Bill Clinton Defends Rick Perry On In-State Tuition For Undocumented Immigrants

Former President Bill Clinton defended Texas Gov. Rick Perry on his signature of a bill allowing Texas undocumented residents to obtain in-state tuition rates, for which his Republican presidential rivals have criticized him.

"It makes my skin crawl when they attack Rick Perry for one of the best things he did," Clinton said of the Republican presidential candidate in an interview with USA Today. "Would they like the kid [an undocumented immigrant] to stand on a corner and sell dope or something?"

Perry defended the bill along similar lines in an October campaign stop in New Hampshire. "In Texas, we made the decision that it was in our best interests as a state, economically and otherwise, to have those young people in our institutions of higher learning and becoming educated as part of our skilled workforce," he said.

The bill allows undocumented immigrants who attended high school in Texas for at least three years to receive in-state tuition at Texas colleges.

He said the alternative was more undocumented immigrants on the "government dole." He added that if other states did not want to offer in-state tuition rates to undocumented immigrants, then that was their choice. Perry frequently points out that only four Texas legislators dissented when he signed the bill in 2001.

In a Sept. 23 debate, Perry said, "If you say that we should not educate children who have come into our state for no reason than they've been brought there, by no fault of their own, I don't think you have a heart." His rivals pounced on his comments, including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who said in a subsequent debate that the tuition rates were a "magnet to draw illegals into the state."

Perry has since walked back his comment that opponents don't "have a heart," saying several times that his word choice was too strong.

Clinton reveals in his new book, Back To Work, that he was rebuffed by the Democratic National Committee when he wanted to send out a "centralized set of talking points" before the 2010 election, which resulted in huge Democratic losses.

"Vice President Biden...and I tried to get the Democratic National Committee to send out a centralized set of talking points to its large e-mail list so Democratic foot soldiers would at least have some good ammunition for their phone and door-to-door campaigns," he wrote. "We couldn't persuade the decision-makers to do so."

In the interview, Clinton also said he sympathized with the Occupy Wall Street movement but said they needed more of an agenda. "I don't think Americans can continue this level of income inequality," he said.

 

Comments

[cuzkate]

02:32 PM on 11/13/2011

C'mon Mr. President, give it a rest and give us a $$ rest. Nuff said.

[O Dannyboy]

04:20 PM on 11/09/2011

And no one knows better than William the effect his endoresment will have on the Perry faithful.

Delicious.

[youhavetobekiddingme]

10:51 AM on 11/09/2011

an educated society is a healthier society, Of course it's harder to get people to work those low paying jobs without benefits that people are fighting for right now

[shespeaks]

09:42 AM on 11/09/2011

Tea Party and GOP are parties of punishment and deprivation, not conducive to building and growing a healthy economy and a healthy citizenry.

[ArtsyJane]

06:13 AM on 11/09/2011

There's a lot of people in college who sell dope too...

[theiFyoU]

01:14 PM on 11/09/2011

They are later know as entrepreneurs.

[Rabindra Permesar]

02:28 AM on 11/09/2011

good point Mr President, lets give people education not jail.

[pennlady]

07:34 AM on 11/09/2011

Let give people affordable education.

[FranklinD]

08:32 AM on 11/09/2011

Better idea is to send troops into Mexico [as Rick Perry says] and clean up the drug dealers who have killed over 40,000.

Clinton sounds like the 1930s New York Times reporter Walter Durranty who went to the Soviet UNion and spoke glowingly of the efficiency and progress make by Joseph Stalin while the Ukranian famine caused the deaths of 5 million, all on Stalin's hands.

You indicate that you need some educating Mr. President, knowing that you are a smart guy.

[O Dannyboy]

04:23 PM on 11/09/2011

I don't care who runs on the Republican ticket as long as he or she campaigns on the idea of sending our troops into Mexico. Can I print up some flyers or something?

By the way, Frank. Way to poke that open wound left on the American psyche by Jimmy Durranty.

[WhatKindOfB]

09:38 PM on 11/08/2011

When I saw the headline before clicking on the link I just knew he was talking about the attacks on Cain was making his skin crawl. That would have been a good story.

[BeautifulOnDaOutside]

07:36 PM on 11/08/2011

So the only two choices are a taxpayer subsidized college education, or selling dope on the corner?

Clearly a false dichotomy and classic Clinton dissembling.

[moutonnoir]

01:08 AM on 11/09/2011

our entire 'adult discourse' is false dichotomies at this point.

it is pretty frustrating!

