Fired-up Republican activists in no mood for compromises threw out their party chairwoman Saturday, then bucked Texas Gov. Rick Perry by pushing for a crackdown on illegal immigration similar to Arizona's new law.

Some delegates at the Republican state convention also called for a nonbinding resolution calling on House Republicans to oust their own speaker, Rep. Joe Straus of San Antonio, considered too moderate for many of the bedrock conservatives meeting in Dallas this weekend. Convention organizers ruled the Straus resolution out of order.

While the convention began Friday with scripted unity and Democrat-bashing speeches, its final hours were marked by division and heated debates over GOP policy priorities...