Perry is polling behind Cain in his home state

There's a reason. He's well known here.
Perry supports works visas for Illegal Immigrants. As Perry notes:

“I disagree with the concept that somehow or another we’re going to pack up 10, to 12, to 15 million people and ship them back to the country of origin. That’s not going to happen,” Perry said. “So reality has to be part of our conversation. And then you need to have a strategy to deal with it. That is what I think we will have, but first you have to secure that border.”

I beg to differ. "We" don't have to pack them up. As Alabama has recently shown, take away the incentives, and they will leave on their own steam.
Perry's notion of Border Control is a campaign photo opp sporting a panama hat, some tight fittin jeans, and his shootin jacket in the west Texas desert at sunset.  Poseur.
As I've noted before, Texas' success is not Perry's doing, the kudos belong to the Republican controlled Texas Legislature.  (This is not to say that we don't have our own deficit spending problems. We just haven't turned into Detroit yet.)
Sorry Rick, I'm just not willing to give you much credit for the 2 seconds it takes to sign a Bill. As a side note, it has taken you 12 years of getting your nose slapped for crony capitalism, Gardisil and the Trans Texas Corridor (to name a few) for you to be a "decent" Governor. You'll be cooling your heels in Paint Creek the second a serious opponent shows up in an election. Being the lesser of two evils is still the lesser of two evils.
We don't have 12 years for you to learn how to be President.
-not a Perry fan, as if you couldn't tell...