Rick Perry Gets D-minus on Immigration (middle of a bad GOP pack)

With Gov. Rick Perry indicating more and more interest in accepting the pressure of fans to run for the GOP nomination, NumbersUSA has thoroughly researched his record of actions and statements on immigration and posted the results on our 2012 Presidential Hopefuls’ Immigration Stances grid.

The results — as with nearly every other 2012 Hopeful — are not pretty.

The governor’s biggest problem is that he has been primarily focused on his state and has been silent on most national immigration issues. We hope that if he announces his candidacy that he will quickly begin to let the public know what we can expect on key immigration issues like whether to continue to use Chain Migration and the Visa Lottery to fill jobs with foreign workers instead of with unemployed Americans.

But Gov. Perry’s overall grade is also brought down by two “Bad” ratings that negate much of the advantage of his “Good” ratings in three other categories.

To view all the comments and actions upon which the ratings and grade are based — and sources for all — please just click on Gov. Perry’s grid above.

https://numbersusa-staging.go-vip.net/content/action/rick-perry.html 

Your comments, additions & corrections: We want to hear from you, especially if you have links to media reports of immigration statements and positions that we don’t have. Send them to: elections2012@numbersusa.com

These are snapshots of views that are bound to change: We expect stances, our ratings of stances and the grades for all the Presidential Hopefuls to change a great deal during 2011. We re-evaluate every Hopeful and every position once every week. NumbersUSA expects that as American voters interact with the Hopefuls their immigration positions will improve.

Nonetheless, there have been few improvements in the Hopefuls since we added each of them to the grid.

We encourage each of you to contact Hopefuls that you otherwise like and push them toward better immigration platforms. You will find information for contacting the Hopefuls by clicking on their photo on the grid.

https://numbersusa-staging.go-vip.net/content/action/2012-presidential-hopefuls-immigration-stances.html

We never endorse candidates. Our grading of the Hopefuls is based entirely on their immigration positions. We know that voters support candidates based on any number of policy positions and personal attributes.

Currently, this is how the Hopefuls rate on immigration policy (from worst to mediocre best):

F-minus: Barack Obama
F: Ron Paul
F: Gary Johnson
F: Rick Santorum
D-minus: Newt Gingrich
D-minus: Jon Huntsman
D-minus: Rick Perry
D: Sarah Palin
D: Mitt Romney
C-minus: Herman Cain
C+: Tim Pawlenty
B-minus: Michele Bachmann

If you want the President of the United States to work for immigration policies that are good for Americans, you need to pressure the Hopefuls on this list to come up with much better platforms than they now have.

ROY BECK is Founder & CEO of NumbersUSA