Rick Perry: Not-So-Hot With the Immigration Issue?

It warms my heart that Rick Perry never felt inclined to pander so hard that he found himself bleeding green, a horrid political malady to which many lawmakers have succumbed (although, granted, coming from a big haven for oil and gas, that may not have been such a heroic crusade). But his full record might not pass unscathed through the standard conservative checklist, warns Tom Tancedo, former Republican Congressman from Colorado, writing for POLITICO:

Perry is eager to separate himself from his predecessor in the Texas governor’s mansion, George W. Bush — who is unpopular with both tea party Republicans and the American electorate as a whole. But one area where Perry’s positions are virtually identical to Bush is immigration. ...

In the same speech he came out against building a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border.Perry also came out in favor of blanket amnesty for illegal immigrants in 2006, albeit without citizenship, supporting “a guest worker program that takes undocumented workers off the black market and legitimizes their economic contribution.”