It will be just the latest book in the country’s dispute with the federal government over multiculturalism and border plan when a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit hears arguments on Wednesday regarding whether to stop a Texas law that allows police officers to jail suspected illegal immigrants. Democratic governors from all over the country gathered on the Texas border with Mexico in February to rally the Biden Administration’s alleged lax border policies and demonstrate their conservatism in front of a national market. Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, rolled out the red carpet and greeted people with their help for his fight against the federal government, which has also included disobeying a Supreme Court order to reduce razor wire from regions along the borders.
The meeting resembled and distinctly differed a bipartisan meeting held in Texas in 2005 that brought together governors concerned about border violence. There, governors Rick Perry ( R- Tex. ), Bill Richardson ( D- N. M. ), and Arnold Schwarzenegger ( R- Calif. ) stood together to oppose the mistreatment of migrants, both documented and undocumented, and pledged to take more responsibility for border security. Cutting off the drug trade and ending the violence that it has caused on both sides of the border are two of the greatest challenges, according to Perry.
Perry’s statement reflected the moderate position Republicans held in those days regarding immigration and border security. But times were already changing. Beginning in the mid- 1990s, Republicans, especially in border states like Texas, recognized that hammering the federal government on security could be a major plus politically. Importantly, however, the tough rhetoric of Republicans like Perry was paired with moderate policy. Yet, increasingly, this combination did not go far enough for Republican base voters. Perry’s campaign for president in 2012, which preluded Donald Trump’s ascendancy, with his even harsher rhetoric and much more draconian policies.
Republicans in border states have a long history of criticizing the federal government on a variety of issues.  ,
And few states have more of a love- hate relationship with Washington, D. C., than Texas, especially over coastal land and borders. The state could retain all of its land thanks to the agreement that established Texas in 1845, which granted Texas roughly 2.5 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico. Yet, during the first half of the 20th century, the federal government initiated several cases challenging Texas’s right to these lands. Democratic Governor Allan Shivers supported Republican presidential candidate Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 after promising to support the state in the conflict ( he succeeded in 1953 ). The “tidelands controversy” was so significant.
The Democratic Party was split into liberal and conservative wings by Shivers ‘ decision. They’d remain in uneasy tension for decades, with the conservative wing often haranguing the federal government. Gradually, as Republicans became more viable in Texas politics, conservative Democratic began switching parties.
Perry epitomized this pattern. He joined the state legislature in 1984 as a conservative Democrat. He switched parties in 1989 because he realized that his anti-Federal Power conservatism was now much more prevalent in the GOP. The following year, he became the first Republican to win the position of Agriculture Commissioner—often a stepping stone for ambitious politicians.
In a state that was quickly swinging to the right when Perry was in office, Perry capitalized on the value of railing against federal interference in matters of the state. The Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed federal regulations, which the Agriculture Commissioner said were burdensome to farmers, were in opposition to the federal Endangered Species Act‘s water use restrictions in parched central Texas. The Agriculture Secretary had few options to react to this, which was largely rhetorical, but the situation was set for conflict.
One issue where Perry did n’t reflexively attack the federal government, however, was immigration and the border. His new party had a sexy opinion of the matter, and he saw the need to appeal to Latinos, who would soon be a significant part of Texas’s electorate. On the other side of the GOP were conservatives like Ronald Reagan, who had argued that “why do n’t we work out some recognition of our shared problems instead of talking about putting up a fence”? Hardliner conservatives like Pat Buchanan, who used his right-wing populist rhetoric to promote the border and build” structures” necessary to secure the border, to win roughly a quarter of the votes in the Republican presidential primary in 1992.
Texas Republicans, including Perry and George W. Bush, who captured the governorship in 1994, tended to side with Reagan’s approach. When Bush left for the White House in 2001, Perry continued the former governor’s moderate immigration policy by ratifying the Texas Dream Act, which gave the state’s eligible undocumented immigrants access to in-state tuition and financial aid. Even at the 2005 border governor meeting, Perry objected to congressional funding for 700 miles of border fencing, saying it would be ineffective. ” If you build a 30- foot wall or fence, the 32- foot- ladder business is going to get real good”, he said.
But nationally, Buchanan’s wing of the GOP was beginning to wrest control of the party. In 2006, House Republicans—in opposition to President Bush’s calls for a balanced approach to immigration—took a more punitive stance, introducing legislation to make it a felony to be in the country illegally.
The change was bestexed by Bush and Perry’s actions in 2006. Bush embraced political reality and announced” Operation Jump Start,” a border-to-border deployment of National Guard personnel to stop illegal immigration. Perry praised his former running mate, but in light of the newfound gravity on the issue, he added that” Texas cannot wait for the federal government to implement the necessary border security measures.” He increased the presence of state law enforcement along the border and created new investigative tools.
Barack Obama’s victory established Republicans like Perry as a key wedge issue. The governor of Texas saw a chance to attack the federal government by obstructing both the border and the state’s rights by bringing solutions into their hands.
Despite this, Perry’s anti-fiscal government rhetoric on immigration issues was more tempered than his ramblings on other issues like taxes, which shows the old, moderate approach to the subject. At one 2009 anti- tax rally, for example, Perry vaguely suggested that secession might be an option if Washington continued to” thumb their nose at the American people” . ,
However, Perry was aware that the GOP’s political landscape had changed and that he needed to make a right-turn in their immigration policy to appeal to the party’s base. He said in 2014,” I do n’t believe he particularly cares whether or not the United States ‘ border is secure,” and he later declined an invitation to meet the President for what the governor called” a quick handshake on the tarmac,” instead suggesting the pair have a” substantive meeting.” ( In fact, they did meet, with a grim- faced Perry expressing his distrust on his face. ) Perry hammered Obama with additional funding for” Operation Rio Grande,” a broad range of border security operations that went beyond what the federal government was conducting.
Politically, Perry’s newly tough actions and harsh attacks on the Obama administration worked like a charm. During the Great Recession, Texas voters rejected spending cuts to border security, and a supermajority of the electorate voted in favor of tightening U.S. border security by 2013.
However, Perry never fully abandoned the more sympathetic approach to undocumented immigrations that had once been a defining Texas Republican policy. He claimed that those who opposed in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants had” no heart” when speaking on a presidential debate stage in 2011. This harmed Perry’s candidacy and foreshadowed what was to come.
Four years later, as Donald Trump gained traction with his tough immigration rhetoric and assurances of draconian action, it became clear how out of touch Perry was with the subject. Given that he and other border governors and Texas politicians were the first to discover the fundamental formula that Trump had developed to win over GOP voters ‘ hearts and minds, he should n’t have been surprised. Republicans have political gold when it comes to banning the federal government for immigration, as Trump has demonstrated with his campaign promises once more in 2024.
Brandon Rottinghaus is a professor at the University of Houston’s Department of Political Science. His forthcoming book, publishing in May, is Rick Perry: A Political Life, and he is also the author of Inside Texas Politics, Current Debates in the Lone Star State, and Inside American Government. He is the cohost of Party Politics, a TV8 show, a radio program on KUHF, and a podcast on Houston Public Media.
With articles written and edited by experienced historians, Made by History challenges the status quo. Learn more at TIME about Made by History. Not all opinions are necessarily those of TIME editors.
