When Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry talks about immigration on the campaign trail, he hammers President Obama’s policies and touts his own experience standing up to the president during last summer’s border crisis. But Perry will also need to demonstrate to Republican primary voters that his nuanced approach to immigration can succeed at the federal level.

Perry’s path to the nomination may feature more roadblocks than there are Border Patrol checkpoints in South Texas. Perry did slow the influx of Central Americans into the Rio Grande Valley during last summer’s border crisis, but at great cost to his state. A memo leaked from the Texas Department of Public Safety earlier this year appears to show that Perry had a larger role in stemming the tide of illegal immigrant children flowing into the U.S. than the Obama administration.