fixing the nation’s broken immigration system would be a second-term priority — his promise of executive action beat doing nothing. And doing nothing would risk alienating a significant part of his base as Democrats try to hang on to their small majority in the Senate.

Boehner responded in a statement that the president was to blame for the impasse, saying that House Republicans don’t trust that the president would faithfully execute new immigration laws if they passed and he signed them.

“In our conversation last week, I told the president what I have been telling him for months: The American people and their elected officials don’t trust him to enforce the law as written,” Boehner said in a statement. “Until that changes, it is going to be difficult to make progress on this issue. The crisis at our southern border reminds us all of the critical importance of fixing our broken immigration system. It is sad and disappointing that — faced with this challenge — President Obama won’t work with us, but is instead intent on going it alone with executive orders that can’t and won’t fix these problems.”

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On Immigration, Obama Goes It Alone

With immigration reform dead on Capitol Hill, President Obama says he will use his executive authority to make changes to the law himself. “I’m beginning a new effort to fix as much of our immigration system as I can on my own,” Obama said in June. “If Congress will not do their job, at least we can do ours.”

How much can he do without congressional approval? Actually, quite a bit. The president has the power to grant many of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the U.S. relief from deportation simply by instructing the Department of Homeland Security not to pursue their cases. In 2012, after Congress repeatedly declined to pass the Dream Act, which would have offered citizenship to immigrants whose parents brought them to the U.S. illegally as children, Obama said he would offer the immigrants “deferred action”—essentially a two-year stay on deportation proceedings. More than 550,000 people have qualified.

The National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic civil rights group, the AFL-CIO, and other immigrant advocates have urged the White House to extend deferred action—which can include authorization to work in the U.S.—to anyone who would have qualified for the “pathway to citizenship” under the terms of the immigration reform bill passed by the Senate last year. That program would have covered people who’ve been in the U.S. since 2011 and don’t have serious criminal records, which accounts for about two-thirds of all undocumented immigrants. “These are people that we know are going to eventually be legalized by Congress,” says Marshall Fitz, director of immigration policy for the liberal Center for American Progress, who adds that polls show a majority of Americans support the Senate bill.

What Obama can’t do is declare an amnesty. “The president cannot give people green cards—you know, lawful permanent resident status,” says Hiroshi Motomura, a UCLA law professor. “This is all temporary reprieve.” The president can make changes to the way immigration laws are enforced. Liberal groups are pressing for an end to federal immigration enforcement programs like Secure Communities, under which local police share the fingerprints of people they arrest with federal immigration authorities. Civil liberties advocates say such initiatives violate privacy laws and that some U.S. citizens have been mistakenly held as undocumented immigrants. Because the rules were created by Homeland Security and not Congress, “there would be no question that the president could suspend or terminate that program,” says Yale Law School professor Michael Wishnie.

Beyond these steps, the president begins to bump up against the limits of his power. Obama says he wants to redeploy federal immigration enforcement agents to the Mexican border. That’s something he can do within the confines of existing law, but he needs Congress to agree to pay for it. On July 8 the White House requested $3.7 billion in emergency appropriations for additional surveillance, detention, and services for migrants, and to hire more immigration court judges to expedite deportations, particularly of unaccompanied children arriving from Central America. House Republicans were quick to counter with threats to reject the special requests—and withhold money for federal agencies next year if the president moves ahead without their approval. “There’s always appropriations tools where you can direct and deny funding,” says Republican Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma, a deputy majority whip. “There’s abundant weapons there.”

Obama has said he’ll announce his next steps by the end of the summer. With the midterm elections approaching and the Democrats’ Senate majority at risk, the question is how far he’s prepared to go. “As a legal matter, his discretion is really broad,” says Motomura. “As a political matter, I think it’s much more constrained.”

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Is immigration Perry's second act?

(CNN) — Two years removed from his disastrous 2012 presidential bid, Rick Perry is fully recovered from back surgery, sporting new glasses, reengaging with the Republican conservative base, and showing signs that he’s considering another run for the White House.

Immigration policy helped sink the Texas governor’s previous bid, but it has now put him back in the spotlight. He met on Wednesday with President Barack Obama, who’s under fire over the surge of undocumented minors on the southern border.

Obama accepted Perry’s offer for a sit-down following a sharp exchange with the White House. Last week, White House spokesman Josh Earnest mocked his message on immigration, saying “the truth is it’s hard to take seriously Governor Perry’s concerns.”

Perry points to his state’s long border with Mexico as ground zero for the crush of mostly children entering the United States illegally.

Texas judge to Congress: Do your job

Obama agrees to meet with Gov. Perry

Teen: I came to U.S. to escape gangs

Immigration in 75 seconds

“My message to President Obama is to secure this border, Mr. President. Finally address this issue and secure this border,” Perry said last week at a congressional hearing near the border in McAllen, Texas.

But he may have disappointed fellow conservatives when he said that he was “tired of pointing fingers and blaming people.” He added, “I hope what we can do is come up with some solutions here.”

Perry used more muscular language days later when he said, “this is a failure of diplomacy. It is a failure of leadership from the administration in Washington, D.C.”

Jeff Miller, a senior Perry political adviser, told CNN that Perry “is not saying anything different than what he’s being advocating since 2010 — that ‘we’ve got to secure this border. There’s a crisis going on.’”

Obama wants $3.7 billion for immigration crisis

But Miller said the current crisis is giving Perry a larger platform.

“Right now, because of the huge influx of these children crossing the border from Mexico, the media’s paying more attention and more of the public is seeing the crisis the governor has been dealing with for years. Not a lot has changed, but now more people are listening to what the governor’s saying,” Miller said.

