Posted on 11/30/2007 5:43:44 AM PST by dano1
As rivals who consider Mike Huckabee soft on immigration ramp up their attacks, the former Arkansas governor acknowledged Thursday that his position on the issue may cost him votes.
Huckabee for weeks now has been criticized for his 2005 support of state-sponsored scholarships for illegal immigrants. Legislation to provide the tuition aid failed in the Arkansas Senate.
Huckabee admitted his stance is unpopular among a GOP voter base that has made immigration the No. 1 issue of the campaign.
"If it costs me the election, it costs me the election," he told reporters at a luncheon on Capitol Hill.
But Huckabee said voters should direct their anger toward a government that has neglected the immigration problem.
"Be mad at the government, be mad about immigration," he said. "I'm mad about it, too. But let's punish the right people for breaking the law. A 6-year-old crossing the border doesn't know he's breaking the law."
One opponent, Mitt Romney, has accused Huckabee of misleading voters when he discusses support for scholarships, but fails to mention he also backed guaranteed in-state tuition rates for illegal immigrants.
And former state Sen. Jim Holt, R-Springdale, said Thursday that Huckabee "has his head in the sand" when it comes to immigration policies.
Huckabee said he supports construction of a border fence, opposes amnesty for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already in the country and backs penalties for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.
He said the federal government had thus far failed to solve the problem.
Holt said Huckabee is to blame, too.
"In 2005, he told me personally in his office there was no illegal immigration problem," said Holt, who introduced legislation two years ago that would have denied all government benefits to illegals.
Since then, Huckabee has flip-flopped on the issue, Holt added.
"Huckabee would not lose the presidency because of his stand on immigration, he's losing it because he's making such a blatant 180-degree turn on the issue," Holt said. "That's what's going to cost him, he's changing his tune."
Romney called out Huckabee on the scholarship issue in a debate Wednesday and has repeatedly criticized him for his position.
Romney's campaign Thursday said Huckabee fails to mention that legislation in Arkansas included tuition breaks for illegal immigrants. The original bill contained provisions for both academic scholarships and in-state tuition breaks.
Huckabee and Romney are in a tight battle for first place in Iowa, which holds its first-in-the-nation caucuses on Jan. 3.
A survey of Iowa voters Wednesday showed Huckabee ahead of Romney 28 percent to 25 percent, statistically within the margin of error.
"Mitt Romney is just plain wrong and I think he knows he's wrong when he says what I proposed in Arkansas was a special break for illegals," Huckabee said. "There was nothing special about it. These were the children who by law we educated in our schools."
Huckabee said students who meet high academic standards are worthy of scholarships.
"Our country is better than that, to punish children for what their parents did in breaking the law," he said.
But Holt on Thursday countered that children are constantly affected by parents' actions. A $200 speeding ticket, for instance, means a child may be deprived of a favorite toy or a restaurant meal, he said.
"We don't want to punish the child, nobody does, but there has to be a rule of law," Holt said.
Illegal immigrants should not receive the benefits offered to American citizens, but not face some of the risks, such as the possibility of being drafted.
Huckabee, whose national profile has surged recently, campaigns this weekend in New Hampshire. The state's primary is Jan. 8, five days after the Iowa caucus.
He trails Romney and several others in New Hampshire.
Joining Huckabee on Thursday for the roundtable with reporters was actor Chuck Norris. The star of TV's "Walker, Texas Ranger," has endorsed Huckabee.
The two men starred together in Huckabee's first television advertisement, and Norris was Huckabee's invited guest at Wednesday's debate in St. Petersburg, Fla.
OF MEXICO
Sorry Huck. But this is the age of YouTube.
In any event, I think we’ve had enough Arkansas influence in the White House. Little Rock v Little Rock in the General Election strikes me as lose/lose.
Hi Dane girl
They will keep on coming, as long as they know there is some incentive like this to gain.
Like McCain’s “The All God’s Children” quote, why should we give favoritism to in hemisphere Hispanics? There are alot of poor Africans and Asians etc, in the world we can ferry over too.
Open borders governors are part of that government, Mike. And you'd better believe I'm mad at you.
However, upon doing a little research on this particular issue I discovered that, as usual, there is more than one side to the story. Evidently, the truth of the matter goes a little more like this: Huckabee opposes illegal immigration, supports sealing the border, and opposes amnesty. In a perfect world that would be enough, but this is no perfect world as we all know. The fact of the matter is that there are millions of illegals in this country already, and there is a constant flow of them across our borders each and every day. Another fact, Huckabee supports the deportation of illegal immigrants, but he believes that the process should be a better one.
