Huckabee offers appeal to American Dream (w/ Duncan Hunter, Bob Riley)

BIRMINGHAM | More than 2,000 people gathered at Samford University's Jane Hollock Brock Hall on Saturday afternoon to hear the 44th governor of Arkansas, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, speak about why he should be the 44th president of the United States.

'I still believe that this is a country that's an amazing place to live, and I'll tell you why,' Huckabee said to a large crowd in Brock Hall's main auditorium while about another 1,000 people listened to his speech over a speaker system in an overflow room.

'We can still dream our dreams and live our dreams,' he said. 'It's by the grace of God many of us were born into this country. I think we forget that sometimes.'

John Lyman, 48, of Alabaster, said he and his family have always been interested in politics and are always on the look out for candidates and potential candidates, with balance.

Lyman, who sat outside in the cold on the stone stairs of Brock Hall for most of the afternoon holding up two 'Mike Huckabee for president' signs, made no secret about who he thought the candidate for 'balance' was.

'If you look at his record, you'll find that none of his progressive issues were adversarial,' Lyman said. 'He wants to get past all this stuff, the bitterness and arguing, and wants everyone to go in the same direction.'

'I think he'll do the right thing when it comes to national security, and he'll get everyone to invest back in us again, back in America,' he said.

In his speech, Huckabee said if elected president he would rebuild the American economy by putting an end to jobs being outsourced to foreign countries like China and make those jobs available to American workers in the United States.

Huckabee also touched on hot-button issues like national security, abortion, dependency on foreign oil and immigration.

'I want our country to have the world's strongest military again,' Huckabee said. 'Not so that we have to use it, but so we can just flex our muscle and send someone packing.'

'If we have to go to war, we should be able to send our troops in with a clearly defined mission and give them everything they need to be successful,' he said.

On abortion, Huckabee — an ordained Southern Baptist minister — said he's pro-life.

'I feel there's a quality of human birth,' he said. 'And whether a person is an unborn child or an 80-year-old, white or black, old or young, rich or doesn't have a penny to his name, our country says that not one of these people has greater value than the other.'

Huckabee said he would end dependency on foreign oil in 10 years by making the country self-sufficient. In regards to immigration, Huckabee said he'd build a fence with a 'front door' that immigrants could enter through legally.

'Anyone that's living in the United States shouldn't be hiding in the shadows,' Huckabee said. 'They're in America. They should have their heads held high.'

Although Gov. Bob Riley, who introduced Huckabee and said he's 'the kind of individual that needs to run for president' and 'he has all those values that make the Republican party what it is today,' not everyone who attended the event was convinced that Huckabee was their candidate.

According to The Associated Press, even Riley distanced himself from his positive remarks by saying he was not endorsing Huckabee as a candidate.

'I wasn't old enough to vote before and now that I can vote, I don't know who to vote for because none of these candidates really fit what I'm looking for, which is someone in between conservative and liberal,' said Mallory Barnes, a 20-year-old junior biology major at Samford University.

'The issues that are most important to me are the war in Iraq and immigration,' she said. 'It seems like we're not doing anything about immigration, and the war has always bothered me because we're not doing anything over there.'

Tom Blair, 60, of Birmingham, said he enjoyed Huckabee's speech, but he wasn't won over.

'I came here because I was interested in knowing what Gov. Huckabee would bring to the United States,' Blair said.

'I like his illustration about having some other nations feeding and fueling us, but I still don't know if I'll vote for him yet,' he said.

At the beginning of Huckabee's speech, he promised Riley that if he becomes president, 'any of those grants that you might want for Alabama, just consider it done.'

You grossly distort one very limited thing Mike Huckabee proposed as a 10th Amendment Governor. Get a clue.

A 9-Point Strategy for Immigration Enforcement and Border Security

Overview: Implement a broad-based strategy that commits the resources of the federal government to the enforcement of our immigration laws and results in the attrition of the illegal immigrant population.

1. Build the Fence
Ensure that an interlocking surveillance camera system is installed along the border by July 1, 2010.
Ensure that the border fence construction is completed by July 1, 2010.

2. Increase Border Patrol
Increase the number of border patrol agents.
Fully support all law enforcement personnel tasked with enforcing immigration law.

3. Prevent Amnesty
Policies that promote or tolerate amnesty will be rejected.
Propose to provide all illegal immigrants a 120-day window to register with the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services and leave the country. Those who register and return to their home country will face no penalty if they later apply to immigrate or visit; those who do not return home will be, when caught, barred from future reentry for a period of 10 years.
This is not a “touchback” provision. Those who leave this country and apply to return from their home country would go to the back of the line.

4. Enforce the Law on Employers
Employment is the chief draw for most illegal immigrants and denying them jobs is the centerpiece of an attrition strategy.
Impose steep fines and penalties on employers that violate the law.
Institute a universal, mandatory citizenship verification system as part of the normal hiring process.
Prevent the IRS and the Social Security Administration from accepting fraudulent Social Security numbers or numbers that don’t match the employees’ names.*

5. Establish an Economic Border
Move toward passage of the FairTax.
The FairTax provides an extra layer of security by creating an economic disincentive to immigrate to the U.S. illegally.

6. Empower Local Authorities
Promote better cooperation on enforcement by supporting legislative measures such as the CLEAR Act, which aims to systematize the relationship between local law and federal immigration officials.
Encourage immigration-law training for police. Local authorities must be provided the tools, training, and funding they need so local police can turn illegal immigrants over to the federal authorities.

7. Ensure Document Security
End exemptions for Mexicans and Canadians to the US-VISIT program, which tracks the arrival and departure of foreign visitors. Since these countries account for the vast majority of foreigners coming here (85 percent), such a policy clearly violates Congress’ intent in mandating this check-in/check-out system.
Reject Mexico’s “matricula consular” card, which functions as an illegal-immigrant identification card.

8. Discourage Dual Citizenship
Inform foreign governments when their former citizens become naturalized U.S. citizens.
Impose civil and/or criminal penalties on American citizens who illegitimately use their dual status (e.g., using a foreign passport, voting in elections in both a foreign country and the U.S.).

9. Modernize the Process of Legal Immigration
Eliminate the visa lottery system and the admission category for adult brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens.
Increase visas for highly-skilled and highly-educated applicants.
Expedite processing for those who serve honorably in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Improve our immigration process so that those patiently and responsibly seeking to come here legally will not have to wait decades to share in the American dream. Governor Huckabee has always been grateful to live in a country that people are trying to break into, rather than break out of.

*This policy will be drafted to comply with the final federal court decisions on this issue.

http://www.mikehuckabee.com/?FuseAction=Issues.View&Issue_id=26

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