Huckabee retreats on birthright citizenship

Washington Times ^ | January 9, 2008 | Stephen Dinan

[3AngelaD]

Mike Huckabee yesterday contradicted his own top immigration surrogate, announcing he will not support a constitutional amendment to end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to illegal aliens.

It was a stark reversal after The Washington Times reported that James Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project, said Huckabee promised to pursue an amendment to the Constitution. In an article in yesterday's editions, Huckabee's spokeswoman did not challenge the former Arkansas governor's statements to Gilchrist...But by yesterday afternoon, Huckabee had backed away..."I do not support an amendment to the Constitution that would prevent children born in the U.S. to illegal aliens from automatically becoming American citizens. I have no intention of supporting a constitutional amendment to deny birthright citizenship," Mr. Huckabee said...

The Times reported that Gilchrist, in a conversation while campaigning with Mr. Huckabee last week, pinned down the Republican presidential candidate on various immigration stances, including how he would address what most legal scholars see as the 14th Amendment's guarantee of citizenship to any person born in the United States, except for diplomatic situations.

Gilchrist said Huckabee promised to bring a test case to the Supreme Court...and would press Congress to pass an amendment to the Constitution.... Huckabee also said on CNN that he hasn't given much thought to the issue of birthright citizenship. But he previously had taken a position in an interview with The Times in Iowa in August.

"I would support changing that. I think there is reason to revisit that, just because a person, through sheer chance of geography, happened to be physically here at the point of birth, doesn't necessarily constitute citizenship," he said at the time, according to the audiotape of the interview. "I think that's a very reasonable thing to do, to revisit that."

[RangerM]

Thanks for the ping, unspun.

I see a lot of negative statements about Huckabee and the other candidates, so many that it just becomes noise.

[nicmarlo]

Enjoy your walk, my friend.

Blessings upon you, as well. : )

[3AngelaD]

Pro-LIFE -- Nothing the President can do about this.

- Pro-1st Amendment -- Duh

- Pro-2nd Amendment -- Duh

- Pro-10th Amendment -- Yeah, like his plan to impose a federal smoking ban?

- Pro-Sovereignty, Anti-Globalist -- How's that? His literature says he believes globalism "done right" can be a blessing for our society.

- Pro-Israel (no to land giveaways) -- This is fine

- Pro-Marriage -- Nothing the President can do about this

- Pro-Overwhelming Defense -- Duh, but what does he know?

- Pro-Border Security & Immigration Enforcement -- This is a spectacularly misleading line item. He is a bleeding heart on immigration who wants to give scholarships and tuition breaks to the spawn of illegals. Supported touchback amnesty. He wriggles.

- Small Government Fiscal Conservative -- But he raised taxes.

- Pro-American Business -- But he raised taxes.

- Pro-Opportunity -- But he raised taxes.

- Pro-Wage Earner -- But he raised taxes.

- Pro-Tax Reform -- Shrug. Not holding my breath.

- Pro-Personal Investment -- What does this mean?

- Pro-Individual Healthcare Empowerment -- Well, okay.

- Pro-Private/Home Education -- Apparently not. First he signed a bill helping homeschoolers, then signed a law further restricting them.

[TalonDJ]

Don't give me this nonsense about the government breaking up families. You sound like a liberal shill when you go down that path.

So you missed the dripping sarcasm? I thought I laid it on thick enough to be obvious. besides your whole argument was 'how can you deny it to the innocent children' I.E "It is for the children". And I am the one that sounds liberal? Riiiiiiight.

You deport the parents.

But US citizens are allowed to bring their parents here. And the baby is a legal dependent. So how do you legally kick out the parents if the kid is a citizen? Anyway many parents would do it anyway so that when the kid hits 18 he can come 'home' to the US as a citizen and then file to have his parents legally come. So all that does is quasi legalize the immigration with no limits but on an 18 year delay.

[unspun]

I think you asked two or three good, honest questions.

I have to work, but maybe I can address them later.

In the mean time, I suggest:
http://www.mikehuckabee.com/?FuseAction=Issues.Home

Research done right will help.

[Tigen]

He does not need to ! And he probably thinks american citizens should know this but by the looks of these threads, comentary by the MSM,ers repeated here he may have not figured the ignorance was so prevelent.

“Every Person born within the limits of the United States, and subject to their jurisdiction, is by virtue of natural law and national law a citizen of the United States. This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the Government of the United States, but will include every other class of persons.”
Senator Jacob Howard,
co-author of the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment, 1866

[JohnnyZ]

So how do you legally kick out the parents if the kid is a citizen?

Change the law.

Anyway many parents would do it anyway so that when the kid hits 18 he can come 'home' to the US as a citizen and then file to have his parents legally come.

Change the law.

It's amazing to see people advocate over and over for major changes to current law and then rule out any other changes because current law prevents it.

Why do you insist on taking a backdoor approach, trying to get at illegals through their children? This wouldn't be a problem at all if we enforced the law and secured the border. Why do you oppose that direct approach?

[Tigen]

Mike said; I will recognize no authority but our Constitution.