[shespeaks]

09:44 AM on 11/09/2011

In-state tuition is not taxpayer subsidized. You are not paying the difference. It's the difference between income for the school, and frankly tuition is over-the-top.

[youhavetobekiddingme]

10:49 AM on 11/09/2011

don't try and dispell all the false claims being made here with facts. It seems to upset them for some reason

[BeautifulOnDaOutside]

06:22 PM on 11/09/2011

I agree. As a parent who has been paying it for the last 6 years, tuition is indeed "over the top."

In-state tuition is most certainly tax-payer subsidised. That's obvious when you compare it with the cost of out-of-state or private tuition. It's not really a surprise that the price of tuition is rising faster than inflation — whenever the government subsidise anything, the price rises.

[pedaba]

05:46 PM on 11/08/2011

clinton switched fences now hes in bed with his opposition

[pindiva]

04:23 AM on 11/09/2011

Don't be ridiculous.

Clinton did not do this to "help" Perry.

[bmike]

12:39 PM on 11/09/2011

That will destroy Perry chances if he still had one.

[mistlesuede]

04:24 PM on 11/08/2011

There are many things that would make my skin crawl, but this example is not one of them.

[cpsummer2457]

02:53 PM on 11/08/2011

And people care what you think why? You just need to take care of your own and stay retired.

[juanjo]

03:51 PM on 11/08/2011

Obviously you cared

[pindiva]

04:26 AM on 11/09/2011

Frustrated that a successful Dem president still has the bully pulpit?

His daughter is grown successful and now married creating her own family. His wife is secretary of state.

By speaking up and speaking out, he is taking care of "his own". The people of the US, whom he served very well.

Unless of course peace and prosperity are just not your thing.

[den1953]

11:00 AM on 11/08/2011

Perhaps Bill Clinton hasn't got the Tea parties wish list to have all immigrants living on a big reservation so they can watch them enter and leave without any rights!

[Aleks Hunter]

02:31 PM on 11/08/2011

The Tea Partiers want Israeli style walled roads leading from Mexico to the fields of large factory farms where the Mexicans can work long hours for little money and no protections then go back to Mexico, at the end of each day, looking at the "real America throught he barbed wire ont he way in and onthe way out. In the dark of course.

[Viper1st]

03:47 PM on 11/08/2011

Are not ~

1) Mechanical harvesters an option?

2) H2A Visa holders an option?

[ekim anif]

02:51 PM on 11/08/2011

And we'll call the "reservation" MEXICO, and they can leave, so long as they go SOUTH.

[tef59]

11:01 AM on 11/08/2011

Of course we all know to whom that (BUSHperry) kid would be selling dope to, now, wouldn't we?

[bodel]

10:19 AM on 11/08/2011

Clintons' politics makes MY skin crawl.He constantly provided corporations with roads out of this country with american jobs.(nafta,cafta,shafta).His NOT allowing oversight on the mortgage and banking industry in order to provide easy mortgages got us into this nightmare that used to be called the American Dream.Look for a book "Reckle$$ Endagerment",written by a fellow progressive N.Y.Times writer.While I am a very progressive person in my political stance,stupidity is not a part of it.
Go away Billy boy.

[jbeeaz]

09:19 PM on 11/08/2011

You're not a progressive, you're a trollz. FYI the housing boom blew-up in 2006 - #43 took office, fraudulently in 2000.

[Viper]

10:11 AM on 11/08/2011

With many states now spending upto twice as much on prisons as schools... yes this new private prison industry the repubs have created needs more customers to increase profits...

4% of the worlds population with 25% of the worlds prisoners.. no one else comes close. See repubs are making is number one in something!

Regards

[mashtoe]

10:39 AM on 11/08/2011

Give it a rest. Democrats support this too. Why do we need so many prisons? Because of globalization. You can track the rise of our prisons directly with NAFTA, work visas, illegals, and free trade with communist China. These rigged trade deals were ALL supported and still are by Democrats.

[Aleks Hunter]

02:34 PM on 11/08/2011

so to keep the grrrrredy people's skimming operations operating smoothly we have to incarcerate our people at six times the global rate? At a higher percentage rate than ANY other country? USA #1! Eh?

[Epilef2000]

03:34 PM on 11/08/2011

Newt Gingrich and the Republican controlled House voted in favor of NAFTA..and Bush white House, and now majority Republican House negotiated and passed the Free trade agreements with Colombia, South Korea and Panama....with a democratic presidents..

do you see a pattern? Its both parties! Not the democrats, or republicans, but both parties.