Saturday, December 1, 2007

Huckabee on immigration

Now that Mike Huckabee is rising in the polls – leading in at least one poll in Iowa, and second nationally in the most recent Rasmussen Tracking Poll - he is coming under increasing attack.

One target of critics is Immigration. Governor’s Huckabee’s record has been distorted – particularly in terms of “scholarships for illegal immigrants” - and his positions have been ignored or even misrepresented.

Here are some of the things he is actually calling for:

He says our borders must be secure.

He supports the $3 billion the Senate has voted for border security.

He opposes amnesty and sanctuaries for illegal aliens.

He opposes giving driver’s licenses to illegal aliens (as was proposed by Governor Spitzer in New York).

He believes that employers who hire illegal aliens should be punished with fines and penalties.

He opposes the economic integration of North America that would create open borders among the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

So his positions are pretty clear.

As for the issue of illegal immigrants getting tuition assistance in Arkansas, the facts are different than his opponents are implying.

There was a bill in 2005 that would've given children of illegal immigrant the lower in-state tuition rates offered to other Arkansas students. There was also an academic merit-based state scholarship that they would have been able to apply for if they met the criteria.

But the children of Illegal immigrants had to have gone through the Arkansas school system, and had to have the ability to pay instate tuition rates for college education.

Further, the proposed law contained a clause that said those children who accepted the lower tuition would have to file an affidavit stating that they intended to legalize their immigration status.

Thus, if enacted, the law would have affected a limited number of such students, not the large numbers of students Governor Huckabee’s opponents have tried to imply.

The law did not pass anyway.

When challenged at the You Tube Debate about the issue by Mitt Romney, Huckabee replied, "In all due respect, we're a better country than to punish children for what their parents did. We're a better country than that."

For a more complete explanation of his position, go to http://www.mikehuckabee.com

4 comments:

Vote For Hillary Online said...

If the list of candidates to choose from was a line of port-o-potties outside a concert, Huckabee would be the one overflowing with diarrhea.
If you want a real candidate with real values, then you want Hillary Clinton. Just trust me.

A Secular Franciscan said...

As New Yorkers, we know Hillary all too well.

We are supporting a candidate with values - Mike Huckabee. Just trust me.

SovereignMan said...

The only one grinding a heal in the face of anyone is the illegal alien apologist and their fellow corporate/political elitist $$$ whores grinding their heal in the face of the average American worker and law abiding citizens who do not live in gated communities and send their children to private schools.

Who cares what he says, with Arkansas having the highest level of illegal aliens per capita it is obvious what the Huckster will do regarding the issue of illegal immigration.

SovereignMan

A Secular Franciscan said...

Sovereignman - How about these figures from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services on the number of illegal immigrants per capita? You'll notice Arkansas ranked 28th, not Number one.

#1 California: 6.114 per 100 people
#2 Arizona: 4.765 per 100 people
#3 Texas: 4.554 per 100 people
#4 Nevada: 4.183 per 100 people
#5 Illinois: 3.385 per 100 people
#6 Colorado: 3.087 per 100 people
#7 Utah: 2.632 per 100 people
#8 New York: 2.54 per 100 people
#9 New Jersey: 2.535 per 100 people
#10 Georgia: 2.513 per 100 people
#11 Oregon: 2.472 per 100 people
#12 North Carolina: 2.372 per 100 people
#13 Washington: 2.163 per 100 people
#14 New Mexico: 2.022 per 100 people
#15 Florida: 1.894 per 100 people
#16 Kansas: 1.712 per 100 people
#17 Rhode Island: 1.487 per 100 people
#18 Nebraska: 1.365 per 100 people
#19 Virginia: 1.361 per 100 people
#20 Massachusetts: 1.36 per 100 people
#21 Idaho: 1.33 per 100 people
#22 Oklahoma: 1.297 per 100 people
#23 District of Columbia: 1.272 per 100 people
#24 Delaware: 1.186 per 100 people
#25 Minnesota: 1.169 per 100 people
#26 Connecticut: 1.111 per 100 people
#27 Maryland: 1 per 100 people
#28 Arkansas: 0.972 per 100 people