Immigration helped sink Perry in 2012

While a real front-burner issue in his state, Perry is also seeing political stars align. Immigration was the issue that damaged him more than any other when he ran for president last time, people close to him say.

Perry to Obama: visit the border

Gov. Perry: Immigrants told what to say

Gov. Perry on controversial gay comments

Perry launched his presidential campaign in August 2011, months after former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and the rest of the field of candidates had jumped in.

Perry entered with lots of buzz and armed with big bucks and big name backers, and he quickly soared in national polls. But good times were fleeting, as Perry soon ran headfirst into Romney on illegal immigration.

In a debate a month later, Perry defended his support for government-funded tuition at state schools for undocumented immigrants. He argued that if you didn’t support such a move, “I don’t think you have a heart.”

But some of his Republican rivals considered that soft.

“Governor Perry, you say you have got the experience. It’s a bit like saying that, you know, the college coach that has lost 40 games in a row has the experience to go to the NFL,” said Romney at another debate.

Rick Perry’s busy summer

“The truth is, California — I’ll say it again, California and Florida have both had no increase in illegal immigration and yours is up 60 percent.” Romney added.

Sources close to Perry tell CNN they believe that moment did more to hurt Perry with GOP primary voters than any other.

Still, Perry suffered a more memorable blow with an epic gaffe in a November 2011 debate, when he forgot the third of three federal government departments that he had said he would eliminate.

Perry’s campaign limped on, but he called it quits after a disappointing fourth in the Iowa caucuses and fifth in the New Hampshire primary.

Political resurrection?

Fast forward two years.

Perry decides not to run for re-election and is again making his pitch to conservative voters.

Strickland on immigration: ‘We’ve got a crisis’

Congress spars over immigration

Who’s to blame for immigration crisis?

Dems face immigration dilemma

“I have a simple suggestion — It is time for a little rebellion on the battlefield of ideas,” Perry told the base at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference.

And Perry’s summer travel plans hint toward a 2016 bid.

He recently made his third trip over the past year to South Carolina — the state the holds the first southern primary. The visit to the Palmetto State precedes upcoming stops this summer in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Perry even hosted a group of more than a dozen key New Hampshire Republicans at the Governor’s Mansion in Austin a few weeks ago to wine and dine them, CNN is told.

When he goes to the Granite State next month, it will be his first trip there since 2012, when he failed to make much of an impression at all on voters there.

A veteran New Hampshire Republican ally setting up New Hampshire meetings tells CNN they are consciously doing things differently this time. They’re opting for a manner more conducive to the way New Hampshire voters like to be approached, in a series of small, intimate meetings.

But the tactical shortcomings from 2012 is not the only thing he’s trying to improve ahead of another possible candidacy — it’s also his readiness on a policy level.

Perry urges Congress, Obama to work together on border security

Perry sources admit that he simply wasn’t up to speed on many of the key issues that confront a candidate, never mind a president.

To overcome that, he now has multiple policy briefings a week, every week on issues ranging from economic policy, to education, to the environment to national security.

One source tells CNN that if he is traveling and there is a think tank nearby, he will make a point of stopping for a briefing from experts.

Perry has also been trying to do more international travel, attending the highbrow annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, going to Israel, and planning a trip later this year to China.

But it’s firestorm over immigration that may give Perry his biggest opportunity for political resurrection.

Miller downplayed any impact from the current immigration crisis on a potential 2016 bid, saying “to me these are two completely separate issues.”

But GOP analyst Ana Navarro, a CNN contributor who’s close to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, another possible 2016 GOP presidential contender, said “Perry embodies an interesting dynamic regarding immigration.

“He’s a border enforcement guy with the experience of being a border state governor, but he’s also shown compassion towards the human angle of the immigration debate,” she said.

Navarro added that “If he can somehow walk that tight rope, and be eloquent as to how he defends his position, it can show him as a pragmatist and be helpful.”

Reality check: 5 things you need to know about immigration crisis

What Obama can and can’t do on immigration

CNN Films: Undocumented


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Is immigration Perry's second act?
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Is immigration Perry's second act?

(CNN) — Two years removed from his disastrous 2012 presidential bid, Rick Perry is fully recovered from back surgery, sporting new glasses, reengaging with the Republican conservative base, and showing signs that he’s considering another run for the White House.

Immigration policy helped sink the Texas governor’s previous bid, but it has now put him back in the spotlight. He met on Wednesday with President Barack Obama, who’s under fire over the surge of undocumented minors on the southern border.

Obama accepted Perry’s offer for a sit-down following a sharp exchange with the White House. Last week, White House spokesman Josh Earnest mocked his message on immigration, saying “the truth is it’s hard to take seriously Governor Perry’s concerns.”

Perry points to his state’s long border with Mexico as ground zero for the crush of mostly children entering the United States illegally.

Texas judge to Congress: Do your job

Obama agrees to meet with Gov. Perry

Teen: I came to U.S. to escape gangs

Immigration in 75 seconds

“My message to President Obama is to secure this border, Mr. President. Finally address this issue and secure this border,” Perry said last week at a congressional hearing near the border in McAllen, Texas.

But he may have disappointed fellow conservatives when he said that he was “tired of pointing fingers and blaming people.” He added, “I hope what we can do is come up with some solutions here.”

Perry used more muscular language days later when he said, “this is a failure of diplomacy. It is a failure of leadership from the administration in Washington, D.C.”