Case in point is the 119 illegals deported in an Arkansas raid of a plant in 2005, in which officials, without having properly done their homework, proceeded to deport the illegals leaving their children behind here in the states to be a burden to our already overloaded system.
Also, according to the Arkansas State Constitution, children of all ages, whether legal or illegal are entitled to an education. Huckabee following the logic of the state's Constitution, supported allowing children of the illegals to attend Arkansas colleges at in-state rates. Bear in mind these are not individuals who came here illegally, but rather the offspring of those individuals. Holding said offspring responsible for the sins of the parents is like holding anyone else responsible for some crime committed by their forefathers. This is a preposterous notion, a dangerous road, and completely inconsistent with the ideology of compassionate conservatism.
Now, before anyone goes hysterical here, let me point out that we are not suggesting that illegals, who are definately in violation of the law, be given any form of amnesty, nor is there any promotion of the idea of an open border here. However, as in any crime or act of wrongdoing their are always innocents involved who may become collateral damage. Let's be clear there should be a secure border between the U.S. and its bordering nations, there should be no amnesty, and there should always be consequences for breaking the law, but we must remember to follow the ideology of compassionate conservatism as well. After all our system is a system of checks and balances, and we must not forget that there are two sides to the scales of justice. These are the principles that guide Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee. These are the principles that should guide every American.
Source can be found at http://mikehuckabeepresident2008.blogspot.com/2005/08/msm-huckabee-right-on-illegal.html
http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2005/08/13/opinion/18editorial.txt
| BENTON COUNTY : Hispanic moms often unmarried (More illegals to feed in Arkansas) |
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| Posted by pulaskibush On News/Activism 11/25/2007 11:17:30 PM CST · 41 replies Northwest Arkansas Times ^ | 11/25/07 | MARK MINTON ROGERS — Nearly half of the babies delivered by Hispanic mothers in Benton County last year were born out of wedlock. That was double the rate for white, non-Hispanic mothers in the county. The statistics mirror national trends that have the attention of advocates of all persuasions. Immigration critics warn of looming consequences, from persistent poverty to welfare dependency. The Bush administration also makes the connection: Preventing out-of wedlock pregnancies is a key to its $ 100 million “healthy marriage” strategy for curbing welfare. But in Benton County, the state’s No. 1 home for Hispanic immigrants, health and welfare officials... |
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"We don't want to punish the child, nobody does, but there has to be a rule of law," Holt said.
Holt is correct.
Children have always suffered for the sins of their fathers since the beginning of time.
sw
Huckabee is done.
LLS
Really liked his answer on illegals, shows he understands the issue. Send all the illegals to Arkansas. Huckabee would make Bush look great on illegal immigration.
The media wants anybody but a conservative, remember that. This phony BS about Huckabee surging is just that, phony BS spread by the media parrots.
All of our serious candidates have soft spot on this issue. They were all asleep until recently. The person we support should be very adamant and burn bridges to his past. It looks like all of them are doing this except Huckabee Finn is not adamant enough and gives himself some wiggle room.
“Does anyone think Huckabee knows the first thing about foreign policy or military defense affairs?”
But, he was commander in chief of the Arkansas National Guard.(grin)
How about scholarships for legal immigrants? Or, to put it another way, why are we providing incentives to break the laws we are feebly enforcing now?
Just 2 days ago at the CNN debate:
“...It accomplished two things that we knew we wanted to do, and that is, number one, bring people from illegal status to legal status.”
AMNESTY!
Frankly, I think it is almost impossible to be more duplicitous than Huckabee is about this issue. And that makes me question not only his disingenuous rationalization, but his integrity as well.
If, as in the case of Huckabee’s Arkansas, the governor of a state knows enough about illegal aliens — outright lawbreakers who have clandestinely invaded our country — to reward their children, he knows also knows enough about them to round them up and send them packing (along with their children).
But, no, the phony “compassionate conservative” Huckabee would rather fall back on his misguided (and to put it bluntly, misanthropic) so-called “Christianity”) to saddle the rest of us with the illegl alien’s anchor babies and bill us for their transgressions of our laws.
No, Rev. Huckabee — no amnesty, no open borders and sanctuary states, and no rewarding the children of alien invaders and then presenting law-abiding Americans with the bill.
And no to your duplicitous candidacy and social gospel “Christianity.”
So why are the children of citizens and legal immigrants outside Arkansas punished by having to pay out-of-state tuition just because, through no fault of their own, their parents chose to live someplace else?
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