Posted on 01/29/2005 7:38:39 PM PST by bayourod
LITTLE ROCK - Gov. Mike Huckabee Thursday denounced a bill by Sen. Jim Holt that would deny state benefits to illegal immigrants as un-Christian, un-American, irresponsible and anti-life.
Holt, R-Springdale, replied later that Christian charity does not include turning a blind eye to lawbreaking.
Senate Bill 206, filed Wednesday, also would require proof of citizenzhip to register to vote and would require state agencies to report suspected cases of people living in the country illegally.
"Somebody needs to ask Sen. Holt what welfare this bill would stop," Huckabee said in a question-and-answer period with reporters on Thursday morning. Many aid programs are state-administered but federally funded and are mandated to be available to people in need, Huckabee said.
Even if benefits to people who are in the U.S illegally could be stopped, "I don't understand how a practicing Christian can turn his back on a child from this or any other state," Huckabee said.
Holt replied, "I think the politically correct movement has misconstrued what compassion really means. They think compassion means that any person can disrespect our laws and that we're supposed to be tolerant and let them get away with it.
"True compassion is correcting them so in the future they can be law-abiding citizens," Holt said.
Holt said he would seek a state attorney general's opinion on what the bill would do if passed. He said he would delay further action on it, at least temporarily, to allow the attorney general to respond.
The bill is modeled after a similar law in Arizona and supported by the newly formed group Protect Arkansas NOW. The group's chairman is Joe McCutchen of Fort Smith. "I know Sen. Holt and Mr. McCutchen say they're pro-life," Huckabee said. "We're trying to preserve the life of someone who, when born, will be an American citizen with his first breath. We can spend $900 on pre-natal care when the mother is pregnant. Instead, this bill would have us take a chance and spend $2,000 a day at Children's hospital if the baby's born and something has gone wrong. That's anti-life."
Huckabee said he took exception to characterization of immigrants in the bill and by its supporters as exploiters of social programs. "They pay sales taxes on their groceries," Huckabee said. "They pay fuel taxes. If they're using a fake Social Security number, they're paying Social Security taxes and will never receive any benefit. It would be closer to the truth to say they're subsidizing Joe McCutchen and Jim Holt more than the other way around.
"Something that's not worth sharing is not worth celebrating," Huckabee said. "This is the kind of country that opens its doors. This bill expresses an un-American attitude."
McCutchen, reached by telephone at his home in Fort Smith, repeated some of Holt's arguments, including the one that the people referred to in Holt's bill are in the United States illegally.
"They broke the law," he said. "My angst is not with them, though. My angst is with the state and federal government for not enforcing our laws."
People living illegally in the United State has "overwhelmed our school and welfare system," McCutchen said. As for whether the bill reflects un-Christian attitudes, McCutchen said: "Jim Holt is as good a man and as good a Christian as any man walking this Earth."
"Doggone it, the rule of law is not being upheld, and that's wrong," McCutchen said.
McCutchen joined Holt in a news conference last week to announce the forming of Protect Arkansas NOW and to discuss plans to file SB 206. Since that news conference Friday on the state Capitol steps, McCutchen was featured on the web page of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks membership and activities of groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. One group tracked by the center is the Council of Conservative Citizens, which claimed McCutchen as a member, according to the law center's article. The article is available at: http://www.splcenter.org/index.jsp
"To anybody who will listen, I'll make a speech at my own expense," McCutchen said. The CCC "asked me to come up and make a talk on illegal immigration. The talk lasted 15 minutes and I drove myself to Virginia to give it. I financed that thing by myself."
A letter of McCutchen's was reprinted in a magazine owned by the CCC, according to the law center website. "I did buy a list of donors from the American Immigration Council. I sent out a letter to about 200 people telling what I was doing," McCutchen said. "I suppose one of those letters went out to this magazine.
"That was the end of that, I thought," McCutchen said. "I'm just astounded by the attention this has received. CNN (Cable News Network) was at my home Tuesday afternoon. The very next morning, the Southern Poverty Law Center sent this out and the segment on CNN is on hold."
I can too.
.
"I can support the president and still beagainst giving driving licenses to illegal immigrants/voting rights/free hospital care/free tuition "
I've got to break with you on drivers' licenses. There are reasons why states require their residents to have licenses. (taxes, proficiency tests, insurance, traffic enforcement, safety inspections, knowledge of law, criminal warrants...) If the federal government wants to have a national ID to keep terrorists off airplanes let them work that out, but let the states determine their internal policies on people driving on their roads.
