The sanctuary scam

I’ve been thinking about Governor Perry’s designation of so-called “sanctuary cities” as an emergency item for this legislative session, and there are a few inescapable conclusions.

1. Perry is a big flaming hypocrite. I know, I know, big shock. But as the Trib has pointed out, Perry’s definition of “sanctuary city”, as was applied to Houston, applies equally well to the state of Texas given the current policies of the Department of Public Safety. Perry is speaking in platitudes while avoiding the subject of his own flip-flop on the issue. Even by his standards, it’s amazingly shameless.

2. I will say again, this is a clear sign that whatever Perry may say about an “Arizona-style immigration bill” not being “right” for Texas, he’ll sign whatever damn bill comes to his desk. Somewhere along the line there will be enough of a fig leaf to enable him to claim that Texas’ version of the bill is somehow different.

3. He really is desperate to downplay the budget deficit, isn’t he? As always, he is a master of timing and distraction.

4. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a connection between the deficit and this alleged “emergency”. I think Campos has this right:

When the details of the 2010 census are released next month and it shows tremendous Latino population growth across the board, Dude’s team will get some rabid supporter to spew out crap along the lines that paperless folks make up the population increase and so there is no need to increase health care and education funding.

The professional reality-deniers are already out there claiming Texas doesn’t need to take things like population growth into account for its budget. This is just an extra hook on which they can hang their hats.

5. In the meantime, all of this has and will have real consequences for many people. But at least Perry has accomplished his main political objective.

Related Posts:

• Border and immigration news roundup
• A roundup of border and lawsuit stories
• Abbott’s border wall