Amazing how these guys became ‘conservative’ when they decided to run for President isn’t it?
Legality of Huckabee's Mexican consulate deal questioned
Critics say Arkansas citizens, businesses financed office to draw illegal workers
November 1, 2007 - By Jerome R. Corsi - WorldNetDaily.com
Financial inducements arranged by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to establish a Mexican consular office in Little Rock may have violated state law, according to an Arkansas attorney. As WND reported yesterday, critics in Arkansas charge Huckabee, who lately has enjoyed a surge in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, worked with some of the state's most prominent and politically powerful businesses to establish the consulate as a magnet for drawing illegal immigrants to the state to accept low-paying jobs. Huckabee, in an interview with WND, strongly denied the allegations.
Arkansas attorney Chip Sexton provided WND a written legal brief arguing the state government's sublease to Mexico of office space for the consulate was illegal under Arkansas law. Sexton contended the deal raised questions about the appropriateness of private citizens and corporations in Arkansas providing financial incentives for the government of Mexico to locate a consulate office in Little Rock.
"This arrangement to bring a Mexican consulate to Little Rock and the manner in which it occurred amounts to a 'consul-gate,'" Sexton told WND. "I'm an Arkansas citizen, why doesn't the state lease me some property and furniture for $1 per year?"
Robert Trevino, commissioner of Arkansas Rehabilitation Services, told WND he and Huckabee helped arrange state and private financial support to induce Mexico to establish the consulate as a business development "quid pro quo."
Trevino signed on July 7, 2006, a "Facilities Use Agreement" with Mexican consular officials to rent state government office space for $1 a year on the second floor of the Arkansas Rehabilitation Services building at 26 Corporate Hills in Little Rock. Sexton points to Arkansas law, which appears to prohibit state agencies, including Arkansas Rehabilitation Services, from sub-leasing government space.
Ark. Code Ann. § 22-2-114(C)(i) provides: "After July 1, 1975, no state agency shall enter into or renew or otherwise negotiate a lease between itself as lessor or lessee and a nongovernmental or other government lessor or lessee."
"Even more offensive, there was nothing in the lease or other agreements that would have prevented the Mexican consulate from providing legal assistance to illegal aliens," Sexton told WND. "We have information that the Mexican consulate operating out of the Arkansas Rehabilitation Facility was providing legal assistance even to Mexican illegal aliens who were accused of committing violent crimes in Arkansas."
Trevino emphasized: "It never was our intent to get involved in the immigration issue or to aid illegal immigration, that's a federal issue. Our interest and emphasis was and is strictly business development." He pointed to the many Arkansas companies, including Wal-Mart and Tyson Foods, that "do a good deal of business in Mexico," "So the more we can facilitate better trade with that country for our companies located here in Arkansas, we have a duty to do that as officials," he said.
Arkansas attorney Sexton disagreed, insisting, "This whole scheme to get a Mexican consulate to locate in Little Rock appears to be nothing more than a veiled invitation for illegal immigrants to come to Arkansas to work for the Arkansas corporations who want cheap labor." "The package is enhanced by social welfare benefits provided by the state of Arkansas and financing assistance to support the Mexican consulate's presence in the state," Sexton said.
Trevino confirmed he was state director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, also known as LULAC, an activist group strongly advocating for rights of Hispanic immigrants in the U.S., when on Oct. 3, 2003, he accompanied Huckabee in a state airplane to visit Fox in Mexico. In 2003, Trevino was Huckabee's economic development policy adviser. In October 2005, Trevino was appointed by Huckabee to his current position as commissioner of Arkansas Rehabilitation Services.