Rick Perry Needs to Defend His Sensible Approach to Immigration Issue
Mary Sanchez

Texas Gov. Rick Perry missed his teachable moment. But he shouldn't fret. He'll get another shot at it.

Perry chose a defensive posture when fellow GOP presidential candidates went on the attack over Texas's college in-state tuition option for children whose parents hauled them to this country illegally.

At a recent debate, Perry let the other candidates distort the issue. He flubbed it, and his opponents smelled blood in the water.

He may not realize it yet, but Perry's stumble harms more than just his own quest for the GOP presidential nomination.

It's imperative that Perry, who holds sway with conservative audiences, gets this right. He's being coached now. A lot of voices, from the Wall Street Journal's editorial page to Mike Huckabee, are offering Perry advice on how to explain his state's rational immigration positions more effectively.

I hope he's listening. Perry's informed, pragmatic and sensible approach to immigration is rare these days among his fellow Republicans.

States are enacting measures targeting those least responsible for the nation's immigration quandaries: children. And they are threatening the one thing beyond food, shelter and medical care that every child deserves: an education.

Consider Alabama.

Among the provisions of a new state law a federal judge declined to enter a preliminary injuction against: Public schools are to verify the legal status of students they enroll and that of their parents. They aren't to deny them entry into classrooms, but you can bet the effect will be chilling on enrollments. Which is exactly what the zealots are hoping for.

Maybe a little fresh air is what they need to clear their heads. People who support such punitive measures on children, including Alabama's governor, ought to spend a few days doing the work that isn't getting done around the state as the parents of those children, migrant laborers (some of whom are legal), have been scared off.

Alabama's agriculture commissioner has been telling horror stories of rotting crops in the fields. Unemployed native-born workers don't flock to fill vacancies in the fields.

There is also concern about how quickly the state will recover from spring tornado damage. Guess who was doing a lion's share of the reconstruction work? Yes, the folks whom Alabama has now targeted: Hispanic workers.

Explaining these economic realities is exactly where a governor like Perry could have an impact.

The real problem is that we don't have workable system to control who migrates into the country, and for how long, especially for low-wage laborers.

As a Wall Street Journal editorial addressing Perry's gaffes pointedly argued: "Under our current system, it is nearly impossible for a typical Mexican to migrate to the U.S. legally within his lifetime. If the U.S. supplied enough work visas to meet demand, fewer migrants would have reason to enter illegally, and border resources could focus on genuine threats."

Bravo.

This basic explanation of how the nation came to have 11 million undocumented immigrants, including their children, is suspiciously missing from public discussion of the illegal immigration issue.

The system is broken. Denying innocent children an education isn't going to fix the underlying problem, which is economic in nature.

Texas, as a border state, knows that well.

The 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision mandating that undocumented children have a right to a public K-12 education, originated in Texas. And Texas was the first state to address what happens to those students after high school. It's one of 13 states to have done so.

What Perry failed to explain is that, in order to qualify for in-state tuition at public colleges and universities, the students in question have to graduate from Texas high schools, to have lived in the state for at least three years and be seeking legal status.

These students are being asked to reach high hurdles before being allowed to pay for in-state tuition. There's no free handout. They and their families have been paying state taxes for years.

Texas is dealing pragmatically and humanely with a consequence of failed federal immigration policy.

Are you listening Mitt Romney?

If the GOP nominates and the nation elects to the White House, a candidate who misunderstands these basic facts, the likelihood of ever substantially addressing immigration is nil.

And the backward tactics of Alabama will likely spread to other states.