Lt. Governor David Dewhurst is out running for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate and in appearances in both Lubbock and Abilene, various parts of the illegal immigration issue came up. In Lubbock, on KFYO radio, Rex Andrew seemed to stump Dewhurst on the question of what to do with over twelve million people in the U.S. illegally. In fact, the audio and transcript of Dewhurst’s attempted reply must be the low-point of effective communication in his entire political career.
In Abilene, Brian Bethel of the Abilene Reporter-News quoted Dewhurst attempting to clarify his newly announced opposition to in-state college tuition rates for those residing in Texas illegally.
“It wasn’t their fault that their parent brought them at some young age to Texas,” Dewhurst said of such students. “What I was referring to is a problem I had with the fairness of providing a subsidy to people who are technically here in the country without documentation illegally.”
Bethel wrote that “On the issue of immigration itself, Dewhurst called it primarily a federal problem” and pointed out that… “over the last three sessions over $500 million of Texas taxpayer money [has been spent] to help secure the border.” “We have two and a half times more police officers in New York City than we have in our entire national border patrol,” the Lt. Governor added.
All of that is fine but what should have been asked of Dewhurst is this: Mr. Dewhurst you, unlike Governor Perry, have been in the cat-bird’s seat to control legislation for the past several sessions of the legislature. If you’re truly opposed to in-state tuition for illegal residents, then why didn’t you get behind changing such? Bills have been filed to do just that.