Jeff Miller, a senior Perry political adviser, told CNN that Perry “is not saying anything different than what he’s being advocating since 2010 — that ‘we’ve got to secure this border. There’s a crisis going on.’”

Obama wants $3.7 billion for immigration crisis

But Miller said the current crisis is giving Perry a larger platform.

“Right now, because of the huge influx of these children crossing the border from Mexico, the media’s paying more attention and more of the public is seeing the crisis the governor has been dealing with for years. Not a lot has changed, but now more people are listening to what the governor’s saying,” Miller said.

Immigration helped sink Perry in 2012

While a real front-burner issue in his state, Perry is also seeing political stars align. Immigration was the issue that damaged him more than any other when he ran for president last time, people close to him say.

Perry to Obama: visit the border

Gov. Perry: Immigrants told what to say

Gov. Perry on controversial gay comments

Perry launched his presidential campaign in August 2011, months after former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and the rest of the field of candidates had jumped in.

Perry entered with lots of buzz and armed with big bucks and big name backers, and he quickly soared in national polls. But good times were fleeting, as Perry soon ran headfirst into Romney on illegal immigration.

In a debate a month later, Perry defended his support for government-funded tuition at state schools for undocumented immigrants. He argued that if you didn’t support such a move, “I don’t think you have a heart.”

But some of his Republican rivals considered that soft.

“Governor Perry, you say you have got the experience. It’s a bit like saying that, you know, the college coach that has lost 40 games in a row has the experience to go to the NFL,” said Romney at another debate.

Rick Perry’s busy summer

“The truth is, California — I’ll say it again, California and Florida have both had no increase in illegal immigration and yours is up 60 percent.” Romney added.

Sources close to Perry tell CNN they believe that moment did more to hurt Perry with GOP primary voters than any other.

Still, Perry suffered a more memorable blow with an epic gaffe in a November 2011 debate, when he forgot the third of three federal government departments that he had said he would eliminate.

Perry’s campaign limped on, but he called it quits after a disappointing fourth in the Iowa caucuses and fifth in the New Hampshire primary.

Political resurrection?

Fast forward two years.

Perry decides not to run for re-election and is again making his pitch to conservative voters.

Strickland on immigration: ‘We’ve got a crisis’

Congress spars over immigration

Who’s to blame for immigration crisis?

Dems face immigration dilemma

“I have a simple suggestion — It is time for a little rebellion on the battlefield of ideas,” Perry told the base at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference.

And Perry’s summer travel plans hint toward a 2016 bid.

He recently made his third trip over the past year to South Carolina — the state the holds the first southern primary. The visit to the Palmetto State precedes upcoming stops this summer in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Perry even hosted a group of more than a dozen key New Hampshire Republicans at the Governor’s Mansion in Austin a few weeks ago to wine and dine them, CNN is told.

When he goes to the Granite State next month, it will be his first trip there since 2012, when he failed to make much of an impression at all on voters there.

A veteran New Hampshire Republican ally setting up New Hampshire meetings tells CNN they are consciously doing things differently this time. They’re opting for a manner more conducive to the way New Hampshire voters like to be approached, in a series of small, intimate meetings.

But the tactical shortcomings from 2012 is not the only thing he’s trying to improve ahead of another possible candidacy — it’s also his readiness on a policy level.

Perry urges Congress, Obama to work together on border security

Perry sources admit that he simply wasn’t up to speed on many of the key issues that confront a candidate, never mind a president.

To overcome that, he now has multiple policy briefings a week, every week on issues ranging from economic policy, to education, to the environment to national security.

One source tells CNN that if he is traveling and there is a think tank nearby, he will make a point of stopping for a briefing from experts.

Perry has also been trying to do more international travel, attending the highbrow annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, going to Israel, and planning a trip later this year to China.

But it’s firestorm over immigration that may give Perry his biggest opportunity for political resurrection.

Miller downplayed any impact from the current immigration crisis on a potential 2016 bid, saying “to me these are two completely separate issues.”

But GOP analyst Ana Navarro, a CNN contributor who’s close to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, another possible 2016 GOP presidential contender, said “Perry embodies an interesting dynamic regarding immigration.

“He’s a border enforcement guy with the experience of being a border state governor, but he’s also shown compassion towards the human angle of the immigration debate,” she said.

Navarro added that “If he can somehow walk that tight rope, and be eloquent as to how he defends his position, it can show him as a pragmatist and be helpful.”

Reality check: 5 things you need to know about immigration crisis

What Obama can and can’t do on immigration

CNN Films: Undocumented


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Is immigration Perry's second act?
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Immigration crisis at the forefront, Rick Perry seeks a revival

Second act, anyone?

Amid the imagery and policy tussling Wednesday over the border immigration crisis, there was this delicious irony: The issue that confounded Rick Perry more than any other when he sought the presidency in 2012 has now given him a center stage role opposite the man who won the race.

As President Obama arrived in Texas on Wednesday, the Texas governor greeted him at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and flew via helicopter with him to Love Field for some one-on-one conversations about the border mess, the latest in a television-heavy assault by Perry on the issue.

Defining moments are often thrust upon political figures—it is far harder to create them than to rise to the occasion when they slap you in the face—and for Perry this moment came at an opportune time, just months before he leaves office and amid a national redemption tour that has brought him both praise and scorn as he considers a second presidential run in 2016.

In his nationally broadcast remarks about the crisis Wednesday afternoon, Obama went out of his way to defer to what he said were Perry’s demands.

“I indicated to him that what he said sounded like it made sense,” Obama said.

