I think I have been one of the harshest critics of Huckabee on immigration on FR. Until now, I was never able to find any attempt to explain what Huckabee said on Fox news Sunday on Dec. 9:
"But that pathway to get back here legally doesn't take years. It would take days, maybe weeks, and then people could come back in the workforce."
This explanation, dated Dec. 21 2007, says that When Huckabee said "days, not weeks," he was referring to a different part of his plan that talked about legal visa applicants, not illegals.
It is very possible to say something in a 30 second answer that will be completely misunderstood. Is the Huckabee staffer who gave this explanation spinning here, or is that what Huckabee really meant?
One problem FR people like me have is Huckabee's record, including his deal allowing Mexican Consulate to lease state property for $1 per year.
As governor, Mr. Huckabee opposed a bill to require proof of citizenship to register to vote. The bill would have also required state agencies to turn in illegals.
Mr. Huckabee fought that, as well as a bill to deny illegal aliens taxpayer-funded public benefits. Then-Gov. Huckabee backed issuing drivers’ licenses to illegal aliens.
Mr. Huckabee supported a partial amnesty as governor, in the form of in-state tuition for illegal aliens. He even tried to advantage illegals with scholarships.
He continues to support rewarding illegal aliens who claim to have entered the country as children with in-state tuition — effectively taxpayer-subsidized education. When Mr. Romney pressed him on this at the CNN debate in November, Mr. Huckabee said, “we are a better country than to punish children for what their parents did,” as if that were the end of the argument.
This flavor of amnesty, which was beatenin the U.S. Senate this fall when the DREAM Act came up, gives foreign lawbreakers an economic benefit unavailable to legal but out-of-state Americans.
It also puts illegal aliens in the pool of college applicants. That means for every illegal alien who lands an admissions slot, an American kid is kept out of college. Mr. Huckabee somehow rationalizes this perversity as “compassionate.”
Mr. Huckabee went to Mexico in 2003 to urge the Mexican government to open a consulate in Arkansas. Heleased the consulate state office space for $1 per year (obligating Arkansans to subsidize the rest of the costs of nearly $600 a month). And he put together a sweetheart deal for Mexico to enjoy a permanent facility in Little Rock without having to pay rent for three years.
It’s hard to accept as genuine a recidivist pandering politician’s turn on a dime from multiculturalist, liberal, open-borders, demonizing zealot to true-blue advocate of a no-amnesty, enforcement-only attrition strategy. But that’s what Mr. Huckabee is trying to pull. He hopes voters will ignore his long, awful record on immigration issues.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=24142&s=rcmc
Huck can trot this stuff out, but it’s not what he stood for as governor. He pretty much created a conduit to enable Tyson to have a cheap supply of labor, and I bet my last dollar the taxpayers made up the difference in welfare.
Is it possible that Huckabee’s answer was misunderstood?
I understand his plan to be exactly as stated in the article. Those who dislike him will say it is disingenuous or what have you for him to have this plan, but it is the one he has put forth and the one that Gilchrist is campaigning for him with.
Want to see what he really says? See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypdd0AKJ_Qs&feature=related
Huckabee’s flip flopping on immigration is just the beginning of his fall, and soon his followers will be looking for a suitable replacement.
The GOP doesn’t get it. They need to let this faction find a home. The amount of invective aimed at evangelicals is surprising, but then everyone wants their votes.
Huckabee has surged because he won a couple of debates and he’s got evangelical support. If a quick rise can happen to the liberal pro-life evangelical Huckster, it can happen to the conservative pro-life evangelical Hunter.
Prolife evangelicals will be very comfortable in Hunter’s camp, since he’s a prolife evangelical staunch conservative.
the Huckster is a fraud
This plan of his shifts as much as the Sahara sands.....
So under the Huckabee plan immigrants would have to return kicks fielded in the end zone?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1950794/posts
Huckabee retreats on birthright citizenship
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.[snip]
Thanks for the post. If Huckabee took a question on citizenship and answered on work visas, he’s an idiot. Still, it would be consistent with him apologizing to Pakistan for the murder of one of their political leaders...
Huckabee has a long history of supporting illegal immigration by turning a blind eye and equating opposition to it as racism. I would trust him in the WH making policy on illegal immigration about as much as I trust Linda Chavez.
Guess it comes down to what he says now as opposed to what he did then.
Personally, I don’t trust the guy. That was my first instinct and everything that’s come out about him has only reinforced that.
I think that once President Huckabee is elected, our Democrat congress immediately starts another amnesty bill and Huckabee happily signs it. Since nobody really knows what he’d do, I’ll have to stick with that guess.
What is the purpose of registering? What would be the motivation for them to go home? This is a touchback scam.
Hey, ding dong daddy —
I really believe Huckabee will say anything to get elected.
And he thinks he has the ability to change our immigration policy by the presidential equivalent of the laying on of hands: this would be hysterically funny if not for the fact of it’s wrong.
Based on his record, it would be hard to trust Huck on this new enforcement stance.
That said, it may well be a Huck v. McCain race soon - and while there is some chance Huck won’t sign an amnesty bill, McCryptKeeper is a certain signer.
On the other, both are likely general-election losers, so who cares?
For me, the most telling line is “I now believe that the only thing the American people are going to accept —”
Read that, his handlers and focus groups told him that if he didn’t toughen up his verbiage on illegals, he had no chance at all of being a contender. And I don’t think he’s changed his position, just his verbiage. It’s unfortunate so many are allowing themselves to be persuaded.
Best predictor of future actions is past actions.
The above Huckster plan is a work visa amnesty.
The correct way of doing it is for them to go back to their country, apply for a work visa and then they should wait their turn in the visa line.
What the Huckster is describing is line-jumping work visa amnesty.
So tell me again why we want everyone who wants to come here, to come here ?
I really don’t want this country to lose its character thru allowing in millions of immigrants, legal or not, each year.