On this forum I think they can be counted on one hand. And then they have the gall to post tripe like #1.
Hopefully they are allowed here only as liberal "tokens" on this issue...
The Constitution of the Republic of the United States of America
Article. IV.
Section. 4.
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.
As far as I know there are no open border Republicans. You have been listening to the wrong people.
Our border enforcement has been bolstered significantly since 9/11.
You have problems in Southern California that other areas with just as high a concentration of illegal immigrants do not have. That's because Southern California has not addressed the problems like other areas have.
For example, Houston had a serious gang problem that it eliminated in the 1980s by increased law enforcement. LA, which is several times larger than Houston has one-third the police officers. LA's gang problem is a crime problem, not an immigration problem, but as long as they bury their heads in the sand and blame President Bush they will continue to have a problem.
Hospitals, schools, littering,... it's always the same. Address the problem directly and eliminate it instead of whining about Bush and spending three billion dollars on embryonic stem cell research.
Here's the address to Huckabee's website.
I'm going to e-mail him and tell him what I think about his pro-illegal alien policy.
I live in Mexifornia too...
Once again you are simply not able to stick to the truth. Since 09/11, the flow of illegal aliens into the United States has doubled. Time magazine went so far as to report that 3 million illegal immigrants entered our nation over the last 12 months, ending about 80 days ago. If that is true, the flow has nearly tripled since 09/11.
It is brutally clear that you are attempting to further a falsehood. If three, or even two million people are able to enter our nation without being checked out, then our borders are less safe than ever before.
Just because you don't think we have enough border agents doesn't mean that th Constitution is being violated.
But if you really believe you're right go ahead and file your lawsuit against whoever you want to call a traitor and take it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
We settle disagreements at the ballot box and in the courts
Maybe President Bush would like to invite to his ranch about 10,000 illegal aliens who live in the town next to mine. They could take the jobs there that Americans won't do. Dumpster Diver can supply all the details about the town I'm talking about.
They did? That's amazing since the the total population of the U.S. didn't even increase that much last year including ALL immigrants and newborns.
The census figure I remember seeing was only 1/2 million.
But does the difference between 1/2 million and 3 million determine whether President Bush is a traitor?
Strange.
He has lost his freaking mind. Let him pay for them then. What doesn't he understand about the word ILLEGAL?! I guess he would be okay with me not paying my state income tax since it's only ILLEGAL. No big deal according to him. Just pick and choose which laws you are willing to obey when in Arkansas folks, so says our stupid governor.
Maybe he lost some brain mass along with all of that weight. That's another thing he should mind his own business about. I don't need him to tell me how much I should weigh. He gets on some kick and expects to tell everyone in the state how to live.
You duck and run and make new comments and switch the topic all the time. As a loser, I can understand why you do, but I don't have to let you get away with it. You've chosen to ignore my comments on two threads now, because you simply can't respond, because there is no valid response.
Just because you call immigration an "invasion" doesn't mean that it is.
Webster's dictionary partially defines INVASION as follows:
the entrance or advent of anything troublesome or harmful
entrance as if to take posession or overrun
You should probably invest in a new dictionary.
Just because you don't think we have enough border agents doesn't mean that th Constitution is being violated.
Just because you are unable to comprehend this topic, doesn't mean that nobody else is.
But if you really believe you're right go ahead and file your lawsuit against whoever you want to call a traitor and take it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
That's an excellent idea. Of course if someone were found to be in violation of his oath of office, he'd probably be removed. He wouldn't be the only one BTW.
We settle disagreements at the ballot box and in the courts.
That was really quite impressive for you.
A drivers license only means what the individual state intends it to mean. If anyone else tries to make it mean anything else that's their problem.
If a credit card company wants to say it means the person has good credit that's their mistake.
If an employer takes it to mean that the applicant is current on his child support, that's his mistake.
If a woman wants to take it as meaning that the man is single that's her mistake.
If the airlines takes it as proof that the person is not a terrorist that's their mistake.
It's just a damn drivers license, not an immigration document.
Are you people ever going to grow up?
I'll just thank you in advance for a link to that 1/2 million increase figure. I'm sure you've got that right at your fingertips.
And of course, that would include illegal aliens since they all register when entering the nation.
LOL
Good! I hope everyone does email him! I think he is losing his mind.
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