But it was immediately clear that, more than anything, Obama was using Perry’s demands to as a cudgel against his fellow Republicans in Congress, who have balked at the administration’s $3.7-billion request to deal with the thousands of immigrants, many of them young and unattended, streaming across the border.

“The challenge is, is Congress prepared to act to put the resources in place to get this done?” Obama asked. “Are folks more interested in politics or are they more interested in solving the problem?”

That underscored a persistent difficulty for Perry as he heightens his involvement in the issue. If Perry’s demands require the billions that Republicans have declined to support—and the president repeatedly made that argument Wednesday–the governor could very quickly find himself caught between what he has proposed and the need to politically oppose the means for doing it.

Dicey positions have been the norm for Perry when it comes to immigration. Like many Republican governors in border states with large Latino populations, he has been more accommodating to Latinos and more moderate on issues involving legal and illegal immigration than GOP leaders elsewhere. (Perry succeeded as governor George W. Bush, who found his similar leanings thwarted once he hit Washington.)

Perry entered the 2012 presidential contest the summer before the primaries, but while he zoomed almost instantly to the position of front-runner, he just as quickly came under fire in key early voting states from voters who saw his views on immigrants as suspect.

In Iowa and elsewhere, Perry’s opposition to a fence along the entire southern border and his signing of a bill allowing children of illegal immigrants to pay lower in-state tuition at Texas’ public colleges engendered antipathy among many voters, particularly in rural areas. (In a last-ditch but losing attempt at redefinition, Perry imported as a campaign surrogate a symbol of running roughshod: Arizona’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who a federal court judge later concluded had systematically racially profiled Latinos.)

The immigration coup de grace may have been Perry’s debate assertion that Republicans who didn’t share his support for in-state tuition for children of immigrants in the country illegally didn’t “have a heart”—in effect, a castigation of much of the GOP’s primary base.

Other candidates whacked mercilessly at Perry after that—Mitt Romney declared that opposition to illegal immigration “doesn’t mean you don’t have a heart. It means you have a heart and a brain.” Perry himself delivered the death blow in a subsequent debate when he forgot the third of three federal departments he wished to eliminate. “Oops,” he said. 

This time around, Perry has accented the need to police the border and has hewed much more publicly to orthodox GOP positions on immigration—at least as espoused in Washington. The change appeared to be an attempt to mitigate what one GOP strategist in 2012 called Perry’s “surprisingly tin ear” when it came to how immigration was viewed by his party.

In a recent appearance on Fox, Perry fell comfortably in with some of the party’s angriest voices when he implied that Obama had orchestrated the movement of children and others from Central American countries beset by violence and poverty.

“The federal government is just absolutely failing,” he said. “You either have an incredibly inept administration or they’re in on this somehow or another. I mean, I hate to be conspiratorial, but I mean, how do you move that many people from Central America across Mexico and then into the United States without there being a fairly coordinated effort?”

Called on that statement later by ABC News reporter Martha Raddatz, he insisted that the border crisis, from the administration’s perspective, meant that “you are either inept or you have some ulterior motive of which you are functioning from.”

In Perry’s ongoing national tour, he has emphasized areas where his views and record are most akin to Republicans at large. He has talked up job gains in Texas, reiterated his conservative views on gays and other issues, and exhorted  his belief in a government that is small and based in the states, not D.C.

His odds in 2016 would seem to be long; the path from laughingstock to front-runner is rocky and circuitous. But the Republican field is replete with potential candidates whose upsides are negated at least in part by substantial downsides. And now Perry has a chance, if he can navigate it, to return to his party’s good graces on an issue that proved a big part of his undoing last time out.

It may have been with a modicum of personal hope that Perry made a point during a House committee hearing last week in McAllen, Texas. If politicians don’t secure the border, he said, “the American people will address this in a number of ways, electorally and otherwise.”

Source Article from http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-pn-analysis-immigration-crisis-rick-perry-20140710-story.html?track=rss
Immigration crisis at the forefront, Rick Perry seeks a revival
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Immigration court backlog adds to border crisis

On a June morning last year, Alex Alvarez left his home in the lush Salvadoran region of Morazan to make the now-familiar journey of tens of thousands of other young immigrants from Central America.

There was no father or mother to send him off with a blessing, nor any waiting for him at his destination in the United States. The only blessing that mattered now would come from an immigration judge in the boxy, orange-brick courthouse where the now-18-year-old sat one morning last week — his first court hearing since arriving more than a year ago.

————

FOR THE RECORD

Immigration court: In the July 10 Section A, an article about backlogs in immigration court stated that Alex Alvarez’s court hearing last week was his first since arriving in the U.S. more than a year ago. He departed his native El Salvador more than a year ago but did not arrive in the U.S. until August. 

————

Also on the docket were 12 Honduran, two Guatemalan and eight Salvadoran children who had already been released from detention. A smaller group of children was due to appear in the afternoon. Those boys and girls, staying at a Baptist shelter, showed up smartly dressed, the boys in dress shirts and ties.

“I told him the important thing for him is to keep studying,” said Alvarez’s brother-in-law Mario Olmos, 37, who drove him to court that day. “If you don’t study, the judges don’t see the point of you staying in this country.”

He hoped, Olmos said, that Alvarez wouldn’t be in the immigration court system as long as he himself has: three years and counting.

On Wednesday, Justice Department officials announced plans to speed up court proceedings for unaccompanied youths and families, whose accelerated influx across the Southwest border in recent months threatens to paralyze a court system already hampered by congestion and delay.

The new policy will assign a greater proportion of the nation’s 243 immigration judges to hear juvenile cases, either at the border or by video, and appoint new temporary judges to help handle a surge of at least 57,000 unaccompanied minors into the U.S., most of them from Central America, since Oct.1.

