Thread: AR: Beebe parses words on illegal immigration

Beebe parses words on illegal immigration
By ANDREW DeMILLO
Saturday, May 31, 2008 8:46 AM CDT

LITTLE ROCK - Mike Huckabee as governor preached the gospel of compassion when faced with efforts to restrict state services to illegal immigrants. Mike Beebe preaches the rule of law.

The Democratic governor is facing the same push for more state level immigration provisions that his Republican predecessor successfully bucked. Instead of using a preacher's flair, Beebe's using a lawyer's pen to parse his words on a proposed ballot measure aimed at illegal immigrants.

The day before a group called Secure Arkansas launched its signature gathering push to put its initiated act on the November ballot, Beebe dealt it a blow by announcing his opposition. The group hopes to put before voters a proposal that would require those older than 13 who seek benefits from a state agency to sign an oath saying they live legally in the country.

Unlike opponents who argue the that measure unfairly targets immigrants _ illegal or otherwise _ Beebe cast the issue as one of expanded government rather than discrimination.

"All of the major provisions it proposes are already covered by federal or state laws, and this ballot title will create bigger government and cost Arkansans money," Beebe said. "Passing this initiative would merely re-state these same laws and add additional bureaucracy to Arkansas in the process."

Within a matter of days, though, Beebe's office acknowledged that he did not know that admission procedures at the state's two largest schools could give illegal immigrants in-state tuition rates. In response, the state's higher education director ordered all two-year and four-year colleges and universities to ask potential students if they are in the country legally.

But instead of winning over advocates Beebe may have aimed to please with his carefully worded opposition, he earned scorn from some of them.

Alan Leveritt, publisher of the Arkansas Times and El Latino newspapers, blasted the governor for the decision and suggested he may have helped Secure Arkansas with the move. By ordering the schools to change their policies, Beebe gave the initiative's backers what they wanted, Leveritt said.

"Now, without the haters signing a single petition, the governor has handed them a tragic victory," Leveritt wrote in a guest column in the Arkansas Times. Leveritt is also a member of the Arkansas Friendship Coalition, a group that was formed to oppose any state or local level measures they say unfairly targets immigrants.

Steve Copley, the coalition's chairman, has said he has no problem requiring state colleges and universities to make sure only legal Arkansans pay in-state tuition.

Beebe said he's not consciously trying to break from Huckabee's approach on immigration matters. An ordained Baptist minister, Huckabee as governor unsuccessfully pushed for legislation that would have made the children of illegal immigrants eligible for college scholarships and in-state tuition.

The argument the state has used in telling schools to ask potential students whether they live in the country legally mirrors the opinion Beebe issued as attorney general in 2005 questioning the scholarships and tuition proposal.

Beebe is falling back on those legal arguments while Huckabee cast the immigration battle as a moral one. When a state senator proposed banning state services for illegal immigrants, Huckabee famously said the lawmaker drank a different kind of "Jesus juice" than him.

It's not the first time that Beebe has tread carefully or held his tongue completely on hot-button issues. On the issue of whether gays and lesbians should be banned from adopting or fostering children, Beebe opposes the ban but focuses more on how he says it would create a "rigid" blanket policy on adoptions.

Beebe also has avoided jumping into the fray of whether the state should institute a lottery to pay for college scholarships, as Lt. Gov. Bill Halter proposes. The governor says he supports giving the people a chance to vote on the matter. On the matter itself, he says he's undecided.

Even if the Secure Arkansas initiative doesn't make it on the ballot or is rejected by voters, Beebe may not completely avoid the immigration fight. Former Rep. Joyce Elliott, who sponsored the 2005 tuition and scholarships legislation, said she may bring the proposal offering in-state tuition to illegal immigrants' children back next year when she enters the Senate.

On illegal immigration, Beebe says he's not purposely avoiding the discussion of whether compassion or the rule of law should dictate how Arkansas treats its illegal immigrants.

"It's just that I think you can be compassionate, and should be, and still follow the law," Beebe said last week. "They don't have to be mutually exclusive. However, I do believe that if something is the law you follow it. If you don't like the law, you try to change it in the way this country was set up and designed to change the law."
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IMHO: Gov. Beebe is one sickening politician...Mr. wishy-washy straddle the fence non-committal pander to both sides for a vote kinda guy. BEEBE...enforce the law!

"If you don't like the law, you try to change it in the way this country was set up and designed to change the law."

This is exactly what we are up against. If the leaders don't want to enforce, they want to change to say WE'RE FOLLOWING OUR LAWS