ORLANDO, Fla. -- Keeping the heat on Rick Perry, rivals Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann on Friday challenged his suggestion that people are heartless if they don't support his Texas law that gives some illegal immigrants in-state tuition rates at universities.
"If you're opposed to illegal immigration, it doesn't mean that you don't have a heart," Romney told a gathering of conservatives in Florida, which has a sizable immigrant population. "It means that you have a heart and a brain."In her speech, Bachmann said: "We will not have taxpayer-subsidized benefits for illegal immigrants or their children." She pledged to build a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border, a move that Perry opposes.One day after a debate that underscored the 2012 GOP front-runner's vulnerability on illegal immigration, his main rivals sought to paint the Texas governor as weak and wrong on an issue that's a priority for conservatives.Refusing to yield, Perry returned the criticism and brushed off his shaky debate performance a night before."It's not who is the slickest candidate or who is the smoothest debater that we need to elect. We need to elect the candidate with the best record and the best vision for this country," Perry said."Remember President Clinton? Man, he could sell ice cubes to Eskimos. And then the next day, he'd be against ice cubes."It was a rap against Romney, who has reversed his position on touchstone subjects.Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, was looking to derail Perry, his biggest threat for the nomination. Bachmann, a Minnesota congresswoman, worked to claw back into the top tier of candidates after being eclipsed by Perry's sudden rise over the past month.Both see opportunity by assailing Perry for signing a bill that grants in-state tuition to illegal immigrants who have lived in Texas for three years."I still can't get over that," Romney said Friday about the Texas law. "It is simply wrong to create that kind of magnet."
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