But a lawsuit filed Wednesday by a coalition of public interest groups could inject further delays into the system, calling for juvenile immigrants to be guaranteed legal representation before their deportation cases can proceed in immigration court.

The Obama administration has sought to hammer home a message that children who are crossing the border illegally will be sent back.

But the number of cases already pending in the nation’s 59 immigration courts — a caseload that has more than doubled in the last 15 years — and a long history of delays that can stretch as long as five years raise questions about whether federal officials will be able to make good on their pledge to speedily deport new immigrants not eligible to remain in the U.S.

The average case takes 578 days to make its way through the immigration courts, with 366,758 cases currently pending, according to federal court records compiled by Syracuse University.

A law signed by President Bush in 2008 makes it difficult to repatriate unaccompanied minors to Central America without letting them appear before an immigration judge.

But the current court system involves “processes layered upon processes layered upon processes,” said Jonathan Ryan, executive director of Raices, a nonprofit group that provides free or low-cost services for child immigrants, families and refugees.

Once in court, many things can happen that can drag cases out for months or longer. A day in immigration court in San Antonio last week provided just one example of how this can happen.

There were 32 cases on the docket in the courtroom of Judge Anibal D. Martinez. But as the morning progressed, it became apparent that many of the children and their lawyers were not showing up. “Every other kid is MIA,” immigration attorney Linda Brandmiller whispered from a bench at the back of the small courtroom.

Brandmiller said a legal organization had misinterpreted a message from the court and sent out an email that caused confusion, leading attorneys and their clients to believe that many of the cases would not be heard that day.

Most of the hearings for children that did arrive resulted in the scheduling of additional hearings, usually several months away. Martinez warned the children, most of whom listened to the proceedings on headsets through a translator, that he might have to order their removal from the country if they were absent.

Just before 9 a.m., Cristian, a 17-year-old from El Salvador with spiky hair and a checkered shirt, sat before the judge. His legal representative said the teen had been a victim of human traffickers and needed to have his case proceed on a confidential basis. The judge set a hearing for late October and waived the requirement that Cristian be present.

Soon, Alvarez — wearing a light blue polo shirt, black jeans and white leather shoes — was sitting before the judge, with legal representative David Walding at his side. Alvarez said he left a verdant region of El Salvador that was the scene of the 1981 “El Mozote” massacre, in which the Salvadoran army killed more than 800 civilians in an anti-guerrilla campaign. His father died when he was about 5 years old, he said, and his mother when he was about 12, both from illness. Alvarez said he left as a result of pressure from gangs that had forced other boys to join.

He crossed the border last August, and after a brief stay at a warehouse got caught while walking with a group of immigrants near McAllen, Texas. Days later he was flown to a detention facility in Chicago, though his siblings in the U.S. were in Austin, Texas. Walding said that required him to apply for a change of court venue, which took a couple of months.

Another delay was introduced when Walding applied in March for Special Immigrant Juvenile, or SIJ, status, based on his client having been an orphan and essentially abandoned. SIJ status can help pave the way to permanent residency, but a state court would have to make the finding.

Martinez set Alvarez’s next hearing for Oct. 29, but excused him from appearing in court then so he could go to school.

The night before the court hearing, about 50 volunteers gathered at a legal justice center for a meeting run by Raices, the immigrant service group, which has been holding screenings of children at San Antonio’s Lackland Air Force Base, where more than 1,000 young immigrants at a time have been held in a hastily organized detention center. Ryan, the organization’s director, said the screenings were key to linking immigrants with free attorneys and determining what kind of relief the minors might qualify for.

Source Article from http://latimes.com.feedsportal.com/c/34336/f/625246/s/3c58bd2c/sc/7/l/0L0Slatimes0N0Cla0Ena0Eimmigration0Ecourt0E20A140A710A0Estory0Bhtml0Dtrack0Frss/story01.htm
Immigration court backlog adds to border crisis
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Immigration crisis Rick Perry's Act 2?

(CNN) — Two years removed from his disastrous 2012 presidential bid, Rick Perry is fully recovered from back surgery, sporting new glasses, reengaging with the Republican conservative base, and showing signs that he’s considering another run for the White House.

Immigration policy helped sink the Texas governor’s previous bid, but it has now put him back in the spotlight. He met on Wednesday with President Barack Obama, who’s under fire over the surge of undocumented minors on the southern border.

Obama accepted Perry’s offer for a sit-down following a sharp exchange with the White House. Last week, White House spokesman Josh Earnest mocked his message on immigration, saying “the truth is it’s hard to take seriously Governor Perry’s concerns.”

Perry points to his state’s long border with Mexico as ground zero for the crush of mostly children entering the United States illegally.

Texas judge to Congress: Do your job

Obama agrees to meet with Gov. Perry

Teen: I came to U.S. to escape gangs

Immigration in 75 seconds

“My message to President Obama is to secure this border, Mr. President. Finally address this issue and secure this border,” Perry said last week at a congressional hearing near the border in McAllen, Texas.

But he may have disappointed fellow conservatives when he said that he was “tired of pointing fingers and blaming people.” He added, “I hope what we can do is come up with some solutions here.”

Perry used more muscular language days later when he said, “this is a failure of diplomacy. It is a failure of leadership from the administration in Washington, D.C.”

Jeff Miller, a senior Perry political adviser, told CNN that Perry “is not saying anything different than what he’s being advocating since 2010 — that ‘we’ve got to secure this border. There’s a crisis going on.’”

