Perry: Long Texas border fence 'absolutely not the answer'

DALLAS -- Gov. Rick Perry today told members of an influential Hispanic organization that building a fence between El Paso and Brownsville is "absolutely not the answer" to the immigration problem.

Perry’s comments before the Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce came less than two weeks after he told reporters in Austin that "there is some strategic fencing that we support. ... that you can use strategic fencing to help control the flow of illegal activities."

The governor made no comments about strategic fencing during his speech today. Instead, his comments were similar to what he made a few months ago during a meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon in Mexico City. At that time, Perry railed against all of the "mean rhetoric" and said that border fences "absolutely won’t work," according to published reports.

Members of the audience applauded Perry when he made the comments about the fence.

Perry's position on building a border fence "has never changed," spokesman Robert Black said.

"The governor has always said fence or wall the entire length of the Texas-Mexico border is nonsensical and won’t work. But strategic fencing in your urban areas is useful and can work," Black said.

Speaking at a luncheon today, Perry said that better coordination among local, state and federal authorities is the way to deal with the immigration problem. Officials should use "the technology that we have available" and "be wise about how we secure our borders," Perry said.

Perry added that officials must not "demonize those with Latino heritage who are law-abiding members of our community."

"We want to make sure that the good guys get in and the bad guys stay out."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For cryin' out loud:http://www.star-telegram.com/news/sto...

What the heck does he mean when he says: "demonize those with Latino heritage who are law-abiding members of our community?" They are not "law abiding members of anything; they are here illegaly!!!!!  And the reason we have an immigration system is to make sure this happens:"We want to make sure that the good guys get in and the bad guys stay out."

I wonder if he is related to the Bush family!....Idiot!