[3AngelaD]

Please Mr. Tautology, quit going in circles. Oh, and since I am confident you don't have any idea what I am talking about, a tautology in logic is a statement of propositional logic which can be inferred from any proposition whatsoever. In rhetoric, as you practice it, it is the use of redundant language that adds no information to a statement or discussion.

[Tigen]

If the parent was illegal then the child is illegal.
Nowhere in the constitution that I am aware of says anchor babys are legal citizens but the opposite.
Amending the constitution is not necessary.

[Dante3]

Huckabee is for amnesty and perks for illegal aliens - it is on the reocrd - and within a day he flip-flopped on anchor babies. Nobody who is a conservative would ever support illegal aliens, amnesty, and open borders.

Huckabee also have been overly generous with pardons for criminals, including violent ones, and then lied about it. His lack of knowledge about Pakistan and other countries is a serious limitation. He is for higher taxes and the nanny state.

The deal alleged made between Huckabee and McCain is troubling and needs further followup. Overall, both Huckabee and McCain, with his scandals, will never win against Hillary.

MSM is pushing Huckabee/McCain/Rudy - media hype is what they have going for them.

[shield]

What a dumb SOB...the constitution NEVER EVER stated any such thing as a birthright citizenship. In fact it was the opposite. It was a liberal USSC that ruled for the birthright citizenship.

As Jack Wheeler has stated Huckster is a con man.

[3AngelaD]

You, Tigen, are absolutely right. The 14th Amendment in its last clause gives Congress power to carry out the Amendment by passing "appropriate legislation." And the original Supreme Court decision on birthright citizenship, in fact, says that in the absence of Congressional legislative action, they are citizens. For more than 100 years, in other words, Congress has had a green light from the Supreme Court to go ahead and change this, but it hasn't. There is a wealth of documentation as to what the original writers of the 14th amendment intended. They meant to ensure that slaves freed after the Civil War were full citizens. The added the 15th amendment to ensure that former male slaves and their descendants had the right to vote. Immigration was not a consideration, although they did mention, "...Indians not taxed."

Sen. Reverdy Johnson of Maryland explained during floor debate on the amendment, saying, "...all this amendment provides is, that all persons born in the United States and not subject to some foreign power {visitors, tourists} -- for that no doubt is the meaning of the committee...-- shall be considered as citizens of the United States." The author of the provision, Sen. Jacob Howard, announced that the clause "will not, of course, include foreigners."

[Paul Ross]

Mike Huckabee yesterday contradicted his own top immigration surrogate, announcing he will not support a constitutional amendment to end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to illegal aliens.

Tick-tock, Flip-Flop.

Didn't take long.

The Iowa voters, and Jim Gilchrist...as well as Tom Tancredo both have egg on their faces. Having supported the "top-tier" phonies of their choices.

When they could have done everything they could to get votes to Duncan Hunter.

This could also be a presage to McCain suddenly reversing his new-found reception of the "voter's message on border enforcement." He never has apologized, not once, as Hugh Hewitt said, for the Z-Visa treason.

[unspun]

Pro-Sovereignty, Anti-Globalist

How's that? His literature says he believes globalism "done right" can be a blessing for our society.

Huckabee was using that term to describe efforts of putting us on an even footing in international trade, in this article: Mike Huckabee: Taxes/Economy

[raybbr]

- Pro-LIFE - Pro-1st Amendment - Which candidate isn't other than McCain?

- Pro-2nd Amendment - Which candidate isn't other than Giulianni?

- Pro-10th Amendment - Are all the others against this?

- Pro-Sovereignty, Anti-Globalist - No way can Huckabee be described this way.

- Pro-Israel (no to land giveaways) - Doesn't matter to me.

- Pro-Marriage - Are all the others pro-divorce?

- Pro-Overwhelming Defense - Are all the others against Overwhelming defense?

- Pro-Border Security & Immigration Enforcement - Not a chance....

- Small Government Fiscal Conservative - Are all the others for big government? (We know Bush is.)

- Pro-American Business - Are all the others anti-American business?

- Pro-Opportunity - Sure. All the others are against Opportunity.

- Pro-Wage Earner - Not sure how anyone could be against them. Maybe you could point it out.

- Pro-Tax Reform - With a scam of a plan.

- Pro-Personal Investment - Not sure how any of the others are against it. Maybe you could point that out, too?

- Pro-Individual Healthcare Empowerment - Got to explain how the others are against this.

- Pro-Private/Home Education - Can you point to the others being against this?

Claiming that Huckabee is for all these things without pointing to where Giulianni, Thompson, Hunter, Romney, McCain, Paul and Tancredo were or are against these things is pretty pointless.

[Iscool]

Personally, I support birthright citizenship.

Well, you and billions of Chinese, Russian, Mexican, Haitian, African and Muzlins feel the same way about it...

What country did your parents sneak in from???

[montag813]

As I pointed out yesterday, he thinks we are THAT STUPID.

Go to GodTube.com Huckabee video comments if you want to see REALLY stupid.

[Rosemont]

Come on Huckster

[A Strict Constructionist]

“attacking babies”

It’s for the children. Now where have I heard that before. I guess you can surmise I don’t agree with you in the least.