Obama wants $3.7 billion for immigration crisis

But Miller said the current crisis is giving Perry a larger platform.

“Right now, because of the huge influx of these children crossing the border from Mexico, the media’s paying more attention and more of the public is seeing the crisis the governor has been dealing with for years. Not a lot has changed, but now more people are listening to what the governor’s saying,” Miller said.

Immigration helped sink Perry in 2012

While a real front-burner issue in his state, Perry is also seeing political stars align. Immigration was the issue that damaged him more than any other when he ran for president last time, people close to him say.

Perry to Obama: visit the border

Gov. Perry: Immigrants told what to say

Gov. Perry on controversial gay comments

Perry launched his presidential campaign in August 2011, months after former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and the rest of the field of candidates had jumped in.

Perry entered with lots of buzz and armed with big bucks and big name backers, and he quickly soared in national polls. But good times were fleeting, as Perry soon ran headfirst into Romney on illegal immigration.

In a debate a month later, Perry defended his support for government-funded tuition at state schools for undocumented immigrants. He argued that if you didn’t support such a move, “I don’t think you have a heart.”

But some of his Republican rivals considered that soft.

“Governor Perry, you say you have got the experience. It’s a bit like saying that, you know, the college coach that has lost 40 games in a row has the experience to go to the NFL,” said Romney at another debate.

Rick Perry’s busy summer

“The truth is, California — I’ll say it again, California and Florida have both had no increase in illegal immigration and yours is up 60 percent.” Romney added.

Sources close to Perry tell CNN they believe that moment did more to hurt Perry with GOP primary voters than any other.

Still, Perry suffered a more memorable blow with an epic gaffe in a November 2011 debate, when he forgot the third of three federal government departments that he had said he would eliminate.

Perry’s campaign limped on, but he called it quits after a disappointing fourth in the Iowa caucuses and fifth in the New Hampshire primary.

Political resurrection?

Fast forward two years.

Perry decides not to run for re-election and is again making his pitch to conservative voters.

Strickland on immigration: ‘We’ve got a crisis’

Congress spars over immigration

Who’s to blame for immigration crisis?

Dems face immigration dilemma

“I have a simple suggestion — It is time for a little rebellion on the battlefield of ideas,” Perry told the base at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference.

And Perry’s summer travel plans hint toward a 2016 bid.

He recently made his third trip over the past year to South Carolina — the state the holds the first southern primary. The visit to the Palmetto State precedes upcoming stops this summer in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Perry even hosted a group of more than a dozen key New Hampshire Republicans at the Governor’s Mansion in Austin a few weeks ago to wine and dine them, CNN is told.

When he goes to the Granite State next month, it will be his first trip there since 2012, when he failed to make much of an impression at all on voters there.

A veteran New Hampshire Republican ally setting up New Hampshire meetings tells CNN they are consciously doing things differently this time. They’re opting for a manner more conducive to the way New Hampshire voters like to be approached, in a series of small, intimate meetings.

But the tactical shortcomings from 2012 is not the only thing he’s trying to improve ahead of another possible candidacy — it’s also his readiness on a policy level.

Perry urges Congress, Obama to work together on border security

Perry sources admit that he simply wasn’t up to speed on many of the key issues that confront a candidate, never mind a president.

To overcome that, he now has multiple policy briefings a week, every week on issues ranging from economic policy, to education, to the environment to national security.

One source tells CNN that if he is traveling and there is a think tank nearby, he will make a point of stopping for a briefing from experts.

Perry has also been trying to do more international travel, attending the highbrow annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, going to Israel, and planning a trip later this year to China.

But it’s firestorm over immigration that may give Perry his biggest opportunity for political resurrection.

Miller downplayed any impact from the current immigration crisis on a potential 2016 bid, saying “to me these are two completely separate issues.”

But GOP analyst Ana Navarro, a CNN contributor who’s close to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, another possible 2016 GOP presidential contender, said “Perry embodies an interesting dynamic regarding immigration.

“He’s a border enforcement guy with the experience of being a border state governor, but he’s also shown compassion towards the human angle of the immigration debate,” she said.

Navarro added that “If he can somehow walk that tight rope, and be eloquent as to how he defends his position, it can show him as a pragmatist and be helpful.”

Reality check: 5 things you need to know about immigration crisis

What Obama can and can’t do on immigration

CNN Films: Undocumented


Source Article from http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/08/politics/immigration-rick-perry-rebirth/index.html
Immigration crisis Rick Perry's Act 2?
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immigration – Yahoo News Search Results
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Immigration crisis Rick Perry's Act 2?

(CNN) — Two years removed from his disastrous 2012 presidential bid, Rick Perry is fully recovered from back surgery, sporting new glasses, reengaging with the Republican conservative base, and showing signs that he’s considering another run for the White House.

Immigration policy helped sink the Texas governor’s previous bid, but it has now put him back in the spotlight. He met on Wednesday with President Barack Obama, who’s under fire over the surge of undocumented minors on the southern border.

Obama accepted Perry’s offer for a sit-down following a sharp exchange with the White House. Last week, White House spokesman Josh Earnest mocked his message on immigration, saying “the truth is it’s hard to take seriously Governor Perry’s concerns.”

Perry points to his state’s long border with Mexico as ground zero for the crush of mostly children entering the United States illegally.

Texas judge to Congress: Do your job

Obama agrees to meet with Gov. Perry

Teen: I came to U.S. to escape gangs

Immigration in 75 seconds

“My message to President Obama is to secure this border, Mr. President. Finally address this issue and secure this border,” Perry said last week at a congressional hearing near the border in McAllen, Texas.

But he may have disappointed fellow conservatives when he said that he was “tired of pointing fingers and blaming people.” He added, “I hope what we can do is come up with some solutions here.”

Perry used more muscular language days later when he said, “this is a failure of diplomacy. It is a failure of leadership from the administration in Washington, D.C.”

Jeff Miller, a senior Perry political adviser, told CNN that Perry “is not saying anything different than what he’s being advocating since 2010 — that ‘we’ve got to secure this border. There’s a crisis going on.’”

Obama wants $3.7 billion for immigration crisis

But Miller said the current crisis is giving Perry a larger platform.

“Right now, because of the huge influx of these children crossing the border from Mexico, the media’s paying more attention and more of the public is seeing the crisis the governor has been dealing with for years. Not a lot has changed, but now more people are listening to what the governor’s saying,” Miller said.

Immigration helped sink Perry in 2012

While a real front-burner issue in his state, Perry is also seeing political stars align. Immigration was the issue that damaged him more than any other when he ran for president last time, people close to him say.

Perry to Obama: visit the border

Gov. Perry: Immigrants told what to say

Gov. Perry on controversial gay comments

Perry launched his presidential campaign in August 2011, months after former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and the rest of the field of candidates had jumped in.

Perry entered with lots of buzz and armed with big bucks and big name backers, and he quickly soared in national polls. But good times were fleeting, as Perry soon ran headfirst into Romney on illegal immigration.

In a debate a month later, Perry defended his support for government-funded tuition at state schools for undocumented immigrants. He argued that if you didn’t support such a move, “I don’t think you have a heart.”

But some of his Republican rivals considered that soft.

“Governor Perry, you say you have got the experience. It’s a bit like saying that, you know, the college coach that has lost 40 games in a row has the experience to go to the NFL,” said Romney at another debate.

Rick Perry’s busy summer

“The truth is, California — I’ll say it again, California and Florida have both had no increase in illegal immigration and yours is up 60 percent.” Romney added.

Sources close to Perry tell CNN they believe that moment did more to hurt Perry with GOP primary voters than any other.

Still, Perry suffered a more memorable blow with an epic gaffe in a November 2011 debate, when he forgot the third of three federal government departments that he had said he would eliminate.

Perry’s campaign limped on, but he called it quits after a disappointing fourth in the Iowa caucuses and fifth in the New Hampshire primary.

Political resurrection?

Fast forward two years.

Perry decides not to run for re-election and is again making his pitch to conservative voters.

Strickland on immigration: ‘We’ve got a crisis’

Congress spars over immigration

Who’s to blame for immigration crisis?

Dems face immigration dilemma

“I have a simple suggestion — It is time for a little rebellion on the battlefield of ideas,” Perry told the base at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference.

And Perry’s summer travel plans hint toward a 2016 bid.

He recently made his third trip over the past year to South Carolina — the state the holds the first southern primary. The visit to the Palmetto State precedes upcoming stops this summer in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Perry even hosted a group of more than a dozen key New Hampshire Republicans at the Governor’s Mansion in Austin a few weeks ago to wine and dine them, CNN is told.

When he goes to the Granite State next month, it will be his first trip there since 2012, when he failed to make much of an impression at all on voters there.

A veteran New Hampshire Republican ally setting up New Hampshire meetings tells CNN they are consciously doing things differently this time. They’re opting for a manner more conducive to the way New Hampshire voters like to be approached, in a series of small, intimate meetings.

But the tactical shortcomings from 2012 is not the only thing he’s trying to improve ahead of another possible candidacy — it’s also his readiness on a policy level.

Perry urges Congress, Obama to work together on border security

Perry sources admit that he simply wasn’t up to speed on many of the key issues that confront a candidate, never mind a president.

To overcome that, he now has multiple policy briefings a week, every week on issues ranging from economic policy, to education, to the environment to national security.

One source tells CNN that if he is traveling and there is a think tank nearby, he will make a point of stopping for a briefing from experts.

Perry has also been trying to do more international travel, attending the highbrow annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, going to Israel, and planning a trip later this year to China.

But it’s firestorm over immigration that may give Perry his biggest opportunity for political resurrection.

Miller downplayed any impact from the current immigration crisis on a potential 2016 bid, saying “to me these are two completely separate issues.”

But GOP analyst Ana Navarro, a CNN contributor who’s close to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, another possible 2016 GOP presidential contender, said “Perry embodies an interesting dynamic regarding immigration.

“He’s a border enforcement guy with the experience of being a border state governor, but he’s also shown compassion towards the human angle of the immigration debate,” she said.

Navarro added that “If he can somehow walk that tight rope, and be eloquent as to how he defends his position, it can show him as a pragmatist and be helpful.”

Reality check: 5 things you need to know about immigration crisis

What Obama can and can’t do on immigration

CNN Films: Undocumented


Source Article from http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/08/politics/immigration-rick-perry-rebirth/index.html
Immigration crisis Rick Perry's Act 2?
http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/08/politics/immigration-rick-perry-rebirth/index.html
http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/rss?p=immigration
immigration – Yahoo News Search Results
immigration – Yahoo News Search Results

Is immigration crisis Rick Perry's Act 2?

(CNN) — Two years removed from his disastrous 2012 presidential bid, Rick Perry is fully recovered from back surgery, sporting new glasses, reengaging with the Republican conservative base, and showing signs that he’s considering another run for the White House.

Immigration policy helped sink the Texas governor’s previous bid, but it has now put him back in the spotlight. He met on Wednesday with President Barack Obama, who’s under fire over the surge of undocumented minors on the southern border.

Obama accepted Perry’s offer for a sit-down following a sharp exchange with the White House. Last week, White House spokesman Josh Earnest mocked his message on immigration, saying “the truth is it’s hard to take seriously Governor Perry’s concerns.”

Perry points to his state’s long border with Mexico as ground zero for the crush of mostly children entering the United States illegally.

Texas judge to Congress: Do your job

Obama agrees to meet with Gov. Perry

Teen: I came to U.S. to escape gangs

Immigration in 75 seconds

“My message to President Obama is to secure this border, Mr. President. Finally address this issue and secure this border,” Perry said last week at a congressional hearing near the border in McAllen, Texas.

But he may have disappointed fellow conservatives when he said that he was “tired of pointing fingers and blaming people.” He added, “I hope what we can do is come up with some solutions here.”

Perry used more muscular language days later when he said, “this is a failure of diplomacy. It is a failure of leadership from the administration in Washington, D.C.”

Jeff Miller, a senior Perry political adviser, told CNN that Perry “is not saying anything different than what he’s being advocating since 2010 — that ‘we’ve got to secure this border. There’s a crisis going on.’”

Obama wants $3.7 billion for immigration crisis

But Miller said the current crisis is giving Perry a larger platform.

“Right now, because of the huge influx of these children crossing the border from Mexico, the media’s paying more attention and more of the public is seeing the crisis the governor has been dealing with for years. Not a lot has changed, but now more people are listening to what the governor’s saying,” Miller said.

Immigration helped sink Perry in 2012

While a real front-burner issue in his state, Perry is also seeing political stars align. Immigration was the issue that damaged him more than any other when he ran for president last time, people close to him say.

Perry to Obama: visit the border

Gov. Perry: Immigrants told what to say

Gov. Perry on controversial gay comments

Perry launched his presidential campaign in August 2011, months after former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and the rest of the field of candidates had jumped in.

Perry entered with lots of buzz and armed with big bucks and big name backers, and he quickly soared in national polls. But good times were fleeting, as Perry soon ran headfirst into Romney on illegal immigration.

In a debate a month later, Perry defended his support for government-funded tuition at state schools for undocumented immigrants. He argued that if you didn’t support such a move, “I don’t think you have a heart.”

But some of his Republican rivals considered that soft.

“Governor Perry, you say you have got the experience. It’s a bit like saying that, you know, the college coach that has lost 40 games in a row has the experience to go to the NFL,” said Romney at another debate.

Rick Perry’s busy summer

“The truth is, California — I’ll say it again, California and Florida have both had no increase in illegal immigration and yours is up 60 percent.” Romney added.

Sources close to Perry tell CNN they believe that moment did more to hurt Perry with GOP primary voters than any other.

Still, Perry suffered a more memorable blow with an epic gaffe in a November 2011 debate, when he forgot the third of three federal government departments that he had said he would eliminate.

Perry’s campaign limped on, but he called it quits after a disappointing fourth in the Iowa caucuses and fifth in the New Hampshire primary.

Political resurrection?

Fast forward two years.

Perry decides not to run for re-election and is again making his pitch to conservative voters.

Strickland on immigration: ‘We’ve got a crisis’

Congress spars over immigration

Who’s to blame for immigration crisis?

Dems face immigration dilemma

“I have a simple suggestion — It is time for a little rebellion on the battlefield of ideas,” Perry told the base at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference.

And Perry’s summer travel plans hint toward a 2016 bid.

He recently made his third trip over the past year to South Carolina — the state the holds the first southern primary. The visit to the Palmetto State precedes upcoming stops this summer in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Perry even hosted a group of more than a dozen key New Hampshire Republicans at the Governor’s Mansion in Austin a few weeks ago to wine and dine them, CNN is told.

When he goes to the Granite State next month, it will be his first trip there since 2012, when he failed to make much of an impression at all on voters there.

A veteran New Hampshire Republican ally setting up New Hampshire meetings tells CNN they are consciously doing things differently this time. They’re opting for a manner more conducive to the way New Hampshire voters like to be approached, in a series of small, intimate meetings.

But the tactical shortcomings from 2012 is not the only thing he’s trying to improve ahead of another possible candidacy — it’s also his readiness on a policy level.

Perry urges Congress, Obama to work together on border security

Perry sources admit that he simply wasn’t up to speed on many of the key issues that confront a candidate, never mind a president.

To overcome that, he now has multiple policy briefings a week, every week on issues ranging from economic policy, to education, to the environment to national security.

One source tells CNN that if he is traveling and there is a think tank nearby, he will make a point of stopping for a briefing from experts.

Perry has also been trying to do more international travel, attending the highbrow annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, going to Israel, and planning a trip later this year to China.

But it’s firestorm over immigration that may give Perry his biggest opportunity for political resurrection.

Miller downplayed any impact from the current immigration crisis on a potential 2016 bid, saying “to me these are two completely separate issues.”

But GOP analyst Ana Navarro, a CNN contributor who’s close to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, another possible 2016 GOP presidential contender, said “Perry embodies an interesting dynamic regarding immigration.

“He’s a border enforcement guy with the experience of being a border state governor, but he’s also shown compassion towards the human angle of the immigration debate,” she said.

Navarro added that “If he can somehow walk that tight rope, and be eloquent as to how he defends his position, it can show him as a pragmatist and be helpful.”

Reality check: 5 things you need to know about immigration crisis

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Source Article from http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/08/politics/immigration-rick-perry-rebirth/index.html
Is immigration crisis Rick Perry's Act 2?
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